Gaming Individuals

In reading John Naisbitt’s excerpts from Mind Set!, I found several aspects quite thought provoking. Naisbitt notes that in the 1980s a dramatic shift led away from the prominence of labor unions to the rise of individualism. This can be tied to another diatonic shift in history, from an industrial society to an informational society, in that the manual labor of factory work required large quantities of people to carry out similar roles in a fairly monotonous manner. Today’s society is greatly impacted by the emergence of individual thought, which can be reflected in modern technology. The vast progression in technology also goes hand in hand with the rise of individual thought.

For example, the power of the modern day computer has led to the explosion of video games as a mass media giant, although it may not seem like a form of individual expression at first glance. Popular forces such as Guitar Hero and the Madden football games require enormous teams of over 200 individuals working in various groups to carry out specific tasks. For example, on one side of the equation are computer science programmers, who carry out technical roles to make the game functional and also debug errors in code. On the other side are the animators and artists, who are divided into those who write scripts and dialogue, those conceptualize and sketch character ideas, those who create skeletons, those who handle lighting, those who create textures, those who handle character movement, those who render facial expressions and landscaping, so on and so forth. Then there are the technical artists, who act as a go between the programmers and the artists to make sure the two sides mesh.

My point is that despite the fact that occupations such as these require enormous amounts of people contributing to an overall goal similar to that of factory workers or labor unions, each individual fills a certain role reflecting his or her interests or talents. Technology has evolved to the point where a briefly educated student can create a simple game using programs such as action script or java, and now smaller games spread over the internet have evolved into forms of individual expression within themselves. As Naisbitt touches on, video games can be seen as an art form because they bring out emotionality and engagement within the players, and also require the creative ambition of a masterful painting or sculpture in their creation. Video games can be seen as a synchronic history we live in because they are the now, and I hope that their power and the rise of individual thought will one day contribute to their evolution from simply mechanisms of entertainment to tools which help others in need.