Into the pixel

[John C Flett]

Not specifically PC gaming but I found this small piece on the BBC website about a video games exhibition. I thought it was interesting to see mainstream media covering video games as art rather than the usual hype/shock stories.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7514493.stm

[genci88]

I really couldn't give two ****s about what mainstream media has to say about games. We were better off during the nineties when PC gamers were pretty much a niche market (though they still are to a certain extent). Now that ESRB is under the mainstream media's radar they're being more strict with their ratings, so a lot of gaming censorship is happening in the US. In addition, you have dumb ****s like Jack Thompson and Cooper Lawrence spewing crap about games on public television. And then you have soccer mom organisations who encourage people to sue companies for things that they might find offensive or excessive.

**** mainstream media.

[Dark_Swordmaster]

Mainstream media leads to things like the Mass Effect ****up.


However, I'll look into this article. Hopefully it's worthwhile since it's not another "OMG SEXBOX!" story.

[John C Flett]

Got to disagree with you're attitude for two reasons Genci88. First and most obviously games are of interest to mainstream media. Thats not going to change however you might wish it so we do need to take note of what is being said.

What I find more interesting is that I have long been convinced of the games as art arguement. I'll admit that the case is pretty slim. "Witcher" is the only game I've played in a while that really attempted to touch on any serious topics while critical acclaim for games like "Mass Effect" can't change the fact that the story and script were really little better than TV movie standard.

If games are to grow and reach their full potential for artistic expression we need people to talk about them in the same terms as more traditional media. This piece might not be substantial but its the most serious article I've seen by anybody with a large mainstream audience and I think for that alone its a good thing.