I found this quote by film director Alexander Payne, whose made some of my favorite movies (
Sideways,
Election and especially
About Schmidt). He's talking about the current state of American cinema, but I feel like this quote could just as easily apply to games.
"For some 25 years, we've had American movies but not movies about Americans. For 25 years we've largely been making not films but rather glorified cartoons which can be as easily digested in Omaha as on a bus in Thailand; films whose principal message is, We need your money to keep our stock price up; films that exploit banality and violence as come-ons to the lowest angels of our nature; films based on formula so they can be consumed as readily and predictably as McDonald's hamburgers. We've turned away from the need and utility of art in favor of impersonal product to maximize profits and at the tremendous, tragic expense of our culture."
Well, here I think is the inevitable question: I think a lot of people (yourself included) are drawing attention to this problem. What I DON'T hear a lot about are:
ReplyDelete—Who's making games that address this problem
—What games have historically done a good job of addressing this problem
—Where we go from here
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic.
Money eats culture like Pacman eats dots.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Casey... quit bitching and do something about it.