The player of games

Games are great.

Seriously, games can be fantastically good fun, intelligent, clever, witty and educational.

Stop looking at me like that. I'm on the level. I know that there is this misconception among a certain sub-section of society that games are for children or geeks and that there is something wrong with a man in his thirties still playing about with "toys".

Nothing could be further from the truth, and in fact this kind of thinking just highlights an inbuilt prejudice and lack of an open mind. More seriously there are those that lay evils of the modern world squarely at the feet of "video" games, the latest in a long line of hand-washing, responsibility-avoiding, blame-throwing nonsense that has always been with us.
The same mindset that hated rock and roll in the fifties, freedom of expression in the sixties, heavy metal in the seventies and Video "nasties" in the eighties is slow to react, but diligent in its total disregard for the truth.
So we see the same old lack of personal responsibility, again and again: Little Jimmy wasn't out joy-riding because some evil game designer put the idea in his head, life just isn't as simple as that. Anyone who takes their cues from an exaggerated and fictional game has deeper problems than being susceptible to suggestion. If you can't blame Jimmy himself then I suggest that the parents, or even the messed up society you live in may be a more realistic next step than a group of software engineers that designed an entertainment product that Jimmy happened to like.

Who would we blame if he got the idea from say, a book? Would we lambaste Thomas Harris as "evil" and "a danger to society" if some deranged psycho decided to act out scenes from his books? Of course not. Our marvellous red-top tabloids would label him (or her) a MONSTER or a TWISTED BEAST, because we recognise fiction as harmless escapism and there would obviously have to be something wrong with you to copy it....?

Hold on here just a second. If Jimmy plays a game, for example the ever demonised Grand Theft Auto series, he has to *choose* to make his character to commit these acts. There are some rewards for stealing cars or running people over but it is *possible* to play the game quite happily without ever committing a crime. Also there are consequences to be weighed up that balance the rewards and make it more of a puzzle, a game, that the pointless kill crazy rampage we are told to expect.
However if I read a Stephen King book or watch the movie SAW the whole experience is on rails- if I want to progress the story then I am forced to witness decapitations, violent rapes and explicit murders and I have no choice in the matter whatsoever.
However I can show mercy in my game or even play the hero and it is all a matter of my choice.
All those Daily Mail readers crawling all over Rockstar and going on about "EVIL GAMING DISGRACE" need to wake up and look at the shit they've been shovelling. The danger would be that they would just try to ban everything else as well, we're not dealing with rational souls here.

Games hold an ESRB rating similar to films these days and I cannot stress this enough: games are NOT all for children. Games are a perfectly valid form of entertainment for all ages. They can tackle adult issues, and not just violent ones: they tell stories, some overblown and silly, some touching and powerful, some open ended and unfinished. They have a far wider canvas that the more linear media, they allow free will, or at least the illusion of free will and, maybe most importantly, they encourage people to think in different ways and to explore the worlds they create. How cool is that? They don't replace books and flims, they do something different again, and the market is changing to reflect this.

Since the Nintendo Wii came out I have spoken to many friends and acquaintances that have bought one "for the kids" or after trying one out, people who avoided Playstations like the plague. The Wii seems to have cracked the prevailing attitude in a way that the other formats are still struggling with. Maybe it is because it is typically Nintendo- functional and fun, with an emphasis on the gameplay being instantly accessible and the rewards thrilling and visceral. Maybe it is the interface itself- you feel like you are actually doing the do, a strike in bowling is skill, a rally in tennis feels like an achievement. Whatever it is, you are looking at the future. People are picking games up as a serious alternative, a valid entertainment medium for everyone. There is nothing you can do about it.

"Hardcore" gamers like myself play for a couple hours a night, on average. Before you comment on that I'd like you to know I don't watch TV at all, while most of you will think nothing of beating your brains out with Big Brother or the Mockneys of Albert square for at least as long. "Casual" gamers maybe hit it an hour a night, give or take. Most people my age now fall at least into the casual bracket, we grew up with games and games grew up with us. We've come a long way from Frogger and the Galaxians of our childhood.

Yes games have changed, we still get the sports games, the shooters, the adventures but the bias towards the "geeky" themes of Science Fiction and Fantasy is slowly balancing out with more games plumbing more traditional themes. There are still oddball things, but do you know what the all time best selling game of all time is? The SIMS. A game where you design and live out the mundane little lives of mundane little people, a bit like electro-enders or Cyberneighbours. It has sold hundreds of millions of copies with never ending expansions and a sequel. Not a ray gun or Orc in sight.

Of course the second best selling (PC) game is the opposite - World of Warcraft. A multi player online role playing game, a game type commonly abbreviated to MMORPG, with a current player base of over 8 million players worldwide. Let me put that number in perspective for you- 3 million more people than live in Scotland and approximately the same number as live in Switzerland. No shit. And that is just the number that are subscribed RIGHT NOW. I've played it for over a year now and I love it. I have learned teamwork skills that I have then applied in real life, I've got the crack with people from all over Europe - from Israel to Sweden, I've performed acts of utter selfless altruism for complete strangers and duelled good friends in a variety of pirate gear. Most of all it is a place, with identity, flavour and mood, and the love of its creators is evident in every polygon. It's a wide and endless experience, but it isn't for everyone and is best taken in moderation: it can eat your life if you let it. But then so can going to the pub every night, for far less gain and much more money.

So yeah, games are great. But don't believe me, go try it out for yourself.