Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
Jim Nolte of Big Hollywood has already gotten a knock-back from his post about a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) including the ability to engage in same-sex relationships. I first heard about this from Newsarama.com, some site I'd never heard of before. This is the kind of story that is just asking to get political; and sure enough, towards the bottom of the Newsarama post, the author of the post decides to go on the offensive:
The game has no firm release date, only a release window of “holiday 2011.” It has also already received an ESRB rating of “T for Teen,” meaning the game is recommended for players 13 and older. Neither facts have stopped detractors from crying foul, such as John Nolte on the blog “Big Hollywood,” who starts his post on the subject with "Say goodbye to your child's innocence," and ends with the inaccurate proclamation, "Announcing the gay relationships AFTER the game has been sold is pure bait and switch."
Am I the only one who thinks any kind of in-game relationship is silly? I mean, come on. It's a computer game. Back in the day (when I would play these kinds of games, which was a very sad way to spend time) people would just chat with each other to simulate sex- called "cybering". (Parents, if you're reading this, I didn't do that.)
When a developer decides to put this kind of crap in a game, it doesn't make it any less of a farce. I mean come on. In the words of the man himself, Flavor Flav, "read a book or something." Or, go to a bar. Or go to a gym. Or heck, go on a dating site! At least that's with real people.
I want to be a game designer for my career. The video game industry is a joke- the stories in the "best" games are the caliber of a movie like Transformers or a TV show like Cheers (just kidding). The characters are flat, cookie-cutter caricatures. It's all plot-based baloney. And of course, games look really cool, they are a ton of fun, and tons of people play them (myself very much included). But there's a reason why this is a serious problem.
People my age have no ability to analyze fiction. They think movies like Inception and The Matrix are the height of human expression. Of course, the same could be said about other generations growing up with Hollywood dominating the pop culture scene. But I think it's worse for kids my age- movies don't consume time quite like a videogame does. It's not even close.
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Re: Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
It is fascinating thinking about how people today have the ability like never before to immerse themselves within the growing technology of video-audio stimulation/entertainment... it is interesting that both the Matrix and Inception represent not just fantasy, but a kind of cyber-fantasy that has grown with changes in internet technology and psychology.
A thinker named Jean Beaudrillard talks about the "simulacrum," which for him is the situation of contemporary popular society--fictions on top of fiction on top of fictions, simulations on top of simulations, etc. At a certain point people do not have access to the "real" or "natural," but Baudrillard says that at this point people develop nostalgia--hence, perhaps, engaging in fictional cyber-relationships. It is a cheap imitation of intimacy, but it is all that people trapped in that world are capable of.
Baudrillard may be a little over-baked to make a sweeping claim about all of reality, but perhaps his thoughts come in handy when analyzing things like video-games and the cyber-world (Baudrillard, The Procession of Simulacra)?
Re: Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
I remember spending an entire class period discussing these kinds of alternate-realities in my English class.
My teacher said he would like to see videogames and technology reach a point where we could go into... I guess the word you use is "simulacrum".
Personally, what I do is only play solitary games- I don't play games online, because that's how you get into that whole mess in the first place.
Apr '11
Re: Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
Frankly I don't understand your point. It's silly for games to have the option of developing relationships? Isn't that like saying its silly for stories to have relationships develop between two characters? I mean games are entertainment, the games that usually have relationship options are RPGs which are supposed to be a choose your own adventure book. Or are you talking about two real humans having a relationship through an MMO and the game facilitating that in a manner beyond live voice chat and texting?
The fact that most games don't have very intracate plots is that the genera is not suited for such story telling. One of the fun parts of video games is that you play the main character, now in real life you can do nearly infinate things. The game has to be more constricted for technical reasons. If you tried to create a game that was rich in plot and characters and conversation in the manner of a book I don't think you would make a video game just a CG movie. Freedom of decision in video games has to come at the expense of story.
Re: Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
Yes.
Apr '11
Re: Video Games: The End of Western Civilization (jk lol)
Ok I'll give you that. That, is kind of creepy especially considering the wide range of ages of the players. Though I guess if your goal for your MMO is to create as much freedom of interaction as possible then you can see how this could come about. I don't play MMO's so I don't have much to worry about it. But, I have enjoyed many games that do have "romantic plots" though I would play them with or without that feature, since what I want is to be able to hack evil monsters with a sword, for Justice.