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I thought what he said about creators not defending their provocative content and letting the ESA take all of the heat was particularly revealing and troubling. There can be no victory against censorship without solidarity. His wish for the gaming press to show some restraint by not invoking the name of a certain Florida attorney at every opportunity is a good first step toward keeping his ilk irrelevant. Unfortunately, video games will remain ripe for politicization as long as they are a relatively fringe past time. Nintendo's efforts to appeal to the mainstream is a significant step toward removing the power of politicians who seek to grandstand on any speciously perceived negative impact allegedly caused by video games. When video games become something everyone can enjoy, the fear and populist demonization of them will be a thing of the past. Finally, the ultimate step toward preventing video game censorship is finally recognizing them as a true art form just as worthy of thoughtful analysis and academic study as cinema, industrial design, and modern art. -John Leffingwell, Xot I believe he was on target, but the picture here is bigger. The game industry can't defend creative decisions when it isn't in fact very creative to begin with. It's next to impossible to find a game plot, art style or character that hasn't appeared multiple times before in movies, literature or pop culture. Are trash-talking street gangs really creative? Halo was based on a 1969 novel by Larry Niven called Ringworld. Prey was a rehash of the Borg from Star Trek. And mutants spawned by evil super-corporations? Blue elves? None of that is original, so how can someone be asked to defend it as such? The real issue here is that the gaming industry needs a massive influx of new, creative, bold thinking. We have been handed the drivers seat of this generation, but have instead chosen to keep sitting in the back of our father's station wagon. -Anonymous
I agree with Lowenstein that it's totally lame that only a few hands in the room went up saying they are members of the Video Game Voters Network. That kind of apathy from the industry is stupid. Do you want Jack Thompson to make the rules? Do you want every politician looking for easy votes to attack an easy target—one that parents and non-gamers are quite open to regulate? The ESA has won major victories all over the country for freedom—freedom of artistic expression by industry folks and freedom of choice for gamers. This is a no-brainer. Do you want freedom or regulation? Do you want to push the envelope in games or make another kids platformer? Join the Video Game Voters Network! I get about one or two emails a month. It's not a major commitment, but it is a vehicle to show the government this industry not only makes a lot of money, but also has plenty of people ready to support it. -Belinda Van Sickle, GameDocs Lately it seems that game professionals are condemned from the moment of a game's conception. Let's compare that to a child: a child is born from developers, who all worked hard and labored for many months, and the child is given a name and status. Outspoken ambulance-chasers condemn the child and all of its "family members." Videos and snapshots are used to cast the child in a terribly negative light. History is used as a valid precedent to predict less than desirable behavior, convincing some group that the child is not fit for society. Instead of a family backing up their naturally born offspring, born of natural human causes from natural human needs, the child is forced to straddle the fence with their family, with no way to reach equilibrium or compromise without a lobotomy. Not only does the family not care for the child's development and experience, but they prove through indecisiveness their indifference (or cowardice) for the end result. That simply does not equate to art, nor does it equate to a valid professional practice. Lowenstein fairly pointed out these failings of professionals. While society will need filters for every type of media, the game industry has no choice but to keep to their word as creators and businessmen the ethics of their visions and remarks on society as they see it. Art exists to clarify life from a person's perspective, and to hold an audience without bias. -Alice S., Mittlemarch Studios |
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