And the Oscar Goes To...

I'm sitting here watching the Academy Awards, and apart from rooting for Daniel Day-Lewis for best actor, I am beginning to think about how the film industry became so important and respectable in a relatively short amount of time. What does the Videogame industry need to do to reach this level of renowned appreciation?

Part of the success of the film industry has to do with the amazing ability of talented directors and screen performers that have contributed their talent over the years. But it is the recognition of these people that has really pushed the film industry forward. Award shows reiterate the recognition of the individuals who make the films we enjoy and give them positive reinforcement that they can become a household name.

Most average Joes can tell you who Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are.

But how many of them could tell you who Will Wright and Peter Molyneux are?

Even though there are many people who help make films and videogames into a finished product, it is still important to honor and recognize the big names that are driving these creations. By recognizing the names of designers, producers, art directors, etc. that make remarkable achievements in gaming, we help to develop the identity of the industry as a whole.

There's just not enough emphasis on the people who create the experiences for the game industry. On the jackets of movies you see the director's name, actors names, and sometimes even the producer, but none of this is on the jacket of a videogame.

If I pick up the DVD of The 25th Hour and see a Spike Lee joint written below the title, why can't I pick up the case of Psychonauts and see from the creative mind of Tim Schafer on the cover?

"SE"XBOX: Microsoft's Dirty Little Secret

If you haven't heard about it already, Fox News aired a smear attack not too long ago on Mass Effect and video games in general. I'm not talking about this to pick apart and prove that every last comment uttered by Cooper Lawrence and the Fox News team was a complete lie(because I could, it would just take too long), but instead point out that this is just another unprovoked jab at our industry and another attempt to make us look bad to the public eye.

I'm not solely blaming Fox News. Hardly. This kind of crap comes from all different media outlets all over the world. This particular example is just the more recent and more blatant one. Not one of the attackers on the program, NOT ONE, had even played or seen the game in motion, yet still had the nerve to talk about it as if they had done extensive research and were disgusted with what they found. Cooper Lawrence, the main offensive in the attack, later admitted to the New York Times that she was entirely out of line.

I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.

Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.

As a game designer, that is extremely offensive(even more so if I had anything to do with making the game). What does that say about the public opinion of video games if you can just go on a news program and bash a title without even playing it? Can you imagine someone going on air talking about a book that they haven't read or a movie that they haven't seen. This is absolutely unacceptable. It's not the early eighties anymore where video games are played exclusively by thirteen-year-olds in arcades.

The average age of the gamer is now 31! The industry has grown up. The gamers have grown up. Now it's really about time that the media and politicians follow suit.

I can only dream of the day when video games are out of the "new and scandalous media" spotlight. That is why it is so important for the game industry to really declare and prove itself as the ultimate art form that it truly can become. We have come so far and taken so much heat as an industry, and it will only get hotter as new areas are explored and boundaries are pushed. However, we can no longer afford to get bullied around like this.

In closing, be a parent. If your 11-year-old son managed to buy a copy of the mature-rated "Mass Effect", sneak it into the house, privately play it, and get 25 or more hours into the game to see the "sex" scene, then I think you need to re-examine yourself as a parent and get more involved with your child's life.

The Great Inner Drive to Design or "The Lego Theory"

Since this is my first post (after much delay and procrastination), I have decided that it probably makes sense to start with the basics; The core, the heart, the desire behind every game designer (or aspiring game designer in my case, as in many others).

This undeniable urge to create something original, to put a piece of ourselves in our creation, exists in every man and woman on the face of this earth! We may not all be artists or designers professionally, but we are all artists and designers emotionally.

Legos, one of the most popular, if not the most popular and highest-grossing toy of all time, has been a best-seller with children for over 75 years....75 YEARS! What's the secret? Simply put, Legos provide basic tools to express artistic creativity in limitless forms. That's right, a ten dollar lego set makes you a functioning designer. No wonder we enjoyed growing up with Legos and its countless other knock-offs (Erector sets, K'nex, Mega Bloks) so much.

Even when we get older and grow out of Legos (not all of us; if you've ever been to Lego Land in California you'll see why that's not necessarily a bad thing), we never lose that desire to create, though it may seem much smaller and harder to find, the older we get.

Creativity strives off of the ignorance of reality. The less we know or the less we choose to focus on how the world actually works, the more freedom we have to create. That's why creativity comes so naturally to little kids. They know so little of what actually exists in the world, the universe, politics, money, power, sex, war, love, and hate, yet they have so much to offer in what could exist in the world. They are not afraid to close the gaps of what they don't know and don't understand with creations of their own explanations. The older we get, and the more consumed with reality we become, the easier it is to forget the magic of the unknown and lose that creative spark we were all born with.

When we get older, it is important for us to hold on to this spark, to kindle and tend to it so that it might burst into a flame of creative energy.

Don't stop playing with Legos...