As also seen on Kotaku, and via "le tube," the trailer for 8 Bit is out. It's a documentary about video gaming culture which appears to go beyond just mass market titles and kids greasing up demo unit controllers.
Seeing this makes me feel good that there are plenty of us around that find gaming a valid pursuit. But let's not kid ourselves friends. We're still in the minority. And unless you work in the video game industry, the people around you don't normally give you the time of day when you mention anything about games.
It usually comes down to placating acknowledgments, rolling of eyes, being ignored entirely, or just flat out insulted. Yep, it's true. In my time at various jobs outside of the industry, my coworkers often times held to their beliefs that games are a waste of time. Like some kind of habit that has no merit or possible redeeming qualities, akin to gambling. Though most of them didn't seem to equate gaming with addiction, some of them did, and the mere mention that games are art brought some to a state of anger.
Why is this? Why does it happen, even in places of open minds and progressive ideas? When I was at Odiyan I got some seriously adamant opinions about the uselessness of games. There was probably just one person who knew anything about games really. Some people had nostalgic memories of the old-school era, but many of them disliked games all together. And this, in a Buddhist center, is not what I expected to find. You would think that intelligent people would suspend judgment of something they were so uninformed about.
It's time for you folks to wake up and smell the pixels. If you accept the movie industry as a credible means of artistic expression, then I see no valid reasoning not to accept the gaming industry as well. Otherwise, isn't that a double standard?
Some day, there will be no generation alive which did not grow up in a time of video gaming. I look forward to this day, simply due to the fact that it will be a day when games will be seen no differently than movies are seen now. Everybody's bound to have done it and liked some of it.
Until that day, let's spread the faith my brethren, and go forth into the breach of the unbelievers! Uh, sorry, maybe that was too evangelical.
Seeing this makes me feel good that there are plenty of us around that find gaming a valid pursuit. But let's not kid ourselves friends. We're still in the minority. And unless you work in the video game industry, the people around you don't normally give you the time of day when you mention anything about games.
It usually comes down to placating acknowledgments, rolling of eyes, being ignored entirely, or just flat out insulted. Yep, it's true. In my time at various jobs outside of the industry, my coworkers often times held to their beliefs that games are a waste of time. Like some kind of habit that has no merit or possible redeeming qualities, akin to gambling. Though most of them didn't seem to equate gaming with addiction, some of them did, and the mere mention that games are art brought some to a state of anger.
Why is this? Why does it happen, even in places of open minds and progressive ideas? When I was at Odiyan I got some seriously adamant opinions about the uselessness of games. There was probably just one person who knew anything about games really. Some people had nostalgic memories of the old-school era, but many of them disliked games all together. And this, in a Buddhist center, is not what I expected to find. You would think that intelligent people would suspend judgment of something they were so uninformed about.
It's time for you folks to wake up and smell the pixels. If you accept the movie industry as a credible means of artistic expression, then I see no valid reasoning not to accept the gaming industry as well. Otherwise, isn't that a double standard?
Some day, there will be no generation alive which did not grow up in a time of video gaming. I look forward to this day, simply due to the fact that it will be a day when games will be seen no differently than movies are seen now. Everybody's bound to have done it and liked some of it.
Until that day, let's spread the faith my brethren, and go forth into the breach of the unbelievers! Uh, sorry, maybe that was too evangelical.
