Have Fun!!!
It’s a sign of our times that when we hear the word “game,” so many of us have begun automatically thinking “video games,” rather than an entire spectrum of activity that also includes poker and Pokémon, baseball and Boggle, Spin the Bottle and the lottery. But this sort of thinking is to be expected, because with remarkable speed, video games have become one of global society’s most dominant modes of cultural production. It’s now commonly accepted that the gaming industry’s yearly grosses rival those of Hollywood, and last fall, Microsoft widely publicized the fact that the first-day earnings of its X-Box title Halo 2 far surpassed those of any movie blockbuster, ever. But with so much emphasis on profits, it’s no surprise that the same flaccidity that afflicts the movie industry has begun creeping into the world of video games, even though the medium, while perhaps past its infancy, is still no older than early adolescence. So it’s up to game developers, artists, and anyone with a passion for video games to remember the creative lessons of old-fashioned games, and apply them to this tremendously versatile, powerful, and extensible medium. And given the ever-increasing number of hours we all spend in front of various screen-based media, it’s also worth remembering that there are so many other ways to play. So get out there and have some fun!
RES Vol. 8, No. 3
“Fun and Games”
May/June 2005
