Following SFL’s hugely successful Horizons event, the BFI played host again to another fabulous gaming event last week as our good friends at GameCity launched this year’s GameCity Prize with a rousing debate “What’s the point of videogames?”
Chaired by Oscar and BAFTA winner Lord David Puttnam, the debate immediately steered away from the provocative question of whether videogames are art and instead was a thoughtful, often passionate exploration of the impact videogames has on both gamers and non-gamers alike. Lord Puttnam brought a historical context to proceedings, opening the debate by saying that films took at least 20 years to be recognised as an art form; “If you asked people working during the 1930s what films would be like in the future, they would never have guessed that it would become a 90 minute narrative. Videogames are at the 1930’s stage of development, they’ve yet to find their form, their shape and if we equate them to film, we must understand that there is a long way to go for them yet.”
Lucy Kellaway, journalist at the Financial Times openly admitted that she wasn’t a gamer and as far as she was concerned had too often seen the men in her life be taken away from her due to the “addictive nature” of videogames and “the sheer amount of time they take up.” The New Statesman’s Helen Lewis brought some gaming perspective to the panel and questioned why when she was young, no one ever said to her “You’re addicted to books! The thing about games is for too long people have said they are addictive – you can only be addicted to things that are ‘bad’ for you and not nourishing spiritually.”
Lucy Kellaway wondered also if playing videogames decreases attention spans which co-writer of the Fighting Fantasy series and President/CEO of Eidos Interactive Ian Livingstone rebuked, as some videogames, especially complex RPG’s can take up to at least 30 hours to complete and require lots of concentration!
Fellow panellist, writer and critic Ekow Eshun brought another outsider-looking-in view to the evening that gave a flavour of how powerful the medium of videogames is becoming; “We’re watching this form become, not just pop culture but one of the defining aspects of our society in economic terms as well.
That seems terribly powerful and it’s interesting that something can be so mainstream, so powerful in budget terms and yet at the same time, so cult.” Writer Charlie Higson went on to say “I think videogames are the new rock and roll. Kids now get excited about the next game coming out in a way I did or my parents did about music.” MP Tom Watson also said the younger generation were already more familiar with technology and gaming was an intrinsic part of their culture “My three year old daughter learnt to read and write via an app on my iPad, I think that’s fabulous and important for education too.”
Here's the full debate to get your brains twitching:
The debate ebbed and flowed from education to violence to how they compete with other forms of entertainment and what the potential could be for videogames in the future. Lord Puttnam brought the debate to a close with a final statement that will no doubt spark much more commentary and debate in the run-up to the next GameCity Festival “To what extent are games working towards creating a society that you actually want to live in or do games merely offer and escape from a society that you feel uncomfortable in?”
Acknowledging a certain artistic value as well, last year the Prize was presented by labour MP Tom Watson to Minecraft, created by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson at Mojang. Minecraft has since become the fastest selling Xbox Live Arcade game of all time with sales of over 1 million in less than a week.
Players have notched up 5.2 million hours of gameplay, 4 million multiplayer sessions and 2.4 million multiplayer gaming hours so I guess we’re all agreed that Minecraft was a worthy winner though inevitably, the conversation about what games should appear on the next shortlist has already heated up – now get ready to have your say!
GameCity now want YOU to nominate games that YOU think should appear on the longlist this year.
Chatting to Iain Simons, GameCity Director at Nottingham Trent University at the launch, he said. “The GameCity Prize is about creating new conversations about videogames and in 2012 we’re inviting everyone from the world over to join in, share their recommendations, discuss and vehemently argue with our jurors”.
After the longlist has been finalised, a shortlist will be collected and presented to the eclectic jury for deliberation.
The diverse panel of judges hail from all areas of culture and this year include:
- Samira Ahmed, writer and broadcaster
- Louise Brealey, actress and writer – most recently on our screens alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock.
- Ekow Eshun, writer, critic and former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts
- Dave Gibbons, comic book artist and writer and co-creator of The Watchmen
- Wayne Hemingway, MBE, fashion designer and founder of Red or Dead
- Charlie Higson, actor, comedian and author
- Lucy Kellaway, columnist, The Financial Times
- Jo Whiley, disc jockey and TV presenter
- Lord David Puttnam CBE (Chair), film producer
“I am absolutely thrilled with this year’s jury.” continued Iain Simons. “To draw such culturally significant individuals together to celebrate and reward the very best videogames is a bold statement about how seriously the medium is considered.”
So how do you vote? Simply go to the GameCity Prize and nominate a game, regardless of format or budget that you think is brilliant. It can be on any platform - it just has to have been released between June 1st 2011 and June 1st 2012. Don’t forget to tell your friends that you’ve nominated something and why.
Tweet it to @gamecity, FB it, link it back to the prize site, shout it from the rooftops - let people know that the process is happening and that THEY can get involved too.
The GameCity Prize will be awarded as part of GameCity7, the annual videogame culture festival running from October 20-27th in Nottingham. We can already think of at least 3 games we would nominate and can’t wait to see the shortlist later this year!