Posted by Celeste O'Neill

Traditionally, the notion that games represent an acceptable form of, well, anything you care to mention has been thwarted by the mainstream media, certain social groups, and many professionals who seem to take great pleasure in offering well prepared statistics; their artistic, educational, social, and even entertainment values have been more than challenged. However, the reality is that the idea of games being valuable to society is one that’s gaining great momentum.

To demonstrate this point, let’s start with some statistics: on 5 March this year, Microsoft released the results of their second Play Smart, Play Safe survey, which found that 75% of parents feel videogames can be beneficial to children and their families, and 80% feel gaming is a vital component in a balanced blend of modern and traditional entertainment.

This article looks at why and the extent to which this cultural re-evaluation of videogames might actually be taking place, and examines the potential for games to become entwined in society at a level that surpasses solitary entertainment. Let us first take a look at one of the most highly controversial game series in videogame history, Grand Theft Auto, to see exactly what this wayward series has to say for itself. We can then bring these ideas into sharper focus by examining games’ relationship with two highly valued institutions in modern culture; the family and education.

Video Game controversy is spelt G-r-a-n-d T-h-e-f-t A-u-t-o

Controversy surrounding videogames is nothing new. Since the ‘70s, titles such as Death Race, Custer’s Revenge, Postal, Castle Wolfenstein, Ethnic Cleansing, Doom, and Manhunt have caused more than a polite murmur from many people. Games have been implicated in several cases of violence, including murder. Even as this article is written, another such case emerges where coverage implicates videogames in the incident.

One of the most controversial game series ever created is Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto series. In all GTA games, having the player character engage in criminal activity is essential in order to satisfy the games’ main goals. The series is, of course, hugely popular among gamers; presently, GTA: San Andreas is the best-selling game of all time on the PS2, according to the Guinness Book of Records1, with 17,33 million copies sold for this platform and a total of 21,5 million altogether.

The public attention that caused game controversy to become synonymous with the series all started when GTA III was released in October 2004. This attention mostly centred on the free-rein nature of the violence as well as the content’s sexual suggestions. In the game, players could have their character have sex with and kill a prostitute, subsequently stealing her money. Later releases faced similar treatment, which was exacerbated by the fact that GTA was implicated in a number of murder cases, such as that of William and Josh Buckner in Oct 2003.

The reason for this scrutiny is clear: games require players to take an active and influential role in the game world, adopt the identity of the player character in the context of the game and sometimes even help to create this character. Games such as Deux Ex, Elder Scrolls III and IV, and both Fable games offer examples of such gameplay. The interactivity organic to games allows the player to explore cultural frameworks that might hold profound differences from their own, and some people will inevitably feel uncomfortable with this idea.

When GTA IV was released in April 2008, however, the controversy was markedly less discernible, despite the fact that the violence certainly wasn’t. The PC version of the game itself remained unedited and still received an MA15+ rating from Australia’s notoriously strict media ratings body, the OFLC. What’s more, its Lost and Damned DLC went completely unscathed, despite the fact it features full-frontal nudity of one rather self-assured “Mr Stubbs”. 

This could well demonstrate a greater acceptance, or at least tolerance, of such games by the mainstream. So, why might we be experiencing such a change? If this question had been posed to the games industry directly, you can be sure that Nintendo would have its hand raised high by this point, grinning smugly (possibly in the direction of Sony) and armed with quite a definitive answer. Truth be known, games hold some very important properties in their makeup, and Nintendo apparently knows this quite well.
 
Nintendo and family gaming

So-called ‘violent’ videogames make up only a minority of the games that are sold today. In fact, 85% of all games sold in the US in 2007 were rated “E” for Everyone, “T” for Teen or “E10+” for Everyone 10+, according to the Entertainment Software Association. The ESA also reports that 63% of parents believe games to be a positive part of their children’s lives. Indeed, both children and adults alike enjoy playing games for Nintendo’s Wii and DS systems, such as its Animal Crossing series. As of March 2008, the DS title Animal Crossing: Wild World has sold 9.53 million copies worldwide, and, as of January 2009, the Wii’s Animal Crossing: City Folk has sold 3.22 million copies worldwide.

Gaming is no longer being regarded solely as an antisocial and static pursuit, but rather an activity that can bring families together and actually, in some cases, encourage people to be a little active, as any poor grandparent that’s been unwittingly coaxed into a session of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games would surely tell you. Titles such as Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution are all helping to replace the negative stigma that has long been attached to gaming with a cautiously positive perception, and Nintendo’s efforts in this respect have significantly contributed to this. People across many demographics are seizing Nntendo’s offerings with both hands, despite them being completely full with nunchucks.

Paul Bury, Editor of the Family Friendly Gaming website, explains for the purposes of this article that he has himself observed a shift in attitudes from parents towards a positive view of Nintendo’s DS and Wii systems. “I have lost track of how many times I heard this comment: ‘I can't play game 'M' around my kids’… which means those games just sit on a shelf”, Paul explains. “That has led a lot of parents to purchase games that are safe for the entire family.” This statement suggests that parents might feel persuaded to change their acceptance and, ultimately, perceptions of the medium as a whole, which of course includes those containing adult themes and images, in order to spend time with their children. This opinion finds support in figures reported in the ESA’s Essential Facts about the videogame industry, which show that 71% of the parents they tapped play games because their children ask them to.

Some violent games have made their way over to the Wii, such as Rockstar North’s Manhunt 2 and the newly release MadWorld from Sega, an affair that has caused some vocalised concerns from certain bodies including the National Institute on Media and the Family (http://www.mediafamily.org/). The NIMF calls for Nintendo to prohibit violent games from being developed for its “family-friendly” platform altogether. However, it is currently a point of contention (also see here http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/21/winter-yet-another-publisher-deprived-mature-wii-game/) whether mature Wii owners should be deprived of the ability to play games containing adult content.

The Wii could potentially, therefore, become the first console to be fully embraced by both casual and hardcore gamers. But, either way, Nintendo’s netting of the casual market demonstrates a general shift towards games being deemed a form of cultural artefact. Games have far more going for them than their simple entertainment value, as significant as this is. Games embrace us, pulling us into their world, and this world can be a very powerful place to learn.
 
Learning through play 

It might surprise some people to discover that there exists a cogent argument describing games as tools for teaching “how” to learn as well as teaching content. This may seem like a bold statement, but several academics have been working to develop this perspective.

Professor James Paul Gee, who has published widely in the areas of linguistics, literacy, and education, argues in his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy2, that games can encourage players to bring to mind the (often unconscious) cultural models they embody, rather than to unquestioningly accept these models.

According to this school of thought, identity is inextricably caught up with deep learning; one has to embody the identity of the “learner” to learn anything successfully. Character identity is manipulated to a far greater extent in games than film or literature due to the interaction that exists between the player’s real-world identity and the virtual identity of the player character. The controversial game Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, which is centred on the 1999 Columbine High School shootings carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, is a perfect example of how videogames can encourage us to explore our “genuine” reactions to emotive issues.

Gee further argues that, without grounding information in context, its meaning separates itself from the material it is concerned with. But games utilise the scientific method, which is something that Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen also base their work on3. The “probe, hypothesise, reprobe, and rethink” model of experimentation is at the heart of videogame problem solving. Considering that the scientific model has always been at the centre of developed societies, the likelihood that serious games will be further exploited seems high. As Gee puts it in this fantastic piece highlighting the educational qualities of games, “[Schools are currently] in the cognitive-science dark ages.”

Now, this obviously doesn’t mean that we’re all going to start dressing in blue overalls, red t-shirts, hats with our initial embroidered on them and rather fetching moustaches, utilising our plumbing tools in order to “probe” the world around us. The way in which games encourage players to investigate identities and the world is rather subtle, but nonetheless clear. Indeed, games are starting to be taken seriously as training tools. For example, BreakAway has developed “Pulse!!” , a training program for medical students that utilises an FPS design. Furthermore, the National Science Foundation is funding several games for learning projects.

Of course, the belief that games can be used to communicate undesirable messages still remains. As Paul Bury puts it, “The military uses FPSers to train the troops, so there is a real world application for this training… Like anything [a game is] a tool that can be abused or used properly”. Offered with appropriate guidance, however, games still represent an as yet relatively untapped learning opportunity for schools and some scientific professions. But, as The Apply Group boldly estimates, there may well be 100 to 135 Fortune Global 500 companies that will have adopted gaming for learning purposes by 2012.

Conclusion

Like it or not, videogames have permeated the boundaries of modern culture. Games, by their interactive nature, can be entertaining experiences, social domains and educational tools. Mainstream society often cites Nintendo as the proprietor of culturally important games and, indeed, Nintendo offers us the chance to play highly accessible games with family and friends, be they male, female, young or old.

However, there is a tendency for people to underestimate the importance of games that contain adult themes, BioShock, Deux Ex, those from the Grand Theft Auto series, and even Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. Such games convey complex messages to players, forcing them to address emotive issues by directly inviting them into the experience. No other medium is capable of doing this.

It almost seems inevitable that our post-modern, technologically dependent age will soon be exploiting videogames in a much more significant way than it traditionally has done. After all, they offer so much that we hold valuable: cultural exploration, social experience, and the scientific method, not to mention good old-fashioned play, which was good enough for most of us anyway!