Sunday 1 November, 9.45am until 10.30am, Courtyard Gallery Breakfast Banter
Opinion is divided as to the value of video games. For many social critics games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Manhunt’ are a ‘toxic’ influence, corrupting both young and not-so-young by conveying antisocial messages and diverting them from more ‘healthy’ outside pursuits. There are regular calls for particularly violent games to be censored. Others are more positive. They argue that video games are a unique form of entertainment, their interactivity opening up enormous possibilities. Jonathan Blow goes so far as to suggest that they ‘inherently teach’; others argue that they act as a ‘mind gym’, and games are even being developed for use in school lessons. Some advocates of video games are more positive still, taking steps toward making an art form of it. Compelling experiments with setting are being performed, and groups like the American ‘Kokoromi’ are exploring how game rules can deliver an artistic statement and directly evoke emotion.
Do video games have a significant effect on society? If they do, can we trust and encourage their makers to use their abilities responsibly? Or will gaming, no matter what how commercially successful, remain a shallow and even dangerous hobby?
Listen to the session audio…
Other formats are available here
 | David Cooke director, British Board of Film Classification |
 | Dr Dan Pinchbeck researcher, game design and analysis, University of Portsmouth; director, thechineseroom (game development team) |
 | Alice Taylor commissioning editor, education, Channel 4; former vice president, digital media, USA West Coast, BBC Worldwide; blogger, Wonderland |
 | Hamish Todd doctoral student; software developer and biologist at the Center for Systems and Sythetic Biology, University of Edinburgh |
| Chair: | |
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Toby Marshall
A Level Film Studies Teacher; PhD researcher in sociology of education, UCL Institute of Education |
However shocking the leaked footage of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is, we should reserve judgement until all the facts are in.
Tom Hoggins, Telegraph, 29 October 2009In a proposal that will be music to many students' ears, a vice-chancellor has suggested that computer games should play a greater role in assessment.
Melanie Newman, Times Higher Education, 1 October 2009Playing video games is often regarded as a pastime for children and teenagers. But the average age of players is now 35 - and it seems they have similar problems to their younger counterparts, according to researchers.
Daily Mail Reporter, Daily Mail, 21 August 2009Doubtless there will be critics who see gnostic heresy in the eternal and complex battle between dark and light in the fantasy worlds of video games. But in an era where it has become a new heresy to judge that there is any qualitative difference at all between individuals, especially children, a medium that teaches that there are indeed such things as good and bad, right and wrong, has in my view to be Good News.
Ruth Gledhill & Paul Govan, Times Online, 13 August 2009From the economic point of view, this was the year video games overtook music and video, combined, in the UK. The industries’ respective share of the take is forecast to be £4.64 billion and £4.46 billion.
John Lanchester, London Review of Books, 1 January 2009Many of Ebert's opponents have unwittingly invoked a fragment of Ebert's argument in defense of games: Anything can be art, therefore games are art. End of discussion.
Jason Rohrer, The Escapist, 24 August 2008Headline-grabbing subjects like global warming or third-world poverty aren’t the only ones tackled in serious games. Some of the genre’s most captivating offerings take on topics that are a bit further from the limelight.
Bryan Ochalla, Gamasutra, 29 June 2007While many video games probably should not be considered art, there are good reasons to think that some should be, and that the debates concerning the artistic status of chess and sports offer some insights into the status of video games
Aaron Smuts, Contemporary Aesthetics, 2 November 2005
Copycat arguments
Claims that videogames such as Manhunt can provoke players to commit violence have been made many times before – but they remain unproven.
Graham Barnfield, spiked, 30 July 2004The debate of whether or not games are an art form is a lively one, but it's not unique. The same debate has raged from the early to late 20th century with the Ready-made art objects of Marcel Duchamp to the controversial photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Chi Kong Lui, Gamecritics.com, 27 May 2003A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.
Henry Jenkins, PBS
