In his latest video entitled "Something Worth Fighting For: Video Games and Controversy," Daniel Floyd touches on something profound. He goes beyond all the "murder simulator," Hot Coffee, Modern Warfare 2 in DC, and Mass Effect "sex simulator" scandals and challenges everyone in the gaming industry to defend those projects that stand poised to push the medium from "making toys" to an artform at the cost causing discomfort and offence.
The game at the heart of his lecture/talk/presentation is Six Days in Fallujah, which we discussed at some length before when Konami pulled out of the game earlier this year.
Rather than providing a synopsis of an 8 minute video, I would just like to highlight a quote from James Portnow (previously from Activision, now running his own studio called Divide By Zero) as delivered by Floyd:
This will take real courage from within our industry. It will take the bravery to face critique and the fortitude to weather outcry. It will ask that we expose ourselves to short-term financial risk and that we don't back down from early losses, firm in the knowledge that we are doing right. We will have to be steadfast under the scrutiny of the world and resolute when we're asked to justify ourselves in the court of public opinion. It will ask that, for the moment, we give up ease. But if we can do this, we can do good, real good with our medium. If we do this we can expand the industry and bring whole new genres within the purview of games. If we do this we can turn a greater profit while providing more meaningful experiences and reach audiences hitherto unthinkable. If we do this we can perhaps elevate some small portion of our labour to an art. But if we do this we will no longer be able to pretend as if what we do doesn't matter. If we do this we can never go back to the way it was before.
I posted this here because I wanted to discuss that quote but YouTube's commenting system sucks, and I'd much rather discuss it with Hellforge than with YouTube.
As someone who draws pictures is differentiated from artist, as an average novelist is to an author that creates literature; shall there be games that blur the line between entertainment and art as opposed to games that exist for entertainment alone? Is it possible? Is it worth it?