Video games. Love them or hate them, you can’t fail to realise that their position in today’s world of technology, broadband and animatronics is hugely important. Millions play video games every day; it’s a worldwide phenomenon which enables people to entertain themselves whilst developing various skills and maintaining a social connection with your online friends. But is the popularity of today’s gaming world killing off other forms of entertainment, such as books, the radio or television?
Many would argue that, even if games were killing off these more conventional forms of entertainment, they still take what makes books, radio and TV such successes and puts them into games. We have complicated, clever and plain cool storylines to tell the story of the game, which before would be put into a book with chapters, words and pages. We have uncompressed PCM audio in-game and crystal clear mp3 format audio out of game, which provides our favourite music on-demand, replacing the need for radio. Games now include high-definition cut-scenes which would shame some Hollywood animated movies, multiple video formats supported and the prospect of PlayTV, Sony’s PVR service coming in late 2008 to early 2009. Technology is developing, and giving us what we want, when we want. Surely that’s a good thing?
In some ways, perhaps. But not really. We are in an age of obesity, low acedemic achievement and American gangster culture. And games today don’t help to improve this state of affairs. Before, people would read books to get the exciting storylines, and improve their grammar, vocabulary, spelling and writing skills. But you can’t do that with games. Most games don’t even include that much dialogue – the occassional cut-scene in between spraying bullets at everything is about the extent of intelligent conversation. With books, you have the complete control over your reading experience. You can invent your own imagery, give people their own personalities and get fully involved with a storyline. Books can make you laugh, cry, even feel sympathetic or evil. Games can’t do that to even half the extent. Games versus conventional: 0-1.
Radio was once something for the whole family, an event people looked forward to and enjoyed when it happened. Consoles cannot do this. Full stop. The radio gave people a sense of community, of identity; it provided them with news, music, drama, comedy, debate. Can you get these via mp3? No (or at least I don’t think you can; e-mail me if I’m wrong and I’ll ignore you). True, there are podcasts nowadays providing us with news, YouTube comedy and Prime Minister’s Questions for debate, but let’s be realistic – hardly anyone uses them. But consoles do have one advantage – there’s no waiting around. Say you want to listen to some Snow Patrol, or Now 65 - you just turn on your PS3, go to music and voila, there’s your music ready to play from your HDD through your Nicam Hi-Fi stereo speakers. And you can also now listen to the radio through your console over the good old tinternet. Games versus conventional: 1-1.
And, last but not least, television. When first released, TV was a family affair, even a community affair. Whole streets would gather round a 13″ black and white to watch an important matter of state, a famous person’s funeral or the latest dramatisation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Nowadays, we can watch all of these things on a 42″ High-Definition plasma screen, in relative comfort, surrounded only by our nearest and dearest (or maybe not so dearest). Also, with PVR television becoming more common anyway, consoles and TV are going to provide very similar features. Games versus conventional: 2-1.
Games may be stupid. They may have no intellectual capacity whatsoever. They may be filled with mindless violence, foul language and gore. But they provide an immersive, entertaining challenge, frustrating but fun puzzles, a real sense of adrenaline and a completely different reality to lose yourself in should the mood take you. And that’s probably why we’ll always prefer games to any other form of entertainment.
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