Saturday, April 21, 2012

Talking About Video Games

I find that talking about video games with people can be a problematic proposition. Despite video games being incredibly popular around the world, actually trying to find something that multiple parties can relate to I sometimes find is an exhaustive process. Perhaps this is because most the games I play just aren’t played by everybody else. I find myself in the same situation with music as well; I don’t try and go for the most obscure, but somehow following what I like has lead me to some things that people have never heard of.

As far as music goes, that is probably just me being weird, but at least with music, I can be content at least knowing that the music that I love is only a listen away from being known, video games are not that easily accessible. Even if it is some free game that I can link over facebook, it is the effort of playing games that I feel put them in another category of inaccessibility.

I wonder if that is why video games seem to be portrayed as either simple throw-away toys or as violence simulators. Actually playing a game and understanding the mechanics isn't something that a person can grasp without actually taking time to understand them can be a problem for some people. I wonder if this is why there seems to be such a wide gap of understanding between people who are fans of the medium and others that don’t want anything to do with it.

Video games, no matter what video games like to dress themselves up as, when you boil them down they are mechanics, and these mechanics can be used to teach the player. Most of the time these mechanics are just used to tell the player whether not they are doing well, but they can also teach the player other things. For example Pac-man is mostly about getting points, but could it also be about the mass consumerism of the Japanese 1980’s? Well, the game probably wasn’t made with that idea in mind, but it wouldn’t be that large of a leap to say that could be a factor of why it was so popular in Japan. The mechanics are the most important of a video game, but at the same time, they are probably the hardest thing to discuss. It is all so subjective.

That is why presentation is so important, because it allows the player to put the mechanics in context. Then that context allows the game to make jumps in logic that could only be made with the assumptions from the player based on the context. The context is a way of conveying the mechanics, but they shouldn’t be confused for the message of the game, despite what the game developers want to try and make the player believe. Which is not to say that people shouldn’t enjoy games on their contexts, but that focus of the presentation alone says more about the player often times more than the game.

Perhaps video games are just something that as more and more people play then they can be understood for what they are: another way to entertain and teach people things. As time goes on, I think it will become more clear about how people should view these things that millions of people have come to enjoy, but until that time, I think that people like me to talk about them. Not because I have to, but because I think I want to see video games enter a space where they aren’t judged on their covers, but for the entertainment and for the things they allow people to experience.

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