Ian Livingstone’s name is not an unheard one within the games community. He has been directly involved with the industry even before most of us were born. Co-founder of tabletop game manufacturer Games Workshop, co-founder of Eidos Interactive, the positions he has held are overwhelming. Just check out his Wikipedia page and you’ll find out.
If you can refresh your memory, iLLGaming interviewed Ian Livingstone during his trip to India to promote Tomb Raider.
This time around, he did a column on The Telegraph called, “Playing video games won’t turn your kids into zombies – it’s good for their brains” that sheds light into the social stigma us gamers are surrounded by, that builds a pre-specified perception around people about video games and gamers alike.
Today, video games are played by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Global software revenues exceed $50 billion per annum, and are predicted to rise to $90 billion per annum by 2016. Games are a compelling non-linear interactive experience that lets the player control the action rather than passively watching somebody else having all the fun on the screen. Once the misunderstood hobby of teenage boys locked away in their bedrooms, games are now played all around us by people on their smart phones, both men and women, and young and old. Games have become part of mainstream culture and I would argue they are socially, culturally and economically important as music and film. And good for you too.
Spot on! He then goes on to cite the Grand Theft Auto series as an example. The GTA series has been subject to countless controversies regarding the effects it has on teenagers, but Livingstone hits ’em critics up:
When the BAFTA-winning game Grand Theft Auto V launched, it generated $1 billion in revenue in less than a week. Yet rather than celebrating Rockstar North, the game’s Scottish developers, as a great British success story, sections of the media went into overdrive, blaming all of society’s ills on the game. GTA5 happens to be a masterpiece, both technically and creatively. Good news about games is seldom reported and so the perception of the games industry remains poor. The consequence of negative reporting is that parents and teachers are neither aware of the positive attributes of playing games, nor of the career opportunities the industry offers. And the investment community usually overlooks the funding opportunities. Of course an economic argument does not make games a good thing. But there is strong evidence to suggest that games skills equal life skills, and that playing games is actually good for you.
Moving on from the industrial benefits, he then ponders on how playing video games help the brain’s cognitive ability.
Playing games is fun and entertaining, but the gameplay experience also combines a broad mix of problem-solving, decision-making, intuitive learning, trial and error, logistics, analysis, management, communication, risk-taking, planning, resource management and computational thinking. Games stimulate the imagination and encourage creativity, curiosity, social skills, concentration, teamwork, community, multi-tasking and hand-eye co-ordination. Who wouldn’t want their children to learn and practice these skills whilst being entertained at the same time? Why do some people think it is impossible to learn while having fun?
So there you go, the critics need to put their facts together and analyse before coming to conclusions.
