Jimquisition: Taking Videogames Seriously

[Mechanix]

I was going to take this video seriously, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Just kidding. But it is true, I think everyone has an unconscious need to justify the things they enjoy to everyone else. It's the reason you hear jocks talk about why their football team is so awesome, or why your friend who loves physics gets super excited when you ask him a question about space.

I don't even know how many times I've been asked when I'll grow out of video games. A question that disgusts me.

Couldn't agree more man. It's infuriating to hear "You know, one day you're going to be older, and you won't have time for video games". Well fuck, if that's the case, I hope I die young. I never want to be at a point in my life when I need to work work and work some more. Who's business is it what I do in my free time? I guess my future wife.....but if she's not cool with me playing video games, she's probably not my wife.

 

[ezeroast]

I dont really agree, he is rather ignoring the question. The people who dont take it seriously are key decision makers and opinion formers. Many more people have heard of famous Film Critics than Jim here or Yahtzee or anybody else from our medium. Until that changes we are just considered a rogue toy industry gone mad. That needs to change, it doesnt matter if we take us seriously really, it matters if the important within society does.

Well said.
From an Australian point of view with all the recent news about game classification I think the authorities should be looking at games in the same was as they do movies and tv shows. They should realise that they are not just toys for kids, but entertainment for a much larger percentage of adults.

Edit: Alien and Aliens were much better than Alien3 and Alien resurrection but I like all 4

 

[JediMB]

I swear I saw that Gorilla Alien in a toy store here in Sweden, back in the day. (Or maybe it was in an ad. I just know I remember the Gorilla Alien and Flying Alien Queen toys from my childhood.)

And Alien 3 is a great movie. Alien Resurrection, while enjoyable, has too many shitty details and moments bothering me... most of all its lack of originality.

 

[Halo Fanboy]

I realize Jim is comenting on a specific issue but the premise of what he's saying has broader connotations. Sure the consideration politicians, priest and various elderly folks or Starbucks patrons, give to video games is inconsiquential. But their are some people who because of their job should take games seriously. How about the game and hardware makers? Or the journalist? It doesn't only hurt my pride when many aspects of game coverage are an eyesore.

 

[nothingspringstomind]

I liked Alien 3 and Resurrection, there no where near as bad as people make them out to be

Yeah, Alien 3 was a bunch of bald british dudes attempting to out act each other. Loved every minute. Resurrection just didn't have enough money behind it, basically. You can tell where the corners were cut. But Joss Whedon wrote it, so, i'm happy.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I less want them to be taken seriously and more want people to stop considering them as a thing for children. A toy.

They're as adult as books, movies and TV, sometimes moreso, and yet plenty of people still consider them a toy.

I don't even know how many times I've been asked when I'll grow out of video games. A question that disgusts me.

The thing about that is, since it's always been an interactive medium (unlike the books, movies, TV shows) there will always be people who can't help but view video games as toys and children's playthings. It didn't help when Sony referred to the DS as a babysitting tool while trying to promote the PSP. Once generations V and W die off completely there will likely be significantly fewer people who see games and gaming as something just for kids.

Personally, I can enjoy all types of games. The thing is, I prefer Pokemon to Heavy Rain. Not that I'm against plot and, story based games it's just that I prefer engaging titles over plot heavy titles. It's why I consider Mystic Quest and the PSX Final Fantasy titles superior to XIII as well.

As for Alien 3 and Resurrection...I haven't seen either all the way through. I should fix that, especially since they're both apparently better than AvP.

 

[loudestmute]

I believe MovieBob touched on why this argument for games being taken seriously exists, and that's we nerds like to stay in a victim complex. We want to believe that outside forces are conspiring to throw us into a locker, that we're standing up for what's right in the world by taking up sword and shield to legitimize things we like. Completely ignoring the fact that the mere act of taking up resistance is making us come off as more knee-jerk than your average political figure, and our hysterics are often just as overblown and out of place in civilized society.

Security in your sense of self means you can ignore what other people think about the things you like. The problem is, some of us still enjoy, even define our very personalities with insecurity in ourselves.

Accept the fact that not everyone has to like what you like, get a job, and move the hell on with your life.

 

[CBanana]

I think the issue with the Spike VGAs are not about seriousness or outside validation. Rather it's about people looking for more sophistication and maturity from the games industry and an event that supposedly represents it.

 

[Vault101]

well mabye this "taken seriously" thing is less about what other people think and more about us wanting games that arnt targeted toward 14 year old boys

 

[Vault101]

It's really naive to say "video games are here to stay" now. They aren't. Not yet. It wasn't that long ago that the industry collapsed in on itself, largely for doing things it is repeating now just on a much grander scale.

We also still have a lot of old, white, ignorant, yet powerful men and women who still view video games as murder simulators and would love to see them disappear or censored into oblivion. We have governments across the world run by those same old, white, ignorant, yet powerful people deciding the fate of video games. Many people make comparisons to movies, but let us not forget the "video nasties" which were a rather large collection of movies that were banned for arbitrary reasons, by old, white, ignorant, yet powerful people.

So yes, there is still a need to be concerned and try to push the legitimacy of gaming as an art form and a hobby for well adjusted adults and children alike. Unfortunately, they aren't "safe" yet and probably wont be for at least another 20-30years when most the Joe Liebermans of the world and people who think like him while holding a government position are dead.

I dont know...It seems weird to think it might all disapear because its such a big thing, big enough thease days to rival the popularity of movies

back in the days of atari wasnt gaming more of a niche thing that it is now?

 

[Nouw]

Kenner Aliens? KILL THE ABOMINATIONS!

First proper video I've seen off you, gives me a nice impression of what these videos are like.

 

[weirdee]

Lemme ask, if you got the validation by others at large for video games, would you really WANT this validation? The only thing I really want is an industry that doesn't suck all the money to the top, and movies have already largely failed there, so hey.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I take them totally seriously. Most of the time. The other times, I'm in a gimp suit with a giant mascot head on beating passersby with boxing gloves that make them explode. Or I'm Fus Ro Dahing them off of a cliff, of watching Rico Rodriguez impossibly sail through a mountain, after bouncing a tank as if it were a superball. It's the same way I can take The Godfather seriously, as a golden example among movies, then watch something like Evil Dead, and remember that not everything needs to be golden. While seeing the virtuoso efforts presented in Shadow of the Colossus, I can easily remember that, while here stands a game where you slowly fade into darkness as you try to save the one you love, another game has a pivotal fight with a forlorn heap of junk made whole by some unknown magical device mixing with some shorted electrical circuits. And I love both of those games. I take both of them seriously. It's more fun that way.

 

[BigManKane]

When ever someone tells me "Oh videogames are not art; they are to violent and don't have a good plot to it.". While this is some what true I always think that if that's your case than why are movies like Transformers, Apollo 18, The New Star Wars Trilogy, Twilight Saga, Fast and the Furious Series, Drive; how can they be consider art but, video games can't be.

Games like: Bastions, Deus Ex, Minecraft, Terraria, the Portal Series, the Half-Life Series, the Monkey Island Series, the Serious Sam Series, the Max Payne Series, LIMBO, the Fallot Series, The Elder Scroll Series, Amnesia, the Hitman Series, the Trine Series, Magicka, even the Postal Series.

Hopefully in the future people like Roger Ebert or the anchors on Fox News will have history change them in too the same crazy people who wanted to get rid of television, films, plays, paintings,and books because they didn't consider them to be an art form.

 

[plainlake]

I dont realy take this guy seriously..

 

[Frostbite3789]

Couldn't agree more man. It's infuriating to hear "You know, one day you're going to be older, and you won't have time for video games". Well fuck, if that's the case, I hope I die young. I never want to be at a point in my life when I need to work work and work some more. Who's business is it what I do in my free time? I guess my future wife.....but if she's not cool with me playing video games, she's probably not my wife.

My go to response that I've found rather effective is, "When are you going to grow out of books, music and movies? I mean, who has time for entertainment, right?"

 

[LookingGlass]

Wow, I didn't know that anyone liked Alien Resurrection. Alien 3, sure. I've only seen the director's cut (apparently a lot better than the original release), and that was OK. But people like Alien Resurrection too? Interesting.

 

[Aprilgold]

Who do we want to take games seriously?
The people in governments who might ban them otherwise, and perhaps influential people who has a reputation of being able to sway peoples opinion about them and yes that includes Fox News?
It's more that as gamers we don't want laws that will inhibit us from playing video games.

No, we want them to stop being considered a fucking toy. Man there are colleges dedicated to making films and writing novels while we can't get the funding and were pushed into something of toy making with fucking hasbro.

While the law has something to do with it, if the perception of games being for kids and a toy for kids changes to a thing for everyone, then the laws will stop. Its not like those people who put up laws to try and ban X thing, people will believe the person spewing it because no one else wants to explain what X thing is.

You made it sound like only gamers want their hobby to get taken seriously but people in pretty much all forms of media want that.
Movies and books are taken more serious because they're much older then games so it seems to many like most people look down on games, whether that matters or not is debatable of course but it's normal human behaviour wanting others to acknowledge things you like, so I don't see the problem.

So true, its like going home and showing Mommy Film and Daddy Book your brand new thing called Games, they look down on you because of age, despite the true matter of how serious you are.

I don'...

well mabye this "taken seriously" thing is less about what other people think and more about us wanting games that arnt targeted toward 14 year old boys

That is exactly what I was going to make a rant about, thank you.

 

[Akimoto]

It's kinda funny when people take games too seriously i.e ME, Tanuki Mario.... It's the developers and publishers that should be taken seriously me thinks.

Captcha:ntberte lausanne) - someone's been listening to The Police. Really? Lausanne?

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Why the hell should I care if Jim likes Alien 3 or not? He's a fucking VIDEO GAME CRITIC.

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