ECA Launches GameCulture.com, Intriguingly
December 5, 2007 4:00 PM | Simon Carless
Now here's something interesting from the ECA - which is Hal Halpin's non-profit aimed at banding gamers together to defend games as an art form, and also runs GamePolitics.com. I still don't quite get where they're going - but I like their chutzpah, abstractly:
"The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), the non-profit association which represents game enthusiasts, announced a new web-based publication launching in beta form today, GameCulture. The site will be a destination for gamers, mass media outlets and entertainment consumers of all sorts to visit and experience a unique editorial voice that will provide a sense of how videogames, game technology, and game culture are changing the world around us. GameCulture was designed and will be managed by veteran journalist Aaron Ruby, co-author of “Smartbomb,” a 2005 New York Times Editor’s Pick about game culture...
In describing the strategic positioning of the product, [ECA President Hal] Halpin explained that he sees GameCulture’s popular sister site, GamePolitics, as serving “the very pinnacle of the consumer pyramid – the gamers who are most passionate about their rights, are early adopters and even hard-core gamers, people who are highly educated about our collective challenges. In contrast to that, GameCulture will focus more on the influence and future of games, and is thus set to serve the broader base of the pyramid, targeting not just the hard-core but also those that occasionally or even regularly play games, but might not identify themselves as gamers per se. They likely don’t visit endemic websites, nor do they subscribe to enthusiast media."
"They aren’t aware of the issues that we, as consumers, must face and rally around. Nevertheless they represent an increasingly important segment of the market, and I think it’s crucial that there is an outlet that includes them and can also serve as a resource for the mass media, helping mainstream journalists understand how game culture has permeated society in some meaningful and tangible ways.”
The site is currently live and features daily headlines, webcomics and video from leading outlets, as well as original content. Additionally the publication will provide resources for those interested in game-related issues, including links to the ECA’s own site, career opportunities via GameJobs, and exclusive discounts on game-related merchandise and magazine subscriptions. GameCulture’s mission is to display and highlight the many ways in which gaming influences broader society and provides a glimpse into the future. The full site launch is planned for early 2008."
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5 Comments
"Game culture" by its definition, makes impossible what it wants to seek. Have you ever heard of "book culture"? "Film culture"?
By putting it all into a big, one-size-fits-all box, you limit it. You make it all a variant of adolescent pong. You don't take it for real.
Grassroots Gamemaster | December 6, 2007 7:26 AM
Makes perfect sense to me -- if you accept that there are such things as HipHop culture, Indie Rock culture, etc. The only difference is that those subcultures are one level down the hierarchy of generalization from "Music Culture".
However, the music industry has a range of products that are _much_ more heterogenous than the video game industry -- mostly because of the wide range of successful independent music and smaller "niche" publishers. How crap would music be if it was limited to the output of Warner/EMI/Sony/Universal?
If there were the gaming equivalent of Def Jux, Arts&Crafts, etc. then perhaps gaming culture would be less generic. Or, perhaps I've got it backwards and the existence of subculture-specific labels is a product of the audience's differentiation rather than a cause. Or both things arise simultaneously.
Frankly it's a bit annoying that we don't have decent indie labels yet. With the amount of money involved in the industry you'd think it would be obvious to try..
raigan | December 6, 2007 8:50 AM
Sure, there is hip-hop culture. Or rock culture. But you don't see "music culture".
The music equivalent to "game culture" is "music culture" (NOT hip-hop culture).
My point is, "game culture" is too broad. You can't put the entirety of games into one box. If you do, you are homogenizing games - putting them into a cage.
"Game culture" is probably incredibly broad. At the one end is "Pong", but if you really do it justice it goes all the way over to ares like military, medicine, humanities, and so on.
Grassroots Gamemaster | December 6, 2007 4:44 PM
Did you even read my post?
Games ARE much more homogeneous than music or movies: if music was limited to the output of Warner/EMI/Sony/Universal there WOULD be "Music Culture", or if you prefer: all genres/subcultures would collapse to a single one: Top 40.
This is analogous to the current condition in the world of video games; the end result is very little diversity.
There is no "Music Culture" because there is enough musical diversity and difference between various music to give rise to (or maybe even require) subcultures. That is _NOT_ the case with games. Look on the shelf of EBGames and tell me how much diversity you find compared to what's available in to a good record store. Even a crap record store like HMV has orders of magnitude more diversity (in terms of both number of individual titles, as well as number of genres or "types" of title).
Music was able to spawn multiple subcultures because it contained a diverse range of content which appealed to a diverse range of people who shared specific tastes. Games are designed to appeal to "everyone", which by definition means they must all fit into the same category/genre. Hence we're up one level of cultural specialization compared to music.
Perhaps some games are skewed more towards a young or a mature audience, but mostly they are generic enough in terms of aesthetic to be accessible to anyone. Imagine what music would be like if it had to appeal to everyone! It's actually pretty easy -- just turn on the radio.
raigan | December 7, 2007 3:04 PM
Games are more homogenous? That reveals more about you than games. If they are homogenous it's because game developers have made them homogenous.
Have you ever ventured beyond the comfortable boundaries of console games? Ever played a complex wargame which can stimulate discussion of geopolitics? Ever play a roleplaying game where the objective wasn't to vacuum up tons of junk ("treasure") but instead to actually get involved in a sophisticated and subtle plot?
If you think all games are the same then you are narrow minded. (But I wouldn't be surprised - the whole f*cking game industry is myopic like that.)
Grassroots Gamemaster | December 9, 2007 12:21 PM