by Surplus Talent [Tim Jones]

Halfway through the single player campaign of Halo 3, I began to loathe videogames. It was an arresting sensation, similar to the swirling mix of embarrassment, guilt, fear and uncertainty that accompanies the sudden exposure of an egregious lie. I might have even blushed.

For years I’ve been a stalwart defender videogames as a valid form of entertainment on par with television, movies, even books. I reveled in the opportunity to highlight the inconsistency of claims that America’s Next Top Model or  C.S.I. or Lost or any other TV series was a better way to spend a few hours. Any time I’d admit to spending that same amount of time playing videogames, the response almost always involved some derogatory comment accompanied by a recommendation for me to get a life, make some friends or simply grow up. In those instances, I would simply pity that ignorance, and point out the hypocrisy.

Then, halfway through Halo 3, I started to feel like I’d been on the wrong side of the argument all along. There seemed to be little defensible about the game—the “good versus evil means kill, kill, kill” premise, insipid dialogue, derivative story and familiar gameplay mechanic meant I was gaining nothing by playing Bungie’s iterative shooter. I was simply wasting time, the “interactive” element so exulted by gaming evangelists reduced to pushing buttons and moving analog sticks with no compelling purpose. A quick mental inventory of my game library revealed far too many titles with the same lack of substance.

With a large number of highly-visible, so-called “triple-a” titles essentially embracing more elaborate takes on the same lifeless ideas, it’s becoming more difficult to defend a medium I still enjoy immensely. With a game like Halo 3 described as “the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours¹,” it’s hard to fault the general public for assuming such tired shooters are indicative of hard-core videogames as a whole. Maybe that perspective isn’t entirely the result of ignorance after all.

And blaming the media’s perceived inaccurate, misleading, or lack of coverage for a poor public perception of gaming seems like a much less compelling argument when an industry superstar appears onstage armed with a ominous chainsaw gun and describes his upcoming game to a group of developers as “bigger and far more badass².” In those moments, gaming detractors could have a legitimate case that videogames deserve nothing more than the dismissive glance they get.

Could it be that the games themselves are responsible for the industry’s perceived lack of artistic relevance and legitimacy as a form of entertainment?

While hyper-violent shooters are just a part of a much broader and more diverse landscape of videogames, far too many titles in far too many genres subscribe to the same clichéd, pedestrian concepts that keep gaming on the cultural fringe.

Conflict, an essential element of narrative, is often presented in a very simplistic way in videogames, never advancing beyond good versus evil or another kind of oversimplified and violent conflict. The essential premise of many games could be distilled down to some combination of attack, defend, or attack to defend—hardly cause for artistic accolades. Objectives generally range from “kill or destroy everything you come across” to “kill or destroy this list of stuff,” with only narrative details and specific motivations serving to distinguish one title from another. By and large, games outside of the sports, racing and puzzle genres tend to fixate on destruction, whether benevolent or vindictive.

There is a place for this kind of game, and such mindless entertainment does have some therapeutic value. Sales alone indicate these games are welcome in the industry and some games use this basic framework to create visceral, occasionally rewarding interactive experiences. Recent games such as Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid 4, and a few others take advantage of familiar elements and use them to tell thoughtful stories—stories that leverage the interactive aspects of games to advance narrative, give the player choice or encourage some degree of self-reflection. More titles with this level of sophistication could begin to give credence to the value of the medium, maybe even elevate its reputation among its detractors.

But there should be balance in the industry. In the same way TV has its soap operas and horrendous reality shows, or movies have over-the-top action flicks and unbearable B-movie horror films, videogames can have soulless shooters, derivative role-playing games, mindless here-to-there action games, yet-another-racing-game and iterative sports simulations.

The problem is that we have too many of those kinds of games. If videogames are ever going to be taken seriously, we need more games that have more to say and do than just “Eat shit and die” and blow stuff up. Otherwise, the only remaining option is that we accept that gaming will always be considered one step above porn and a step below soap operas in the pantheon of entertainment.

Thankfully, there are signs of creative life in the gaming industry. Mirroring the positive energy of “Web 2.0” hallmarks, one trend is taking gamers in an entirely different direction. Where Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 emphasize and celebrate destruction, Spore and Little Big Planet emphasize and celebrate creation. Not mired, at least not entirely, in a “create to destroy” dynamic, these games promise to give players an interactive outlet for shared self-expression—certainly something more passive forms of entertainment can’t hope to match. The opportunity to contribute to a creative body of work and then interact with it represents a genuinely exciting development in entertainment. That’s not to say this idea is entirely new, just that it’s showing up in a big way in a few big-name titles, and that’s exciting to see.

Instead of foregoing more traditional forms of entertainment only to turn on the console and pretend to blow stuff up, I’ll have the chance to create something in the medium I love—something distinctly mine—and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

1: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo3/launch/20070926halo3biggestday.htm
2. http://www.destructoid.com/gdc-08-gears-of-war-2-announced-71345.phtml