The President is wrong about video games
LESS THAN a month after I voted for him, Michael D Higgins has dealt me his first major disappointment. This week he said “It is possible to form the impression that many of today’s children no longer fully appreciate the joy of taking refuge in their own imaginations, preferring to spend their time on computer games”.
Well, it is possible to form that opinion, Mr President, but I think you’re wrong. Gaming is among of the most exciting and creative industries of the modern world, and is one of the few art forms that originated in 20th century. It is also one of the few industries that regularly attracts sweeping, negative criticism from people with no knowledge of (or interest in) the area.
Imagine dismissing all poetry without ever having read a poetry book, or bemoaning every morsel of Indian cuisine without letting any pass your lips.
If Higgins were interested, he could take some time to see how people young and old nurture their imaginations with video games.
Games offer interactive narratives; they frequently encourage user-generated content; and many gamers go on to become game developers themselves, telling animated, innovative stories for a living.
Games such as Little Big Planet( LBP) are the most sophisticated easel and brush you've ever seen. Regardless of technical know-how, you can create a video game from the ground up, filling a blank screen with whatever images and gameplay you want. Members of the LBPcommunity (who rank in their millions) have built animated virtual worlds with working circuit boards, elaborate musical instruments and even interactive stories culminating in personalised messages (from "Happy birthday!" to "Will you marry me?").
Other games, such as Create, allow players to engage in virtual arts and crafts, while for older gamers, shooting games such as Halohave an option where you can create your own arena.
User-generated content moulds the gaming industry in ways that books, films, popular music and even poetry can only dream of. In the two years I’ve been writing about video games for this paper, I’ve lost count of the number of developers who’ve told me that fan feedback and user-generated content has had an influence on their work.
What’s more, according to researchers at Michigan State University, video games encourage creativity regardless of the type of game being played. Linda Jackson, the professor of psychology who led the research, says: “We are the first to look at creativity and technology use, finding that no other technologies except video games were positively related to creativity.”
The study of nearly 500 12-year-olds found that gamers fared better than non-gamers in the Torrance Test, which asked children to draw a picture, give it a title and write a story about it.
President Higgins, a passionate, creative man, should open his mind just a little bit more. You’re never too old to learn new things and work on your creativity.–
