The Problem Facing Video Games

I've started reading Reality Is Broken, a wonderful book (so far) about the vast untapped potential of videogames to change our world for the better. The book inspires confidence in gamers such as myself, and more importantly, fleshes out some really interesting directions for the future of the medium. I won't go into too much detail yet, because I've only read a few chapters, but I highly recommend it to anyone. Especially non-gamers, because it will challenge your preconceived notions about games.

However, as happy as I am while reading this book, my brain bursting with the feeling I get when I am excited about the future, I click on my favorite gaming site to a bit more grim of a picture. I'm specifically referring to Bulletstorm, a violent game that, by all accounts, is as stupid as its title. While I haven't played the game, my understanding is that it's crude, brainless, and again, very violent. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except that the game is getting good reviews. There are good reasons for this: the well-designed "skillshot" system rewards player creativity in their kills, and by all accounts, it's just plain fun. The problem comes with the fact that non-gamers could never take a game like this seriously, and why would they? I don't. I think this game could best be classified under "guilty pleasures", and yet many of the reviews have it among the best games of the year so far. To put this in perspective, this would be like Independence Day being nominated for Best Picture in 1996. Sure it's fun. Sure the special effects were great for the time, and the movie did some things very well. But you would never put that among the best movies of that year.

To take a step back, reviews aren't everything, and it's still only February. But I want to ask more from my games than that they be mindless fun. I want to be engaged in every way. I want a new game to have the potential to change my life, the way Pulp Fiction, The Great Gatsby, and Elephant by the White Stripes have. Were there elements of those three things that were fun? Sure. I certainly enjoyed them a great deal. And there are even some games that have begun to creep into that category like Half Life 2, and Shadow of the Colossus. But for now, and until games are taken more seriously (hopefully Reality is Broken will help) I will cringe every time a game like Bulletstorm gets a very good rating.