Reality Check: PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 are For Everyone, Not Just Kids
Business Week has recently come to the conclusion that regardless of the progress made in gaming, both technically and artistically, video games are still for kids. I’m here to tell them that they are dead wrong.
In a recent Business Week “Debate Room”, the issue of video games and maturity levels were brought up. After reading through the article in question, it saddens me to see that there are those out there who still have the mindset that video games are a child’s medium.
While it would be foolish of me to say that video games aren’t geared towards children in some sense, to downplay the strides made in making the video game entertainment medium more adult-oriented is simply foolish. No longer are games exclusively five minute time sinks that have you fighting off endless hoards of ghosts for no reason. Now if you put in a video game, you will be treated to a full-fledged entertainment experience that not only provides entertainment in the form of playing a game, but also emotional (and in the case of the Wii, physical) stimulation.
Games like BioShock, Mass Effect and yes, even Halo 3 illicit emotional responses from players. Not from the gameplay, which at times can bring out feelings of frustration after you get killed by Saren for the umpteenth time, but rather from the engrossing and engaging storylines that I dare say rival anything Hollywood can churn out nowadays. In a review of Mass Effect that I wrote for another publication, I noted how Mass Effect had brought out feelings of sympathy, regret and remorse for some of the actions I performed in the game. Movies don’t even do that for me.
Even games that maintain a very child-like look and feel, such as Super Mario Galaxy, aren’t necessarily kid-friendly. Sure, children can play the game. Children can do a lot of things. Not necessarily well, mind you, but they can technically do them. In the case of Super Mario Galaxy, just because the kid can waggle his Wiimote around doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing. This goes to prove my point that video games have become more complicated over time. The days of the simplistic “A to Jump, B to Attack” days are long gone. Now you have sophisticated games that require you to think before you act. Sure, some games (Read: Dynasty Warriors) keep it simple, but the majority of video games you see and read about nowadays are multifaceted entertainment “experiences” that reach past the moniker of simple “game”.
I also found some logical flaws in the argument made in the “Pro” section of the actual article. One of the points that the debater, Derek Thompson, makes the point that Super Mario Galaxy was the top-selling title in January on Amazon over a game like Halo 3. He uses this as one of his points in arguing that video games are still childish. There are a couple of flaws in this argument: For starters, Halo 3 has been out since September and has sold somewhere in the range of eight million units. If you haven’t bought it by now, odds are you’re not going to. Another point to be made is that we are talking about Super Mario Galaxy, operative words being “Super Mario”. It’s a franchise most gamers have been loyal followers of for over twenty years. Super Mario is like Star Wars in that people will buy both the good (Return of the Jedi) and bad (Attack of the Clones) without hesitation.
Another argument made involves a statistic from the ESA stating that only 14% of video games sold in 2006 were M rated titles. This really means nothing. Just because a game doesn’t have the excessive levels of blood and sex that usually warrant an M rating, does not automatically mean the game is childish. Rainbow Six, Neverwinter Nights, The King of Fighters, Splinter Cell, and BlackSite: Area 51 are all rated T for Teen and all contain themes that are suited for adults. Saying that the lack of sales of M-rated titles shows that games as a whole are more childish is flawed. It only shows that those who are buying video games aren’t immediately attracted to the bloodiest, most sexual titles out there.
People will naturally have differing opinions on this, and I look forward to hearing them from you all. Unless you’re going to resort to calling me names, in which case just save it. Regardless I will leave you with this final thought from Mr. Thompson.
Look at the plot description for last year’s breakout game, Gears of War from Epic Games: “Humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.” However stellar the game play, that’s basically the 1990 movie Tremors minus Kevin Bacon.
Anyone who compares the story of Gears of War to Tremors should have their game journalist privileges revokes indefinitely.
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