The Games as Art Debate
Game Makers Favor Diversion over Depth on NPR is a four-minute audio except
from National Public Radio's All Things Considered program discussing the
tackling of tough topics in video games. Along the way we hear from
Ian Bogost, learning that the professor of
game design at Georgia Tech feels it's time gamers "demand" games emulate
Hollywood by taking on subjects like the war in Iraq and teen pregnancy. They
also talk with Harvey Smith, saying his recent BlackSite: Area 51 comes
closer than most games to succeeding in this regard. They quote Bogost on
BlackSite's "importance," while also acknowledging the game was not successfully
commercially or critically, a point they don't seem interested in exploring in
tying this all back into the question of whether video games represent art or
entertainment. They do acknowledge that serious games about topics like genocide
and third-world poverty are being created on the "fringes of the industry" but
that these are "messages gussied up as games and they don't have to contend with
the marketplace," a point made without any attempt at connecting
cause-and-effect. The piece concludes quoting Bogost saying that until the
mainstream games industry "gets serious, its cultural prominence is just a
wasted opportunity."
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