AICN Games: Monki interviews Matt Fox, author of THE VIDEO GAMES GUIDE!!!
Published at: Aug. 29, 2007, 1:17 a.m. CST by quint
Greetings humans, Monki here with an interview I did recently with author Matt Fox. Matt has taken on the challenge of creating the first ever complete guide for video games. His book, The Video Games Guide is a comprehensive look at the past few decades of gaming. Sort of like those big almanacs that Ebert puts out about movies, except much cooler.
I got a chance to talk with Matt about some issues that have been really bugging me in the video game world as of late and I think we put together a pretty great conversation. So, check out the interview and then check out his book.
Matt Fox: Thank you very much for having me. I've been a regular reader of AICN for many years so this is a real honour.
Monki: You took the idea of creating an almanac for almost every video game ever made and turned that into a reality. Personally I think that is a good step in treating video games as a true art form. Recently we've seen art shows and entire concerts based around video games...what do you think will be the next logical step for video games as an art form?
Matt Fox: Sorry to say, but I don't think video games are art; they are something far, far better. They are entertainment created by artists. Everything you see in a video game has to be drawn and designed by someone and these people are often incredibly skilled artists (in the traditional sense of the word). The imagination and creativity that I see in video games never ceases to impress and delight me, and if I might say much of the work produced is far more inspiring and beautiful than some of the tosh that sells for millions in modern art galleries around the world. From the elaborate pin-sharp sprites of Metal Slug (1996), to the mighty puzzle-box fortress in Ico (2001), to the naturalism of the mossy, boulder strewn, hillsides in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) this is work of the highest quality and with the tools and the talent that the industry has it is only going to get better. By the way, I wouldn't categorize movies as art either (if you disagree then you need to watch Cheaper By The Dozen 2).
Monki: Once before I called Grand Theft Auto 3 the "Citizen Kane of video games," basically saying it is the most influential and important game we've had released. To further that analogy, there were important films before Kane hit, and certainly afterwards, but at the time no one really understood the importance of that title. With Grand Theft Auto 3 I feel the exact same way. At the time it was a big deal...but over time it has grown to become a phenomenon. Do you have any thoughts on this, or perhaps an opposing choice for your Citizen Kane of video games?
Matt Fox: One of the things I find interesting about video game history (which stretches back to Spacewar in 1962, the year The Beatles released their first single) is how various games relate to one another in terms of influence. There's lots of cross-referencing in The Video Games Guide because it's often impossible to talk about one game without first name-checking several others. There are multiple evolutionary chains for every genre; in platform gaming for example, Pitfall (1982) leads to Prince Of Persia (1989) which leads to Tomb Raider (1996). I would love to see someone attempt to create a video game "family tree" of all the most significant games. Imagine a giant wall mural, like a modern day Bayeux
Tapestry; how cool would that be!
Of course certain games are more influential and important than others (if you put a gun to my head and made me name just one I'd have to pick Space Invaders [1978], because it was the global ambassador that introduced tens of millions of people to gaming), but in this decade at least Grand Theft Auto has been the Big Daddy Kane (Vice City remains the highest selling PS2 game of all time). However nothing exists in a bubble and some readers might remember a game twenty years earlier called Elite (1984) which let you roam
freely around an open world, deal in drugs, battle the law, and slowly extend your influence. Substitute spaceships for cars.
Monki: We're starting to see more and more "big names" in other industries getting into the gaming world. Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Clive Barker...what do you think is getting these guys to jump on the gaming bandwagon now? Don't people forget the atrocity that was E.T. on the Atari?
Matt Fox: Money is a powerful motivator, then and now. I don't believe Steven Spielberg had any direct links with the infamous E.T. video game except to presumably pocket some of the $20 million that Atari paid for the rights (yes I said $20 MILLION, and that was in 1982!). This year in February alone US consumers spent $978 million on gaming (a record high), so you can see what a draw that might be. Regardless of what Spielberg, Jackson, and Barker achieve within gaming it is unlikely they will match the exploits of one George Lucas. He remains the biggest and best example of a film-maker dabbling with video games, and although his creative influence on LucasArts is arguably fairly negligible the company's achievements speak for themselves. The Secret Of Monkey Island (1990), Day Of The Tentacle (1993), X-Wing (1993), and Grim Fandango (1999) are all amongst the relatively few games to be awarded the full five-star rating in The Video Games Guide, and even though LucasArts recent output hasn't had the critical success it's still certainly had the commercial success.
Monki: What are your thoughts on the immediate link between gaming and violence perpetrated by mostly youth males between 15 and 25?
Matt Fox: Let me put this plainly and simply. Playing a video game in which you shoot someone does not provide any excuse for going out and shooting someone in real life. That is not a defense. It is not the video games fault. It is your fault - you are a nutter.
However, that said, to deny any kind of cause and effect might be wishful thinking (it's documented fact that the incidence of death by russian roulette rose dramatically following the release of The Deer Hunter) so to help prevent 'monkey see, monkey do' we really do have to shield children from the potentially harmful titles (I'm looking at you Manhunt (2003)).
Monki: Can anything be done right now that can prevent the perceived connection between violence and games or do we just have to wait until everyone who is in their 20s turns 50 and understands what the hell is going on?
Matt Fox: This gets right to the heart of why video games generally aren't taken seriously by the older generation. It's a matter of understanding. Other media don't have this problem. A movie is an easy thing to grasp; give or take a few minutes it's two hours in a darkened auditorium. An album is an easy thing to grasp; it's roughly 14 four minute tracks. Video games on the other hand are not an easy thing to grasp - they don't have that kind of uniformity. 3 minutes speeding around a track in Burnout (2001) yields an entirely different experience to 3 hours spent strategising over Command & Conquer (1995). If you're not familiar with a wide variety of games then I imagine that gaming as a whole can seem pretty intimidating - like a secret society that you're not privy to. It follows that when people aren't capable of understanding something they might be tempted to view it negatively ' maybe even view it as a threat (it happened with rock & roll music in the Fifties). You and I know that, on the whole, guys and gals that are into computer games are a mellow and creative breed. By definition of what they're doing we are talking about individuals that value fun, escapism and imagination. Flights of fancy that challenge the mind as well as the reflexes. Speaking for myself I'm a keen mountaineer and I think one of the reasons I'm so into video games is that they appeal to my 'inner explorer', most games involve exploration on some level, stimulating our curiosity and urge to discover. Most games involve violence too, let's not be coy about it, but 9 times out of 10 it's of the goodies versus baddies variety - the stuff of fireside tales and fiction for over 10,000 years.
Monki: Finally, what games are you most looking forward to?
Matt Fox: Age Of Conan on the PC looks awesome (expect to hear 'de lamentation of der women' from a whole new wave of internet-widows), Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles on the Wii looks set to revolutionize the light gun genre (plus, it's by Capcom who are fast becoming my favourite software house of all time), GTA IV would be my pick for the Xbox 360 (just edging out Halo 3), and Little Big World looks delightfully quirky and fun on the PS3. I'd also urge readers not to disregard the past - check out The Video Games Guide, see what games you might have missed. Many of these older titles are still marvelously playable and most of them are easier to get hold of than you might think. Retro gaming's not all chunky graphics and clunky gameplay, there are some real gems out there awaiting discovery.
The Video Games Guide is available now via Amazon and is definitely worth a look. It makes for a great coffee table book when you want to impress your friends with your vast amount of video game knowledge. Check it out.
