This was a really interesting lecture by creator of
successful games series The Sims (which has often been credited with drawing in
many more female gamers) in addition to Spore (which had countless millions of
creations). Among talking about the
expansion of technology, he also covers interesting topics about games.
Particular areas of interest for me I both in terms of my
essay and personally were:
Around 7 minutes:
Will Wright on the expansion of games
“Now in games we’ve got this idea of Genres that have
progressed over time. These are basically peaks that are making profit, but
what’s really exciting that is happening in games right now is its expanding at
an incredible rate thanks to indie efforts” - Will Wright.
He also mentions about play as a larger element, in that
play is in fact ‘sending out tendrils’ to different areas and is becoming like
part of our cultural language. I find this very interesting and intriguing
because video games are acting as a window to convey the idea of play which is
something that no other medium does. Perhaps this is one of the draws of the
medium?
Around 9 Minutes:
Will Wright on Advertisers using games.
“…They always understand that games are very powerful and
want some of this ‘black magic’ into their product” – Will Wright.
This was an interesting point because he mentioned that they
were attracted by the idea of interactivity. While I haven’t necessarily
explored advertising in games it has been something that has grown vastly over
the past few years. The presence of advertising billboards in games like
Splinter Cell Double Agents that update via Xbox Live is something I noticed as
a gamer. Another developing trend is games built by the advertisers. Dorito’s
are a perfect example of this. They have
created 3 free titles available on Xbox Live:
 |
| An example of Advertising merging directly with video games |
Dino Dash
Harm’s Way
And Crash Course (All titles feature Dorito’s at the
beginning of their name).
The first game was themed around the brand but the next two
titles simply bear the name of Doritos in the title. They are also one of the
only Full Games available for free on Xbox Live, meaning in a marketplace of
premium content they are the only pieces of content that is effortless to
download, vastly increasing the saturation into the market.
Other such marketing techniques in games involve product
placement (Splinter Cell: Airwaves Gum, Alan Wake: Energiser Batteries). This
ironically worked both ways when Lucozade released a special series of
advertisements involving Lara Croft, protagonist of Tomb Raider drinking the beverage
in a pseudo game like fashion.
10 Minutes: Will
Wright on Diversification in Games.
Will Wright talks about how games are merging with other
forms of media – that the most interesting work done is in the blurred lines
between places like television / games, etc.
The term he uses to describe this is: ‘Interdisciplinary Entertainment’.
Social Realism in
Video Games
The Kite
In the lecture on Documentary, it was mentioned about the
idea of games acting as forms of Social Realism. Social Realism is the
depiction of real life complete with the hardships – untarnished or glorified.
Now in looking at the link between the two I stumbled across an interesting yet
bleak indie game; ‘The Kite’. Set in
Russia, it tells the tale of a young mother dealing with an abusive, alcoholic
husband who is struggling in his workplace as well as their child who is her
life. The tale is a tragedy that deals with domestic abuse and the possible
outcomes, looking in particular at the vulnerability of children and women in
such relationships.
The experience of playing this game left me feeling notably
bleak and uncomfortable yet the issues within the game hit home – as I had been
actually making the choices that she had made and that for a short time I was
experiencing her troubles. The videogame had affected me more than perhaps a
documentary on the same subject and had furthermore drawn me into the
experience despite not being something which fits my own connotations with the
idea of a video game. The Kite shows that video games have the ability to
tastefully yet potently express adult ideas to an audience.
Other
places of research:
An interesting ‘myth busting’ page which discusses a number
of pre-conceptions about how the media views videogames and goes on to prove
through facts that these are in fact unfounded.
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