So
What I wanted to talk about today
I guess it's
Why I think it's important for us not to just consume video games
But also to actually talk about them
And I think this can be
somewhat equated to
Disputing the idea that very deeply entrenched idea of "Oh, it's just a video game"
And
Maybe the first thing we have to do is take a step back and realize that this argument isn't
exclusive to video games
People make this argument to all kinds of media out there
"Oh, it's just an actual movie" or
"It's just a superhero movie" or a teen movie. "It's just a romance. It's just a boyband."
So where does this argument comes from and
What is it that it actually does what are the consequences of this perspective?
So I think the
Origin of this kind of thinking
is intellectual elitism
It's
Basically a tool for intellectual segregation
It divides media into two categories high art and low art
High art is deep and meaningful
and
it has very important very lasting cultural impacts, it helps shape our
It helps to shape our own perspectives
our collective opinions, our culture
and low art is just for entertainment's sake
I think the further back you go in time the easier it becomes to
Implement this concept and make it widespread because
Because the further back in time you go the more conce--
concentrated knowledge and culture
is in the hands of
a handful of people
So it was
More a matter of "we're thinking about this stuff in you're not"
Then as time moves on the peasants start developing their art
Y'know? It was always there but
It starts taking root
Especially after the printing press
And then suddenly you have the intellectual elite
Finding competition coming from (quote/unquote) "below"
That's why you see for example
"It's just a romance"
Y'know? They're books. It's literature. It's art, but it's just a romance
Why? Because it's mostly for women
and
Over time it's
Written by women. So, "yeah, sure. It's art. You can read it but, y'know
It's not important. It's just a romance."
Then as time moves on we get movies, cinema, right?
And
If your movie isn't Oscar bait
It isn't high art
It's just for entertainment's sake
It has no artistic value
And now we have video games
But "you know, it's just a game"
And the biggest problem here and the biggest hope is at the same time that
this ideology
isn't implemented by
the masses by
the common people it's implemented by
The elites and then it's absorbed by the masses. We start seeing things this way, too
Which isn't that surprising
considering for how long these arguments have been made
The biggest problem because
It isn't
An accurate reflection of reality and it is used for very insidious means
Not like, not...
Not a James Bond villain
Scheme kind of insidious means but you know the more
Guttural, and pervasive, and very realistic
Thing that we see
Spread throughout our culture, our world.
And the biggest hope because we can actually do something about it
Okay, and what are the effects? First you have intellectual segregation
Looking at it through this lense
The cultural narrative
Is solely in the hands of a handful of people
You know
People with money and the means
to produce
"Worthy" pieces of art. They control the narrative, the narrative of our lives
That's
Intellectual segregation, it robs us of that power
And
And we do have that power
We're just not realizing it
All media matters. All art form matters
They all help to shape
Our conscious, they all help to shape our collective
Perspective of the world. they all have a very big lasting impact in our culture
and
By not realizing that we are giving them the power over our media
When you say "oh it's just superhero movie"
Suddenly they can use that kind of movie to push their agendas to push
their mentality
into our lives
It's very-- a slow and methodical process
And I say that it's insidious because
It's hidden. Hidden in plain sight
These movies and these games
many of them may not have a
Blatant
deep message or commentary on
Social, political, economic issues. They don't wear these messages on their sleeves
But they are there
And they drip feed these messages into us
So
No, no video game is just a game they all matter
And we have to realize that, we have to start taking them more seriously
You know?
I mean, yeah, it's entertainment. It's escapism, we do it for fun, but
We have to be aware of the social and cultural impact
That our games have in our culture
We have to take that power back from them
That's one of the reasons why I'm always talking about narrative in games because
even the shallowest of narratives can have
The deepest of meanings, it can have very pervasive
messages embroidered into them
And it doesn't have to be on purpose
So many cars...
And it doesn't have to be on purpose, let me make that very very clear
I'm not trying to place blame on the artists, on the game developers. I'm just trying to
realign our perspectives about the media
And I don't care how non-narratively driven your game might be, it still has a narrative
When you're playing counter-strike
It's not just a bunch of colored pixels against a bunch of differently colored pixels. It's
terrorists versus counter terrorists, it has a narrative driven by
violence and
It may not provide a lot of context, but we derived that context from reality, from our world
When you play a Call of Duty game or a Battlefield game set in World War 2
It doesn't have to explain you who the Nazis are, it doesn't have to explain you who the Allies are
You know it
You know who the Nazis are, right?
So it has a narrative
And collectively
All these games together, all these movies and
individually, they may not have much to say but collectivivi-- collectively they do and we have to be
And have to pay attention to what they're saying
We have to pay attention so that
We don't let them influence us in a way that we wouldn't normally want to
And that so that we can push
for
better games
We can push for more
I don't know
responsible mentality during the creation process of our games
Just better games in general
So, yeah, no video game is just a game
See you around
Can you hear the car noises?
I was supposed to record at night, after work, yesterday, but I was so tired, I had to sleep
Now I'm doing it in the morning. There's a lot of cars. Y'know, traffic, birds, planes...
I don't know if the microphone is picking it up or not. It's it's a test drive
Also
I don't really have a desk from a computer, there's no easy way to set up the microphone with the camera
So I'm just using the
Webcam's microphone for now. Until I can get a better setup, y'know
An actual desk, an actual chair. I don't know
I hope it's okay
I hope it sounds okay for now
Yeah
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