The Video Game Revolution

Last night, PBS aired "The Video Game Revolution". It was a 2-hour show on the history of games, contemporary games, future games, the direction of the industry, and of course, violence and addition in games. Some of the thoughts that stuck with me from the show included:

• Shigeru Miyamoto's thoughts on game design. Talk about someone with game design experience. This is the man behind Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, and Zelda, some of the most popular and revolutionary games of their time. Miyamoto discussed the need to produce games that are *less* photorealistic, because they give the character a more fantasy feel and can create stronger attachments the player has to the character. Some of his comments (whether intended or not) followed some discussions of violence in games, which Nintendo actively tried to avoid. Miyamoto also discussed the importance of a large story or context for a game, giving the player freedom of exploration and choices.
  
• Sid Meier, creator of the pirates and Civilization series of games (which is a highly educational title, used in some classrooms). In terms of violence in games, Sid mentioned something I never really thought of. To give some context, the average age of a gamer is 29. Most development studios employee designers and programmers in that same demographic. Up to this point, many of these employees have been single, or married without children. But now that this demographic is starting to have children of their own, they might start taking a different slant on violence in games. Sid said something to the effect that he's happy as a game designer he can be artistic under the first amendmant and hopefully not get sensored, but at the same time as a new parent he has concerns over the impact of games in his son's life.
• Henry Jenkins, head of the comparitive media studies program at MIT, had lots of face time on the show and illustrated some great concepts. For those that aren't familiar with Henry's work, check out his site and read some of his literature. Great stuff. His main point of contention is that all games are learning mechanisms. Due to the interactivity of the medium, he'd rather see everyone playing games, learning and interacting with an environmen and each other, vs. idly sitting in front of a television. He also went on to discuss game's evolution in comparison to file. In the early film days, we had little more than images of random, everyday occurances. Then, with Charly Chaplin and others of his day, conflict was introduced to file, which emotionally engaged the audience moreso than the basic film that preceded it. He equated this conflict to where video games are now with violence. Then film started to really push towards story, including conflict, which engrossed audiences even more. That's where games are at now. Henry's views on video games in comparison to other media is very intrigueing.
  
• They had a good 15 minute segment on Virtual Worlds, mentioning such titles as UO, Anarchy Online, and EverQuest. I was a bit concerned when this started, because it began with a guy who works as the head of a video game addiction servce, helping people overcome addictions to primarily online games. This segment also featured a woman who represented some organization about mothers against violence. After hearing from these two about these large VWs can be addictive, decrease communication skills, and cause people to hide in their basements for days, good ol Henry chimed in about how these worlds should be leveraged in other areas (what this whole blog is about), and that we should be pulling the best characteristics from these worlds and trying to incorporate them back into reality. For example, the communities they create and foster, and the virtues they install in players.
  

Overall, I thought this was a great 2-hour show on the history, present, and future of video games, along with a presentation of both pro and con individuals/groups that are invovled in the game front. Not only Jenkins, but other developers such as Will Wright, Sid Meier, and Peter Molyneux all hit on games as vehicles for learning, which was great to hear.