There is an extremely divisive debate going on at the moment between gamers (and even non-gamers). Are games an art form? In many ways the answer to this question is yes, they are. If movies, music and literature are considered art, then surely games, which combine all 3 beautifully, must be aswell? They have their own art style, telling interesting stories and show interesting characters as well as having mind-blowing visuals, sounds and soundtracks. However, art is all about exploring who we, as a species, see our lives, our society, our dreams and our beliefs. Do games do this? It’s a mixture of yes and no. Games tackle issues such as society, dreams, beliefs and life in general.
The problem is, however, that it doesn’t explore adult themes. Love and life are explored well enough but gaming seems to shy away from talking about adult topics. It almost approaches all of these issues in the same way an intelligent child or teenager would. Topics like love, family, race and sexuality are dealt with as correctly as possible. It’s almost like games show us the ideals of our own society instead of actually exploring these, as well as treating sex like it’s only meant for loving, monogamous situations.
It’s the reason I love Spec Ops:The Line. Instead of following the usual gaming narrative of having a stoic protagonist who is unaffected by all the killing and choices they have made, The Line shows us the effect war, murder and seemingly impossible choices have on the human psyche. No matter how noble the cause, no matter how much we want to find our comrades, eventually the horrors of war and our choices come back to haunt us. The Line explores this extremely delicate and controversial issue in an extremely mature, pragmatic way.
It’s what games need to explore more. They need to show the effect of war more. This War of Mine is a beautiful example of people trying to survive in a war-torn area. We speak of the need for better female characters in games, imagine having a mother trying to get her family through a worn-torn country, battling to survive, avoiding unsavoury militia, bandits, rapists and slavers. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Doesn’t that sound like an adult look at what war is for the regular people on the ground? It’s what gaming needs to take itself to that next level, to show it is more than just light entertainment, to truly show that it is an art form and to put this conversation to bed once and for all.
It’s not the only adult theme that gaming has to tackle. I’ve already mentioned sex in video games. While Saints Row IV may have parodied the Mass Effect style of sex, in a more casual setting, it at least approached it as something that does not require love, long courting and always saying the right thing. Which is something gaming seems to do. Sex does not always equal love and courting. With how liberated our society is today, especially when it comes to sex, sexuality and kink, games should be able to portray that properly. We have ratings for a reason and a mature game should explore mature ideas, such as sex, in whatever way it sees fit. It’s what separates art from entertainment, the ability to explore things like sex in whatever way the developer imagines.
That being said, there are multiple examples of sex done wrong in video games. Be it Ride To Hell:Retribution’s terrible portrayal of women, who have just been saved from rape and/or abuse, rewarding the main character with fully clothed sex (seriously?) to just absolutely awful animation and sex for the need of sex (Heavy Rain, Farenheit). Again, let me be clear about this. Sex is a great tool for having a character relieve stress, tension, anxiety etc. But if it is just thrown in for the sake of being thrown in then it adds nothing to the game, instead making it seem like the developers can’t grasp how real-life interaction and sex works and makes the game seem juvenile and silly. It needs to have proper context and reason, not just be in there to boost sales with a throw away scene that does nothing for character development, progression, understanding or plot development. Simple as.
Games tend to show how good and great humanity can be when faced with impossible odds, deadly adversaries or even minor problems. Which is great. Some games even let you determine whether your character is morally good or bad. That’s also great. But what it shows on the good side it fails to show the depths of which humanity can go to in crisis. Fallout is a fantastic series as it shows that, at the end of the day, self-preservation is the most important thing for most people and they will do anything to ensure it. Be that enslave, rob or even kill others for what they have, it shows that humanity is only ever a step away from devolving into the monsters that live in all of us. However, other games don’t tend to show this at all. Everyone seems to unite under the good banner to murder all the bad guys, which isn’t really how humans work.
Sure, some do (in Fallout we see groups like the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR trying to bring civilisation back from the horror it finds itself in) and it wouldn’t make sense for there to only be one character against the rest of the world. However, when games ignore the despicable sides of human, when they fail to show us how awful we can really be, that’s a sure sign that gaming has a long way to go to grow up. Gaming has to tackle the monster that we, as humans, battle every day inside of us. Most of us want to be good and fight it, but when games come up with these fantastic worlds and stories that mean everything we think is normal is out the window, why is it that we all still seem to cling to the morality we held in the old world? Some might, but not all will and games need to start addressing this if they really want to be considered mature and an art-form.
Finally, homosexuality, gender and race seem to be ignored by games. That’s both a good and bad. Good because games don’t really care whether you are straight, gay, bi, trans, black, white, Asian etc. However, there is definitely scope for gaming to further delve into this. Homosexuality is definitely something gaming (with a few exceptions) has ignored for years. Games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and a few others have the option for your character to be gay, and Coming Out On Top is a pretty awesome game detailing the journey of a young man who comes out as gay and explores his sexuality while in college. These, along with other stories about homosexuality, race and gender, need to be explored by gaming. We can get some really interesting viewpoints from some really cool discussion going as well as gaming being on the front line in the attempt to remove homophobia, racism and sexism.
Some games out there are great at dealing with adult themes, all the ones I have mentioned above and a number of others. However, if gaming every wants to be take seriously and, as the largest entertainment media industry in the world, it should want to, it needs to delve into these topics better. The one theme gaming does delve into that is relevant is religion. Whether it shows religion as something to be admired (Dragon Age) or the dangers of fundamentalism (Halo), it’s the one example of gaming being able to tackle a theme bigger than the worlds it creates. Ultimately, it’s up to gaming to entertain it’s gamers which it has done well but it should be the goal of every game developer to also make the player think about the commentary the game is giving on a certain theme or themes. When you engage the player that way it makes it a more enjoyable experience and a more successful game.
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