First post: Games in society theory

To start of lazily, here are a couple of letters of mine which were recently published in PC Power Play (an Australian PC games magazine.)

Letter 1:

Sifting through the decaying PCPP magazines I have accumulated over the years has raised an issue that I'm sure many of you are familiar with. Why isn't gaming considered a 'mature' medium like television or literature? Why do people **** and moan about gaming and gamers being puerile and pointlessly immature?"Who gives a damn!" some of you may cry, but things are much more serious than you may initially think.

All games, regardless of genre or quality, are inherently experiences of escapist fantasy. Think about it; can you name a single game that doesn't place you in the role of someone/something you're not, doing something you can't (or wouldn't) do, in a place that you cannot go to or probably won't go to?This prevalent factor in games limits there actual purpose(s) in the world today.

Why do games have to be a medium for entertainment? Some games may present mature concepts under the main focus of the gameplay (KOTOR 2 anyone?), hiding the ulterior motive of the developer; they want you to actually think! Where are the gaming equivalents to documentaries, romantic comedies (the Sims don't count) and whatnot? Why not expand gaming into a subject that is not of equal, but greater relevance than cinema or literature? Why dammit, don't developers and publishers REALLY push the boundaries?

Letter 2:

After failing to convince my mum to at least try and play a game, I realised that one of the main factors putting people off about games is that they are, to most people, simply games. Dwelling on this has made a few of the mysteries of why gaming is despised so much by so many, the main being that the term 'game' is applied a little too loosely to our favourite pastime. To label any certain experience as a 'game' is to imply that it is of little use, consequence or value and merely exists as a form of entertainment (a 'time-waster' if you wish). Though this may perfectly describe some, it is not fair to label all 'games' as such. These negative connotations are only further cemented by the ways in which we interact with other ('mature') mediums. We may 'read' books or 'watch' T.V. or films, but to say that we 'play' games also tends to imply that books/films/T.V. are by their very nature more sophisticated than 'games', which is not true if the endless number of trash novels and reality shows that come out every year are anything to go by.

What I'm trying to say is; while the quality of some games may excel that of many books/films/shows, they are still met with unfair reservations, and as such I think that the term 'game' should not be applied to our favourite pastime. Buggered if I know what to call it, but it might just make some people takes us a little more seriously.