Week 16: Gaming Cultures

From a personal standpoint my experience with video game culture never used to extend far beyond actually playing the games themselves, I read the odd games magazine, visit games websites, but I've never been to an exhibition or launch party, or even playing online.

I don't think games occupy as much of my life as they used to. As I'm getting older I feel I'mm playing games less, perhaps due to having more work to do and socialising more. When I was 13 I spent hours everyday playing with friends and trading games, and saving my pocket money ready for when the next game on my list came out. At the moment I just have one games console in my flat that I play only a few times a week; usually when my friends comes round. I am increasingly buying games through impulse rather than buying games the day they are released, nowadays I find my self spending more time reading about games and the industry than I do actually playing them.

Video game culture is growing and merging with other cultures such as the film industry. Personally I don't see how there can ever be a film based on a game that is any good because you are only taking the story which isn't the strongest part of most games. It is hard for a film to capture the emotional side of playing a video game that comes from actually interacting with. The Resident Evil films, for example, took all of the emotions like fear, suspense lonliness away the only part of the game that remained in the film was the very base of the storyline, it was essentially just a low buget action film with the Resident Evil name put on it to get people to watch it.

Although it is a bad idea for films and games to merge in this way, it seems their cultures are becoming increasingly similar. As games become more like films because of the amount of time and money spent on them, the more seriously they appear to be taken, and now there are an increasing number of games festivals, exhibitions, conferences, not to mention award ceremonys. Award ceremonys are a brilliant idea because they are a good way for developers to get the recognition they deserve for making quality games, and could also motivate other developers to follow suit. However the way some of these ceremonies are presented are laughable to anyone with a knowledge of video games (the VGA's) and are often just embarassing to watch. They really don't help video games to be taken more seriously at all, and a performance by my favourite band at last years VGA's was just uncomfortable to watch with the guitarist shaking his head disappointedly when the audience of gamers failed to move an inch when they reached the most powerful part of the song. Video games and alternative music clearly don't mix well. Video games should be classed as a separate and unique form of media rather than mix in with hollywood films and pop music.