Game on

I read an article in TimesOnline recently which talked about the trend of video games being used by people of all ages. The article takes up interesting aspects of how companies like Nintendo and Sony do everything in order to get the game spirit out in everyone. Games directed souly at girls (who have not been paying so much attention to video games as boys have in the past) and also making video games for the elderly. With the success of the large video game companies the author concludes that we are all inevitably going to play video games in the future.

I find this article very balanced and fair and of course not everyone will be playing video games but it is becoming as common as watching TV.

When I read the comments I see some in my opinion narrow minded opinions. For example one person writes:

I think this is all very sad. Surely there are better things to do than play mindless games on a machine. It’s as bad as a preoccupation with soppy hand-held devices and mobile phones. I’ll pass on all these, thank you and do something worthwhile.

Clearly someone has yet to experience what games have to offer. Games are no longer all simple and pointless, there are some beautifull works of art if you just know where to look. If you look at PacMan and try and find a meaning or message you will surely be dissapointed but if you take the story of one of the later Final Fantasy games and play it through and experience it that is something all different. While the matureity of video games are far from that of other mediums like books and TV it’s essentially the same thing, the only main difference is the interaction.

If we compare video games with television we can easily spot many similarites. As with television there are many different quality levels in video games and those “mindless games” are probably best compared to easy entertainment shows on TV like “Americas Funniest Videos” or slapstick comedy shows. Like TV there are alternatives to these mindless games, there are for example games with great storylines, for example most of the Final Fantasy series. Other games are educational and help kids and grown ups learn different skills. Yet other games are mainly produced as works of art, ICO is a game that comes to mind.

As of late Nintendo have also made us move more with the introduction of Wii and the motion sensetive controlers. This not only benefits the young children who probably play to much video games for their own health (at least they move some!) but have also been successfully used in retirement homes where the winning instinct among some of the elderly have got them to play tennis and other games in order to activate them. A spokesperson for the project of installing the Wii’s said it also had an unexpected positive effects and that was that now the grand children came to visit more often!

In conclusion, in my opinion it is unfair to judge video games by what you see on the surface, it’s like judgeing the television by what you see when you flip through some channels in the evening and mostly get entertainment shows and commercials. We’re all wasting our lives in some perspective and if you don’t judge me for how I waste mine I will not judge you for how you waste yours.