Videogames Doomed for a 'Comics-like Ghetto'?

At the Newsweek blog LevelUp, journalist N'Gai Croal wrote this week about the sometimes-precarious position of videogames in popular culture. The frustrations of legislators, lawyers, and 'pro-family' groups aside, the popularity and record sales of the gaming industry would seem to indicate rising stock for gaming as an art form in the US. And yet, there are some folks who see gaming as just another fad, which in some time will be equal in popularity to comic books or tabletop roleplaying. N'Gai starts to form his response by noting that learning to play videogames is considerably easier than developing an appreciation for literature of any kind. He then goes on to note that the (oft-cited) lack of weighty subjects in gaming is more due to the 'pop culture' nature of the hobby than the medium itself. "Popular fiction generally outsells literary fiction. Summer blockbusters generally out-gross arthouse films. Is this any different from, say, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat out-NPD-ing BioShock last year, or Madden doing the same to Shadow of the Colossus in 2005?" He discusses some ways to address that, but do you have any solutions? Or are games doomed to be the playthings of adolescent boys for the rest of the century? (And yeah, I resent the 'comics ghetto' label too.)

Comments

Re:You know what the best games are??

[Pojut]

Wait wait wait...you get a bunch of friends together and play (mostly) older games....and yet you don't play multiplayer Goldeneye, Masters of Orion, or Diablo? A curse upon your house...

Art

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, it's not art unless it takes eight or more years of expensive (and exclusive) education to enjoy it.

Everything else is just "folk art". But we just call it "art" to make the simpletons feel better. They aren't good enough to begin to understand Art.

Re:Art

[DeadDecoy]

By that consideration games could be considered art. Some of my friends have spent 8 years mastering the zerg rush and camping creeps for loot and they're still in college!

Lack of weighty subjects? PSHAW!

[MadFarmAnimalz]

The lack of weighty subjects ceased being a problem in the video game industry many years ago, when Tomb Raider's Lara Croft gave us not one but two weighty subjects to consider.

Re:Not a chance

[PitaBred]

Starcraft and Brood Wars both install and run fine under Wine ;)

Just in case you needed a fix. I'm not trying to exacerbate your addiction, honest...

Re:Not a chance

[Anonymous Coward]

Koei is more like... Piers Anthony. A few core franchises built around rehashing the same allegedly heady material for years.

Re:Violence

[Seiruu]

Portal is intellectually challenging with its puzzles, but the coordination required makes it hard for a lot of people to play it. Some people might also be put off by the screaming robotic voices when you destroy them. Or when that robotic monotone voice keeps telling you it is going to kill you, and tries to. Or the sound you make during and when you hit the ground after being hit by some shiny energy ball.

Re:Not a chance

[jimbojw]

like comics are a subcategory of literature, and RPGs are a subcategory of card/board games

I thought RPG was a subcategory of "huge guns that blow things up"

Re:Not a chance

[Hognoxious]

I doubt (and maybe hope) that people won't still be playing WoW five hundred years from now

So what would you propose doing while waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to come out?