This is the third of my We Should Expect Better series.
Now I want to get this out of the way immediately. There is nothing wrong with either music OR sports games. They are designed to do exactly what they do, and I perfectly respect their relatively stable design. There is also nothing wrong with playing them and liking them. The skill of rhythm and understanding the rules of football is quite impressive. There is nothing wrong with them. I even argue that some of them are quite good (rock band, etc).
What I argue is the reason for their existence. As good as these games are, I just cannot support them. Their very is existence are acts in futility and pointlessness. The problem is that while these games may give people an experience they would never have (doing a song in front of a roaring crowd can feel quite good). In fact, as good as these games are, I believe them to be the lowest forms of entertainment and dangerous too.
They aren’t real. In truth, they are sub real. They’re vicarious alternatives to something you can really do if you put the effort into it. They don’t teach you anything about real music and reward as if you did for just being able to keep in rhythm and have fast reflexes. The games show no effort in trying to teach any real fundamentals about playing a guitar, singing, drums, football, basketball. They just turn easy to learn, hard to master real world activities and substitute them for easier digital packages. This is like going to the store and buying frozen desert instead of real ice cream. It’s the nutritional equivalent to the nutritional equivalent of a real active or creative experience.
In fact, games such as Rock Band and Madden are beginning to subvert real sports and music. People don’t go out and play football or street hockey on weekends anymore if they can just do Dallas versus Cleveland in the latest Madden games. Garage Band’s have dwindled to nothingness since Guitar Hero allowed people to master Freebird with five buttons and a dongle. It’s a crime for the simple reason that its nature removes the volition to try to succeed for real, turning everyone from potential artists and athletes into armchair wannabes.
Best example I can think of comes straight from Destructoid itself. If you ever listen to podtoid, you hear Samit drone on forever about sports games to the point in which you actually want reach into the mike and strangle his gab hole shut. He knows every single aspect and nuance of these games, the rules, the teams, the plays and the strategies. And yet, for all his constant droning, I have never heard a single mention of him getting off his ass and actually going out and playing football or street hockey with some friends. What’s the point when he could he could be a virtual superstar on his PS3.
And the strange thing is, it tends to really delude people into thinking that they can really be a successful musician or play a sport well if they just tried. Yet the ease of the game and it’s instant gratification never instills a single ounce of real motivation to actually try for excellence. These games and the rise of rags to riches media (high school musical, Fame, American Idol, etc) give rise to the strange anti Barbie of the new millennium. These games and movies strut around giving vapid praise for minimal talent and effort, raising people’s self esteem when it’s not real and not deserved.
And you know what the really sad, ironic thing is. It’s now actually cheaper to buy a real guitar (admittedly a starter instrument) or football as opposed to rock band or Madden. The fact that music and rhythm games are continuously growing and edging out real music when it’s actually cheaper to learn how to play an actual instrument makes me cry and want to tear out my hair.
Oh! And it makes me lose faith in humanity too.
If you’re interested in previous iterations of we should expect better, check out my blog for more.
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Sorry, but this point has been argued before by musicians and sports people alike. However, the games were never supposed to substitutes for anything. They were just meant to be good fun. I don't understand the hatred of sports games (among general gamers) because some of them tend to actually be quite fun. Sure, for some people, it would be better to go outside and play a game or join a rock band, but remember that the majority of gamers are nerds, and a lot of nerds are stat trackers and button-pushers. Not a whole lot of people have the talent to play a guitar or make the touchdown, and when we are so often put down by the people who either have been playing forever or have that talent, these kinds of games are what we can turn to.
The second reason is that most of these games are supposed to appeal to casual gamers. Casual gamers don't like big twisted plots with androgynous 16 year old boys and complex special moves. They like things they can already relate to, and are easy, like in Rock Band, or something that isn't so easy, but is so common it is second nature, in the case of Madden.
Also, my personal belief is that if a game is fun, just let it be. I don't think that there needs to be such a huge fuss over games if we are still having fun.
See I used to play a lot of street hockey back when I was a kid. I was out there playing just about every day, having fun with a large group of friends. Eventually we grew up and those kids became teenagers and young adults. While nothing changed with how we were playing, people's perception of what we were doing did. People became intimated by us for no reason at all. Every time we went out to play at a local grocery store's empty parking lot, the only place that we could all play together on blades, we constantly had the cops kicking us off and threatening us with fines. Fighting, drug use, property damage, lewd behaviour, trespassing and many other accusations were being reported. We were doing absolutely none of that (except the "trespassing" I guess), the cops knew it, but the vendetta that some of the local residents and the store owner had against us conglomerating forced us out. The owner of the grocery store even got gravel sprinkled over the section of parking lot we played on and kept the garden centre up from the end of March until after the summer was over. They did everything they could possibly do to keep us from playing street hockey. Since there was nowhere else close by that we could all play together, eventually most of us stopped playing. A few years ago, a tradition was killed. I still have a bad taste in my mouth just thinking about it.
Also, as you grow older you realize that the risks involved with playing sports becomes much greater. You can't really risk getting injured when your job and your family's well-being depends on you being able to operate pain-free. Even this summer for me, I stopped running during the week just so that I wouldn't be sore and tired for work. It is something that I have never done before in my life, holding myself back like that. That is what is great about video games. I can still play the sports I love and get the rush you get from playing competitively, all without the risk of tweaking an ankle or knee.
Also, also, I can play road hockey all I want but the only way I'll ever "see" the Toronto Maple Leafs lift the Stanley Cup is in EA's NHL series. It's a sad reality I'm faced with.
Eh "intimated" is supposed to be "intimidated", otherwise that sentence means the opposite of what I meant >_> haha.
Time it takes to learn to play My name is Jonas on Guitar with any proficiency, 3 months of 15 minutesa to an hour a day. Time it takes to learn how to play My name is Jonas in Rock Band, 3 minutes, 25 seconds.
People impressed when you can play a Weezer song on Guitar, ~8, if you're lucky. People impressed when you can play a Weezer song on Rock band, 0.
So let me get this straight, even though a Weezer Song is accomplishable on Rock Band in minutes but takes months in real life learning it on real guitar, nobody is impressed? What COULD the motivation factor be? Can't be simple fun. That's too easy an answer.
So one has to wonder, if Guitar Hero didn't exist, how many people would be playing guitar right now instead of a game? Actually, according to every guitar manufacturer and retailer out there, less. Wha Wha What?!? You mean your theory that Guitar Hero making the instant gratification being the leading cause to the decline of garage bands (as opposed to the mass migration to MySpace) can't ACTUALLY be backed up by any actual sales numbers? Worse yet, the numbers that DO exist seem to support a renewed interest in a waning music industry, learning a musical instrument, and a rise in the sales of musical equipment so much so to the point that major guitar chains now cater guitar lessons around these games? Ah well fuck, doesn't matter.
You have your theories and damned if any actual evidence will dissuade you from them. No offense but the blogpost makes you sound a bit like a luddite.
PS: Samit doesn't play the sports because he's a student. When you are a student struggling to keep up with assignments, it's not exactly easy to call up 13 other firends and get together a game of football as directly opposed to turning on the PS3 and playing Madden.
Can't agree with this one either, I'm afraid.
Music games aside from creating interest in music performance, are actually pretty fun as their own thing. I think taking these games to task for not being the real thing is silly, to be blunt.
Further, I would propose that enjoyment of a sport on a factual/tactical level can and often is a separate experience from enjoying the act of playing the sport. As big Madden fan for several years, I actually enhanced my enjoyment of watching and following the real thing, because of all the knowledge gained and fun had from my gameplay. More so, I think, than I would if I'd spent as much time on the field in a player capacity.
Granted, I'm a fatass. But alot of things added to that, not just the very specific instance of enjoying sports games.
Something about your approach on these blogs really bothers me.
I certainly agree that improvement is a good thing. But I think your tact toward an industry built on the creative effort of teams of experienced people runs an especially derogatory line to the effort of teams. There's a tone of singular accusation that, were you faced with a team that's done work that you don't appreciate, the advise for improvement just wouldn't make sense.
Ah well. Blog on!
"They aren’t real. In truth, they are sub real. They’re vicarious alternatives to something you can really do if you put the effort into it"
As *all* video games are.
Look, tubatic, there's absolutely nothing wrong with disliking what I write or how I feel about something. Your opinions are your own. My opinions are mine. People have the full right to argue and call me out. I'll defend myself, but you have the right to disagree with me on every level.
My argument for these games deals mostly with children and teenagers. And I should Have stated that beforehand I do apologize for not making that clearer. The real point of this is thata I've seen too many people with actual talent wasted on these games. There's nothing wrong with the fun that is presented in them. It's the overwhelmingly negative effect it has later that I have a problem with. I also don't feel that praise given for being good at these games is good either as it tends to artificially boost self esteem.
As for Samit. I never said actually doing it, because there are times when you just can't do what you want to do and I understand that, What I argue Is that I never heard a single mention of wanting to going out and doing it. You know someone that obsessed with sports I would have thought to actually.
I'm nearly twenty years old and I've lived a life full of bullshit. I've dealt with morons and pretentious douchebages who think they are smarter than they are. Throughout my life I've found that maybe only thirty percent of all people are worth anything,and they are often drowned out by the drecks of the mediocre who think they're excellent. I've seen people who put out 'great work' when it's even less than half assed.
As a result, I have no love or inclination towards humanity, as they've always let me down. And as a result of this, I don't give quarter just because someone works long hours and under great stress. Just do it right. Oh and doing it right, doesn't mean doing it well or perfectly, no game I have ever does anything perfectly. Doing something right means two things; Even if something is flawed, it shows that you have an understanding of what you're doing, and true unabashad effort to make your product the best that it can be. And I don't see that in most games.
So you're a glass half empty, I take it? :)
Very aware that its ok to dislike your stuff. Thanks though!
At any rate, I guess its your lack of "love or inclination towards humanity" that comes through in your writing.
@ the glass half empty statement. Strangely yes and no. It'm both intolerant of stupid ideas and Game design, but I feel that there are games That are excellent, despite having these problems which really annoy me
Well hell, no wonder you're imbittered. You're still just a pup. You're expecting a teenager to suddenly have ambition when the biggest challenge as a teenager is to not off yourself or others as pent up sexual and social frustration. Most find something to focus on to get their mind completely out of madness. For some, it's video games. For others, it's music. But right now? This wasted talent? That's normal. Much more normal than one would expect. And as I said, the evidence points towards the facts being 100% contrary to your experience. As a great man once said, "You are not the world and as such, cannot use yourself as the metric."
But here's the deal. I know it sounds condescending and mean but you just need to grow up a bit. Right now your peers are in the Pussy and Beer stage. Towards Senior college level, most start to grow up and go back to focus on those talents they all wasted.
Also, Talents is a bullshit notion. Everything someone excels at is 100% through repetition. Some understand it better than others, certainly. But anything you can do, I can do equal. I just got to put in the effort. Likewise, anything I can do you have an opportunity to accomplish. It's all about work.
My dad was an excellent musician and a far better Bass player than I could ever be. He was doing college level music theory when he was 13 years old, met and played with many other musicians growing up in California during the 60's-70's, but he never really did anything with his skill. He didn't like to perform in front of other people or have others, except for family and close friends, actually listen to him play. So you have to take into account that while some people may have great skill in a field such as music or sports, perhaps there is something greater at play like fear of ridicule or critique that keep people from pursuing their interest beyond personal enjoyment. If he were alive and without the arthritis that plagued his wrists later in life I'm sure he would have loved to play Guitar Hero too.