I hadn't originally intended to include that much about rhetoric in my initial planning of the thesis, but I felt it necessary to explain why video games are approached the way they are in the US, and to demonstrate that this is not a universal approach to the medium. I feel like it's very important to establish that ideologies can shift radically-- video games were just a way to pass time in South Korea, but StarCraft struck a chord in the entire population, not just the youths looking for something to do. Now, professional players are hailed as heroes: One of these players successfully pulling off a "Zergling rush" tactic in the game is viewed in South Korean culture with as much excitement as a monster dunk by Lebron James is in America.
Now the key connection is that with enough enthusiasm and support, American ideology can shift just as easily. With help from academics like James Paul Gee, Roger Travis, and the creators of the WoWinSchool project, and pioneering producers like David Cage from Quantic Dream, video games will one day be able to transcend the role they have been pigeonholed into in our society. Through the powerful medium of the Internet, the ideas of all of these revolutionary minds can be passed along. It will take some more convincing, as we need more games at the same level of quality of WoW or Heavy Rain in terms of storytelling ability.
One possible exception that naysayers may take, however, is that the medium is primarily for entertainment purposes-- for play if you will. The hottest games on gaming consoles are all first person shooter titles (Modern Warfare 3 has consumed my life the past few weeks!), what literary experience could possibly come when the majority of titles are not made to be interpreted or analyzed? The same can be said for the puzzle/casual games like Angry Birds, simple to play and easier to enjoy as it does not require interpretation. Sure, the examples I've presented so far in the project have literary elements included, but it is true that most games do not. However, the same can be said for the state of any medium-- Television? With the exception of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, and The Sopranos, what dramas have come out in the past 10 years that were really deserving of our attention? How about film? Out of the hundreds of movies that come out every year, how many of those are merely popcorn flicks? Pretty much every action, horror, and animated flick is disgregarded come critical acclaim/analysis, but that doesn't mean that true gems come out every now and again. And then there is print literature, which is probably the biggest sinner of all in terms of quality control. Toni Morrison's Beloved, published in 1987, is considered by many critics to be the last great novel to have been written. It is taught in colleges and high schools across the nation, a feat that no other book has yet to match since then (by that I mean becoming a universal critical success, which is also being taught to students). Half the novels I read in 2011 had the same standard plot-- past secrets come up which throw the narrator's entire family into danger. The medium isn't dying at all, don't get me wrong, but there are many redundancies.
Video games still have a long way to go in America in order to be accepted, but the fact that I can even make such an argument online and in my final project, and can talk about the thesis and see the light bulb go off in someone's head who previously never considered the video game medium as anything other than mindless entertainment, is very encouraging. The discussion must be ongoing, and the defense must be bolstered. That defense though, is for another section of this project. :)
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