Call it what you will--anti-game, anti-gamer, anti-gamegen, or anti-geek. The Jack Thompsons of the world are many, and they wear many hats and disguises. They can be mild mannered business people, or rabid politicians. They can be well-meaning fathers and mothers, grandparents, or even friends. They can be coworkers who think they know everything, and, predictably, they can even be significant others. However, and this one always baffles me, anti-gamers can even be be open-minded people, like actors, directors, and writers--that's right! People who are in the dream (or bullshit shoveling) business.Anti-game sentiments are held by people of every walk of life, rich, and poor. It's not just the Jack Thompsons of our world who believe that video games are bad for us, or that gamers are simply immature, often violent, socially inept misfits who need a good dose of reality. Sometimes gamers are even looked upon as less than able individuals who, because we don't know how to cope or deal with real life, we hide in the realm of fantasy, science fiction, and comic books. Why is that? Sadly, sometimes those things are true.
Now, I hate to admit some of those things are true about myself (because I'm super cool), but, quite frankly, growing up as sort of a geeky misfit has served me well. Being a computer geek, and digital artist and animator, has put a pretty nice roof over my head. I mean, I'm not rich, but life is pretty frickin' awesome! And, ejoying video games, or learning to enjoy them as entertainment, has given me an in-road, and access to a generation which is not my own (I'm 47-years-old).
In some of my other blog entries, I state that it was really my desire to relate to my son which brought me into the virtual world of video gamers, but I was pretty much a geek before that, so, perhaps I was just looking for an excuse. Whatever the case, I became a gamer--to be correct, I'd have to describe myself as more of a PC gamer than a console gamer, but that's another story.
Anyway, games have even helped me in ways that I didn't think possible, and even encouraged me, in my later years going back to college, to earn a degree in English Creative Writing, so that I could write about the things I love, games. Sure, I plan to write about other things, but games, or GameGen fiction, a term coined by me, is definitely something I take very seriously. I believe it will catch on.
So, why am I writing about the topic of anti-GameGen, or anti-game generation ideas? Easy. Because it is everywhere I look. Anti-GameGen is even where you don't think you will find it, in game companies, game magazines, game stores, movies, and yes, sometimes even in my own writings. Why? Because: 1) geeks have always been fair "game" (ha) to make fun of, and, 2) because there is still a lot of blame society feels it needs to heap on someTHING, rather than someONE when things happen they don't like, can't explain, or are afraid of.
Rather than blame parents and teachers for bringing us the Columbine School Massacre on April 20th, 1999, many people found it easier to blame a violent video game, as they did with Doom. Sure, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were to blame ultimately, but poor parenting and a school which allowed its beautiful people to ride roughshod over the rest was at least partially to blame.
Actually, it all really goes a bit deeper than that, and sometimes gamers, game developers, and even Hollywood promoters, can have a strong influence on society. Are they responsible for some of the bad things which happen in the world? Perhaps we all are. If you know a little girl is being raped next door and you do nothing, are you not as much to blame as the man who raped her? Hmmm?
Okay, let's change the subject.
Well, in my quest to become a better writer, I have been devouring a few books by a semi-famous screenwriter, a man named Blake Snyder. His two books, Save the Cat, and Save the Cat, Goes to the Movies, are a must read for anyone who not only wants to write screenplays, but anyone who wants to write fiction, period! (Especially if you are a writer in the gaming industry, hint hint)
The lessons Mr. Snyder teaches in these two books are, for the most part, some of the most important lessons about writing good stories that I've ever read. I think he may end up becoming one of the men who change the world, at least for screenwriters and film promoters, because, I'm really tired of sucky movies (especially, sucky gaming or GameGen movies). Okay, there's my plug for Mr. Snyder's books. Now it's time to say something critical.
It's not much, but it really needs to be said, because, I think it conveys why I'm writing this. Hell, it may even be why I'm writing GameGen, or am trying to write GameGen fiction, short stories, novels, and screenplays.
I do believe that GameGen is the future, or at least will have a pretty big influence on the future. Why? Because the snot-nosed gamers of today will be the congressmen and presidents of tomorrow (actually, that kind of scares me, but it's true), 99% of all the key individuals of tomorrow will have at least played a video game. To tell you the truth, that's probably already a reality, they just don't admit it.
So, what terrible sin has Mr. Snyder committed? Actually, he commits no sin at all. "But Wade," you say, "you hinted that Blake Snyder is anti-GameGen." Yes, I did. The only problem is that his words are spot-on. He not only references in his first book that comic book stories are usually terrible, but he also talks about a movie he is (or was) working on called Third Grade, a movie about an immature "violent" video game developer/businessman/promoter who has to go back to third grade to learn manners because he sped by his old elementary school.
Actually, the movie sounds funny, but, I have to say, it doesn't leave a positive-GameGen taste in my mouth. In fact, most of his comments about Superhero movies, geeks, and comic books in the film industry, leaves me feeling like all of Hollywood likes our money, but they don't respect us very much. Probably true, but so what?
Now, I may be hyper-sensitive to some of the stupidity out there, the Jack Tompsons and such, but if I'm not mistaken, Hollywood, both in film and television, is probably the biggest promoter of violence the world has ever seen. So, why is the video game player and developer only seen as immature and mannerless? Why, Blake, why?
Okay. Perhaps gamers all a bunch of cavemen who need to go back to the third grade, but I'm tempted to write him and at least give him a few loglines of some positive GameGen scripts I'm working on, and maybe even share some of my GameGen vision. Why? Because, if Hollywood wants to get gamers to buy tickets to the movies, telling us that we're imbeciles is NOT the way to do it! Sheesh!
After all, I have said repeatedly, the primary reason that gamers feel most game movies suck is because the director usually has a strong anti-game sentiment, doesn't understand why games are fun, or at least has a preconceived idea what he thinks we like, and therefore misses why their potential audience doesn't show up (not to mention how all the critics will treat them).
Of course, as a rule, game stories, like so many comic books, are really pretty lame as far as a good story goes, and that is also why I believe that gamers and game developers need to take a few lessons from men like Blake Synder and Joseph Campbell. While game developers are extremely intelligent people, most of them didn't major in English Literature.
Okay, okay! I'm still unproven talent at the moment. All I have to show for all my pluck, is a few measly short stories, and a lot of talk. Of course, I do have quite a bit which is waiting for completion, and quite a bit more which is headed for the garbage bins in Hollywood, and perhaps a few back alleys of major book publishers, but I'm not going to give up! Hey, writers aren't supposed to be appreciated, they're supposed to write in abject misery and obscurity...and so far so good...ha ha!
Anyway, I did want to post this before I forget the thought. I think it's important.
Well, it's 3:35 a.m. and I really need to get a few more winks before I have to go to work at my real job. Writing, as it is, is still just a hobby which keeps me up late or wakes me up early, at least until I sell my house, buy an Airstream trailer and move to California.
Nighty, night...
zzzzzzz.....
-Wade
