How Do Games Grow Up?

Gamasutra is running a piece by game designer Brice Morrison questioning the lack of games for grown-ups — or, more accurately, the lack of an intellectual progression in games like that which exists for books, movies, and other creative works. "While my interests in other media grew substantially more adult — from Nickelodeon to CNN, from Dr. Seuss to George Orwell — games did not seem to have a more intelligent counterpart for me to move on to. As I entered college, I became less interested in mindless entertainment and more interested in encountering new ideas. I didn't want to kill time; I wanted to take advantage of it. I wanted to challenge myself with profound concepts, to learn of new paradigms, processes, and possibilities. ... So what exactly are the barriers of entry for great thinkers (or groups of thinkers) to leave their mark on games? What must happen for games — or interactive entertainment, if you will, to mature as a medium?"

Comments

Xenogears

[setagllib]

Just play Xenogears end to end and you'll have your fill of mature gaming. Lots of family-friendly concepts like genocide, cannibalism, reincarnation, genome experiments, torture, Freudian psychology, and many more, all pave the way on your noble quest to kill God. It's like every heavy metal album combined. Highly recommended.