Just watched Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe – a sideways history of video games. It’s hilarious, if rather pointless, but does brilliantly bemoan the lack of high-quality narrative in most games.
It reminded my of a fantastic piece on video games in the ever-fabulous Believer Magazine. In it, video game journalist Heather Chaplin notes:
‘Video games are good at fostering problem solving, but they’re not so good at fostering human empathy or a deeper understanding of the human condition.’
She continues:
‘Novels are about psychological empathy; games simply are not. And if games are telepathing something about the future, maybe that tells us something about the future, maybe that tells us that psychological empathy, concern with the human condition is not going to be that important in the twenty-first century.’
This is clearly problematic.
Comments
One response to “Video Gaming, Novels and the lack of Psychological Empathy”
There are some attempts at changing this trend of shallow gaming. I would point to games such as “Ico,” “Shadow of the Colossus,” or the upcoming “Heavy Rain.” There are some in the industry who are serious about engaging their audiences on a deeper, more human level.
Don’t give up on the gamer generation yet. Being human is a tricky business, particularly in this technological age.