While cruising my information hub of blogs and industry rags I stumbled on to an insightful find on ArtsHub* (a sweet AU site that gives good right brain)
The most recent media statistics indicate that time spent viewing a screen for recreation increased by one hour last year, at the expense of outdoor activities, to over 16 hours per week. It is not surprising then that the opening of Game On was packed.
There were a very large number of children with their parents and the Minister – Lynne Kosky - brought alone her GenX/Y staffers who were itching to get to the consoles. Invitees at openings seldom let the show get in the way of a drink, but when the speeches had finished the floor cleared as people flooded into the exhibition below. Game On, a received exhibition toured by Barbican Art Gallery (owned by the City of London Corporation), is a visual historiography of the evolution of the video game from the first known example produced by students at MIT (with a computer the size of a car) to hints at the next waves of interactive gaming technology. The exhibition is chronologically laid out, like a Victorian era museum updated with interactive screens. You can play every game on display and that’s about 125 to get through.
Gaming is a massive enterprise: the sector outstripped film sales in Australia by more than $200 million raking in a cool billion dollars in revenues in 2007 and the Pokemon franchise alone has made more that $26 billion. Most people will also not be aware that Australia exports products worth around $100 Million, about half made or developed in Melbourne. The ACMI dedicated games lab, a world first, is a creative hub for the sector and the show has local content weaved in to the displays. Unless you work in advertising you might also be unaware that there is a huge business selling product placement inside these constructed worlds.
This is a pervasive, increasingly sophisticated and very influential creative sector. I’ve tuned into the ABC’s Good Game show often and by luck saw their now classic first person shooter (FPS) episode. FPS games are those highly controversial ultra-violent games that place you as an anonymous, unaccountable killer - your view of the world is often directly down the gun barrel. That program revealed a level of connoisseurship and depth of nuanced language that we might usually reserve for discussion of fine wines. Aficionados rate “immersion” (how deeply a game draws you into its internal reality), plot lines, the visual aesthetic of blood splatter and more.
There is a small section in the exhibition on the creative process- early drawings and classically crisp celluloid cells of Manga-style characters. Some of Ocean Quigley’s (famous for designing Sim City 3000) original oil paintings - lush and deeply modeled imaginary landscapes - are on display (look for Red hats and fire , 2001). Musicians should find the recording of the short works by Koichi Sugiyama and Richard Jacque engaging if only because they are some of the most listened to works ever made on the planet.
Subliminal to the displays is the large scale convergence, grinding like tectonic plates, that is slowly reshaping the sector. It’s not so much convergence of technical platforms but rather of creative processes and expectations. Sony now brings classical Hollywood film methods to the creation of its play-station games in huge creative teams. Pixar and Dreamworks animations set standard that need to be accommodated in 3D Simland . And astute film critics might see how the mass-audience for games has subtly changed film - raising the excitement stakes in the ‘Bond’ and ‘Bourne’ genres.
Glossed over however was the dark side. Violence and FPS formats are pop-culture staples that we are willing to be desensitized to, notwithstanding that more than 30,000 parents have reportedly downloaded ACMI’s guide to responsible gaming. However, the role of gaming neuro-psychology (enhancing stimulation and addictiveness is a major research area) in the development of the gambling industry’s gaming interfaces is deftly sidestepped. So too is the major role that the US military has played in developing seductive ultra-violent FPS war-ware.
Overall, as presented, Game On is a nostalgic gamer’s paradise and the kids will have to be dragged screaming from the play stations at home time. It’s well curated, great fun and there is more than one layer here for the thoughtful visitor.
