Can Games Address Serious Social Issues?

Thanks to AVault.com for its editorial ruminating on whether games can or should reference the more serious social issues of today. The piece starts by noting: "Only a very few computer offerings have anything resembling any form of probing social critique... In contrast, other entertainment media - including movies, music and books - all address these issues on a regular basis without raising eyebrows." The author concludes by suggesting it's "conceivable that games would reap greater societal acceptance and more legitimacy as a medium for presenting important concerns of our times", although mentioning the worry that "increasing the respectability of gaming might reduce the pleasure of the pastime" if done in the wrong way.

Comments

What about this?

[Naginata]

I don't know if anyone even remebers this game, but here we go..... The game "I have no mouth and I must scream" based on the Harlan Ellison short story of the same name, actually addressed several hardcore social issues. The game was played through the eyes of several people, all who lived in different dimensions, and all of them facing their own inner demons. I vividly remeber playing the game as a german camp doctor, who has to decide wether or not to rescue several jews, and not making it into a bland shooter. And there was the misformed monkey man Benny, who although beautiful in real life, was a misformed man in this reality and his only way out was suicide. The game dealt with religion, alcoholism and several other issues and it did it in a very mature, and levelheaded fashion. No glorifying or blunt statements, the game had several outcomes, based on how "compassionate" you had played the game. Can games address serious social issues? Hell YES! But is there a big market for this sort of game? Do I really want a game that confronts me with "the real world" when all I want to do is escape that real world by playing a game? I think that is the question that needs to be asked and the answer to that is that games are a form of relaxation (for me anyways) and a way to escape real life for a while. Therefor addressing the real life issues in a virtual environment that I enter for my enjoyment is a concept that is interesting, but ultimately flawed. Yes I enjoyed "I have no mouth and I must scream" immensely, but I played it once and never again. I can't even count how many times I've played wing commander.

Re:Comparing books to games

[Singletoned]

I think we may be lucky enough to get to a position where games are also considered examples of free speech, but I don't think it will happen until it is seen as an adult medium.

You will know when gaming is an adult medium when porn games start appearing.

PCs already have a few of these, but then PC gaming is always considered more adult than console gaming.

I'm guessing the console big 3 are all refusing to license any porn games for their consoles, which is very short sighted of them. If they want to be taken seriously they need to allow a couple to come out and see what happens.

Incidently, I reckon MS will be the first to allow a few to get through.

h-bomb!

[h0mer]

The upcoming NARC update may have some of this included, but I'd like to see a RPG or survival horror game including a heroin addiction. It would probably work like the sanity meter in Eternal Darkness, where a lower meter makes the graphics and control all wonky.

One of the reasons that games haven't dealt with more serious subjects is that they are not based in reality a lot of the time. GTA/Shenmue are some of the only recent games that are someone grounded. If a game was based in NYC without supernatural stuff happening, and with real character development, it could address some of these social issues. Any city would fine, really.

Re:Comparing books to games

[aanand]

Coincidentally, I just finished reading a piece on the depiction of war in videogames.

The reason games aren't tackling serious issues is really the same reason the vast majority of them have the most godawful writing - it's the lowest priority for the developers. There are countless games that satirise Western culture, it's just that they do it in such a forced and clumsy way (the atrociously unfunny radio adverts in GTA3, billboards in retrofuturistic games, etc).

I daresay the first films to address "serious social issues" were frowned upon or simply ignored. The author of the article is right when he says that games will probably have to "hone their qualities" like cinema did.

Yes, and it's called "Going Postal 2"

[MBraynard]

Oh wait. You don't like social criticism when it isn't politically correct?

Pax Warrior

[sunryder]

http://www.paxwarrior.com

Pax Warrior is not really a game as such, but an "interactive multimedia documentary". It is marketted as, and plays like an interactive Social Studies game. Users (students) are presented with a first-person interaction taking them through the experiences and decisions faced by a UN Commander on a peace keeping mission to Rwanda.

Pax Warrior is very interesting in that, like many games, it presents users with choices that must be made, and consequences that arise from those decisions. In this case, the choices and consequences are very closely modelled on what actually happended in Rwanda.

And yes, for those who are wondering, it has a fixed ending. It's a pretty emotionally connected, moving one at that.

Re:Games are games

[Anonymous Coward]

So entertainment can not have social commentary? There are large bodies of academic study of film, television, and every other media that will beg to differ on you.

"South Park" may be seen as entertainment, but offers a large discourse on social and political issues in American society. The fart jokes are a rouge to the underlining issues the text is trying to project.

For an example in games, "The Longest Journey" provides insight into the issues of gender both with-in the realm of computer gaming as well as the social climate.

I can explain a whole battery of other examples, but if you don't get my point now, there isn't much hope for you. All artistic texts make a statement regardless of authorial intent.

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN

[Singletoned]

From the title of your post, I take it you're against free speech?

Games are not considered sacred examples of free speech in the same way that books are. This was the topic of the post that I replied to (hence it's title).

Over here in England, it would be almost impossible to ban a book except on grounds of libel. A game or film could be fairly easily banned on many grounds, including decency.

Even the most offensive books don't get banned. Offensive films do, but it's getting less commmon.

The pushing of the boundries on all these things, as with almost everything else, is sex and porn.

Also, just because the perception of the age of gamers is increasing, doesn't mean that people will change their perception of gaming. "Look at all those adults performing a childish activity".

Been done. Few examples:

[Ayaress]

Xenogears: On one hand, it has the technology-destroying-mankind undertones that Squaresoft put into every game they made, but at the same time, it's pretty suggestive on the religious plane too. The basic backstory: Very ancient civilization makes giant robots for war. The largest of these robots ends the war, and destroys most of said civilization. Less ancient civilization discovers this robot centuries later, and worships it, calling it God. God and man live together in paradise, and God provides everything man could ever desire. Then, man creates "giants" (more robots) in mimicry of God. God is angered, and war breaks out. When God fears man will destroy him, he hides man's giants from him and flees into the sea. Modern civilization finds the giants, remembers stories about God from the past, and starts fighting over access to the ruins where God sealed the giants, trying to find and control God. And don't think it's an accident that they include numerous references from the bible. Fallout II: It doesn't do a great job of handling slavery and prostitution, which are major themes in the game, but it does an impressive job with addiction. A major part of the game is a drug called Jet. When you use it, you get a brief boost to your character. However, when it wears off, your stats drop below their normal levels, and you need another dose to attain normal levels. When that wears off, they drop furthur. If you ignore the withdrawal for too long, your stats continue to drop until your character becomes useless, so you need to keep getting more and more jet the longer you're addicted. There are others, but most handle serious issues in a very child-like way. While they're not bad games because of this, in my opinion, they can't be considered serious handlings of real problems.

Sometimes they at least spark conversation.

[mink]

After playing Sanitarium and Beyond Good and Evil my wife and I discussed quite a few of the social and political aspects of the games. I think Sanitarium touched on a number of issues in a way that wasn't heavy handed or shoved down your throat.