Comm 203: Video Games

Anyone who believes today's video games are just for kids needs to get a reality check. I don't know any decent parent who would let their five or six-year-old sit and play Gears of War or Call of Duty or any number of first-person shooter games. In fact, I doubt a five or six-year-old would have the dexterity to play a game; just looking at an Xbox controller might make them give up. Not to mention, the ratings on a lot of games today are rated M for mature. Even games that were originally aimed towards young kids, like the Super Mario Bros. franchise, has evolved to encompass all sorts of genres. You can now beat your friends to a pulp on that friendly-looking Wii system on Super Smash Bros. Although Nintendo has for a very long time been more geared towards a younger audience, I'm not sure how many eight-year-olds could work through the entirety of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess without help from an online guide. (I remember playing LoZ: Ocarina of Time when I was about that age and not having any idea what to do.) With the exception of some really gifted kids, I'd say the majority of games being produced for gaming consoles today are aimed for audiences 15 and older. Of course, there are also games on the phone, as this article discusses, and with the increase in iPhone and other Smart Phone sales, online games are becoming more and more accessible (and addictive).

I believe the video game industry does have a certain sway over the media. What we play shapes how we view the world and what we're more inclined to believe about it. That being said, I don't think violent video games create violent players in real life. Parents should certainly be active in choosing which games his or her child is playing, but after a certain age, most people are able to distinguish reality from media.

Video games might not be an art form in the purest sense, as this article argues, but you have to admit that it takes some serious skill and creative talent to build a CGI ancient Rome like in Assassin's Creed, or entirely new life-like worlds as in Portal or Legend of Zelda or any number of other games. Video games and the art of creating them have evolved from their 2-D Pac-man days into virtual realities. They might not be comparable, as the author of article says, to sculptures by Michelangelo, but given the platform on which their created, I doubt anyone can deny just how much work and talent goes into creating these environments.