Last week 6 of the Face team headed down to the RSA to listen to Tom Chatfield talk about his new book, Fun Inc. Why Games Are The 21st Century’s Most Serious Business. Chatfield, a literature critic for Prospect Magazine and massive gaming enthusiast, talked about the fact that, in today’s society, computer games have worked their way into every part of life. He split video games influence into three sections, 1) Play Instinct, 2) Games as Technology and 3) The Power of Virtuality.
Although the adolescent male market is still big business for video game world, gaming has spread its wings wide and now covers a whole load of new audiences/purposes. From kids playing games to learn the fundamentals of life all the way to Soldiers using war simulators to learn how to kill; computer games are now an intrinsic part of life that are not going to go away.
Nick Getting Stuck into Fun Inc.
So how do we, as a society, manage the world’s fastest growing industry? Where do we pigeon hole computer games? And who is responsible for how the industry is governed and monitored?
Well if it was up to Shadow Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey, who shared the stage with Chatfield, there would be a governing body that looks after, protects and projects the UK gaming industry; potentially giving it the same level of security that the film and music industries have. Vaizey, who freely admits he is not a gamer, was clearly a bit out of his depth when speaking about games, but just his mere presence shows how far the gaming industry has come.
Chatfield’s book, which is available here, looks at all elements of the commercial gaming world, its progression and its future potential. In the words of The Guardian, Fun Inc. ‘is a compelling defence of the much maligned but fantastically successful computer game [industry]’, and it would be hard not to disagree. Video games, much like music and film, have their fair share of negative attention but now as the first real video gaming generation find themselves in positions of authority, it surely is just a matter of time until games are not only accepted but celebrated as a form of entertainment and culture.
[...] a significant impact on gaming, and with gaming revenue’s becoming large enough for there to be increasing calls for it to be taken seriously as an industry it is no surprise that games have started taking on this philanthropic sentiment that young people [...]