GamesIndustry.biz: Where are we headed? I'm concerned that most of the stories we are telling ourselves, especially within the games industry, are dystopian. Dystopia, no matter how beautifully rendered, is a resignation to a view of humanity or to our fates that is brutal, fearful, uncaring, and incomplete. I don't accept this view. I am optimistic about the future.
2 comments:
It is a nice idea, yet just as unrealistic and childish as something like Assassin's Creed is. Sure Utopia's seem like a great way to live and are fun to think about, but of course they do not work. And everyone knows that. Even though it may seem pessimistic to have so many dystopian video games on the market, but it is not because people are looking to live that kind of life, it is because games like that are exponentially more entertaining and exciting to play. I do not see the idea of a self care video game being popular in any market of video gamers. Ever heard of Wii Fit? Seemed great, did not work. No one wants to be mindful and introspective when they are playing Xbox. That is not really the point.
This article was more of an autobiographical piece than an exploration of the collective American psyche that keeps drawing us forward into a dystopian future. The author seems to be under the impression that we all had similar "idyllic" childhoods in small towns with small, narrow-minded values and that's why we are so focused on dystopias. That the reason America as a whole is drawn to the idea is because of local, insular thinking and all we need to do is break out of that thinking by leaving wherever we are and exploring ourselves to new ideas and this will naturally cure us. It fails to notice anything beyond the author's narrow scope. America's obsession with dystopias is (at least in my opinion) well earned. We are a country who, since its inception, has not got ten years without being part of a major war. It's citizens have watched time and again as their hopes have been crushed or denied by a government that doesn't care about them. We have begged time and time again for change, for problems like global warming, nuclear war, and systematic oppression to be addressed and these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. So why are we so obsessed with dystopias? Because we have come to a place where it is difficult to see any other end when our hard work and heart-felt please fall on indifferent, almost cruel, ears.
I understand the need to change the narrative of our future. I understand the need to find a way to believe that tomorrow can actually be a better place and to develop media around that idea that supports it, but this article did not really address this problem at all.
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