A Game of Games

Back when I was doing some teaching on computers, if I asked the 'students' (they never really studied as such, but we had to call them that) what they wanted to be when they finished college, almost all of them said they wanted to be games designers.

They also thought they would immediately be paid £30,000 as year minimum in such a job and didn't have to turn up at work every day. Perhaps they were right: maybe office work had changed since I had done it.

I was somewhat neutral about their aims as I didn't really play many games, despite the fact that I had some spare time in my part-time teaching work. Frankly I regarded games as largely 'electronic mazes' where going left, left, right, left, jump, pick up the magic sword/gun/crystal jump again and go right one more time would give you untold pixel wealth. But, each to their own: they might not be for me but there was clearly a market for this even if most games fall into a few limited categories.

But I also have to admit that since those conversations five years ago computer/console/mobile gaming has grown even larger than it loomed then. Given that these students were one cold, wet evening queueing up at the door 15 minutes before going home time eager to get out and spend their EMA (the then Educational Maintenance Allowance, intended to help them pay for transport to college, buy academic materials, etc) on the latest incarnation of Call of Duty then it was clear this was important to them.

So for all I know these intrepid games-players are now even more intrepid games-designers, responsible for animating some pink gorilla in a tree opening fire on some alien-spaceship to stop them stealing the life crystals we all need to survive. Who knows? I must however wish them luck if only because since they graduated to seek this well-paid employment many colleges around the country will be pumping out yet more kids eager to take the same programming job for perhaps a little less than 30 grand a year.

Now, I have to admit that while I do certain things in my retirement I do have some spare time and have started to look at games more closely. Back when my sons were little the games on things like the Spectrum were nothing more than lumps of pixels going left, right, right, etc. Then came the Atari and so on, and the standards of graphics improved though to me they lacked the cut and thrust of a true game like chess. Or even Monopoly, for that matter. But the standards were on the up, and lately I have looked at a couple of games that have stunning, almost real world graphics and reasonably engaging play.

But of the games I have dabbled with of late, time permitting, the elements that can destroy and be destroyed might inwardly involve human beings but you never see them. These computer tanks, warships and spaceships all have people on board (or they could be remotely controlled for all I know) but no matter what the destruction I never hear the screams of the wounded and the crying of those close to death. In effect, inanimate objects are reduced to twisted metal but no humans actually die, and nor do you get to see any semblance of a human in most of them. Certainly you do not see them writhe in agony the way war sometimes tends to make them.

My philosophy, and I had never thought of a 'philosophy of games' until recently, is more that objects can be ruined, but not people. I have therefore no interest in a shoot-em-up where your are led to believe you are targeting and killing humans, no matter how many pixels they are made from.

But this leads me to another point. I saw this game ad on twitter today and it disturbed me.

Being disturbed is probably nothing new in life, but this one got to me for two reasons.

First, as I am currently reading a book by Barbara Tuchman (The Guns Of August) about the origins of World War One, this ad jarred with me. I find Tuchman's book well written, engaging and an eye-opener how the nations of Europe stumbled into a terrible conflict despite many misgivings and anxieties and doubts. It was as if the 1906 Schlieffen plan for Germany to invade France through Belgium was, once it was made known, became a prophecy that had to be fulfilled. I have also read Max Hastings on WW1 and other history books too of the time. I really feel it isn't a subject that could bear much fantasy, but one assumes that as games are fantasy and why not fantasise about trenches, mud and barbed wire? I wonder if the poppies put in an appearance?

Second, what got me most about this was the character with the Mauser pistol. The image of a cool black man in British khaki (as opposed to field grey, which the Germans who had Mauser pistols wore) with fashionably upturned collar and without a helmet somewhat made me think that this was more the image of a street thug. I doubt if the image is the typical British army officer at say, the Marne.

This is not to say that black people weren't in the war. The French had troops from North Africa, we Brits had Indian troops. There may even have been soldiers from the Caribbean fighting for the British Expeditionary Force. But it wasn't what this picture shows.

This for me is the worst side of the modern games business. War here is seen as movie-styled urban street-fighting (though undoubtedly it was at times) and reduced to acts of individualism and gung-ho 'you-never-have-to-reload' adventurism. Games, I accept, have become like the movies are: an extension of today's cultural preferences and practices forced on to a sketchy view of reality. So why not have a black man in casual attire, armed as street thug might be (or for those who are driven by BLM, as a cop would be) and calmly picking off 'the enemy' with unfailing accuracy? Cool, bro. Know what I'm sayin'?

I shouldn't be surprised. We casually think that putting modern actors and trendy styles in period costume and the actors behaving in currently acceptable, thoroughly modern ways (oh wow, the rich in Downton Abbey caring about their servants so much they gave them time off, supported them emotionally, attended lower-class weddings, wept with them at their funerals and so on) is the stuff of history. Yes, it is drama and it may always have been so from Greek times onwards with actors wearing what they did in everyday life, but war deserves to be treated with a certain respect and accuracy. Not just because we don't want to see it happen again but because of the people who died in those wars, many horribly, many in lonely terror, deserve a proper regard and respect.

Perhaps I shouldn't imagine that computer games, crafted for the unknowing and fawned over by the ignorant, should be any different. But, really... Know what I'm sayin', bro?