Charlie Brooker presented a spinoff from his TV program Newswipe,
called “Gameswipe”, in which he discusses some of the history of video games
and video gaming, and some of the issues that it has faced in that time, namely
its negative view in the light of the media.
He
covers how video gaming has been demonised in the news much like it was when
television was first introduced to the general public, with the difference
being that the video game stigma has been drawn out far longer. While it is
true the smallest controversies surrounding any video game will normally be devoured
by the media, I would say that in recent years video gaming has received a
slightly more positive view in the media thanks to innovations such as the Wii,
which break the traditional belief that if you’re playing a video game you are
sat on a sofa doing nothing more than moving your fingers around a gamepad.
Dara o’Briain
appeared on the show to talk about his feelings on how in his opinion some
games block off content that he has paid for, be it either through providing a
challenge too great or simply requiring ‘too much of his time’ to unlock the content
he wants the most. For the latter he uses rock band as an example, referencing
the fact that only a few songs are available when you first launch the game and
that you must play the songs that he isn’t particularly interested in to get to
the songs he wants. I can see where this point of view is coming from, but
equally it seems to defeat the purpose of a game being a game. Which is that it
should provide the player with a challenge, or some reason to play the game,
something to work towards i.e. the better songs in Rock Band. Now, in response
to Daras issue I would say use the ‘unlock all songs’ cheat if you want it that
badly, however it’s true that the knowledge that cheats even exist may not be
known by everyone who plays the game. It is a fair point for the person who
enjoys playing games but does not have the time to do so for a prolonged period
that would allow them to unlock a song or defeat a tricky boss. What he is
asking for is a game that can play itself when it needs to, which I guess isn’t
unreasonable, but it defeats the object of playing a game and will require
extra man-hours during the development period.
The rest
of the show focuses on the different genres in video games i.e. FPS, RPG, Shoot
‘em up, etc. Often referencing the earliest examples of said genres and again
reinforcing the notion of how far video games have come, and how in Charlie Brookers
opinion, video games have lost the charm they had in the early years, which isn’t
entirely untrue. Many video games these days are far grittier than they used to
be, using dull, brownish palettes for the games environment and characters, and
while I agree it’s not particularly pretty it makes everything that little bit
more believable. Another aspect is gore, which has indeed increased to
extremes. Games with heavy gore and “unsettling themes” are often the main
target of the media, who try to enforce the belief that these games will cause
children to become more violent and aggressive, which as far as I know is not
true for the vast majority of gamers.
