This week, I decided to take the easy way out and interview my girlfriend, a non-gamer, about the state of gaming industry. I had the idea mainly because I thought the headline would sound awesome. Turns out it’s really not awesome at all, but I found her insight and perspective very interesting, and I think it accurately reflects the perception of society in general regarding gaming. Enjoy. Or don’t.

Shaun: Okay, let’s start with this. What exactly is it about games that is unappealing to you? What has…

Meghan: Do we really have to do this? Why do you want to interview me? I don’t know anything about videogames. You should go interview someone else.

S: Okay, first of all, interviews don’t work when you ask me the questions, okay? Secondly, you not knowing anything is the point. I’m trying to get your perspective on things. So, again, what do about videogames do you not…

M: All the girls that have huge (expletive). It’s ridiculous.

S: What?

M: Girls don’t really look like that. Not in real life. These girls are like Barbie Dolls

S: Well, okay, fine. Sometimes it’s a little overdone. But that’s just media for you. Is it not the same in movies, or television? Actresses and actors that do not resemble the average human figure are hired to sell sex.  

M: I understand, but not every female is a caricature of a woman’s body designed to satisfy some animated sexual fantasy. Often, women in film and television are in really good shape, sure, but there aren’t very many actresses that have the same assets like all girls the in videogames. If Pamela Anderson was in every movie, I wouldn’t like movies either.

S: I think you have a gross misunderstanding of what kind of girls are in games. Some games, like the Soul Calibur series or Dead or Alive, have a full roster of impossibly endowed women. But there are plenty of counter examples. Elika from Prince of Persia is very normal looking, and Alyx from Half-Life 2 is has a very typical body structure.

M: Who?

S:…

M: What about that girl in the game with the ninja. The one that wears dominatrix clothes. Is she what you consider normal?

S: No, Rachel (Ninja Gaiden) is one of the bad examples. But that developer is known for stupid stuff like that. He once put breast physics in one of his games, but on each individual breast.

M: That’s funny.

S: No, it’s disturbing. Anyway, how did we get on this topic?

M: And in the fighting games, they wear bikinis. If I was fighting in a tournament, like, a kung-fu tournament, I would wear armor or something, not lingerie.

S: Fine. Some females are misrepresented. That can’t be the only reason you don’t like gaming. You said once that you stopped playing games after Yoshi’s Island…

M: Oh my God, I love Yoshi’s Island!

S: So what made you stop?

M: And Mario. I love Yoshi’s Island and Mario. But I think games got too hard. They’re too complex these days. It’s not fun anymore because the games are too hard to learn.

S: Well, I can understand that, but the scope of the games has changed as well. Back then, characters only ever moved from side to side on a 2D plane, so the input could be relatively simple. Now that characters occupy a three-dimensional space, a D-Pad with two buttons just could not work really work.

M: What?

S: You could not control Halo with just a D-Pad and two buttons.

M: Yeah, Halo’s hard. I don’t like the shooting ones. The two joysticks are too hard. I always look at my feet, and then people shoot me.

S: So, what, you just want the industry to stop making advances in technology?

M: No, but I want to still be able to enjoy the types of games that I like. Why does everything have to be Halo?

S: I will agree that there are way too many First-Person Shooters, but that’s not all that’s out there. The Wii is making control inputs more simple by utilizing motion with the Wii Remote, and Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation network offer old school arcade games for sale.

M: I know, I like those. But those aren’t the ones that everyone plays anymore. Everyone wants to play the new stuff. They want the games that look like movies. I can’t play with them. It’s too hard to learn. Besides, if I wanted to play a movie, I would just watch a movie rather than spending time learning the new stuff.

S: That’s a really interesting point. So basically, you believe that by emulating movies, gaming is becoming less unique as its own medium?

M: I guess. More than that, I think videogames are for, like, children.

S: What? Why?

M: I don’t know, they just are. It’s in the name. VideoGAMES. Adults don’t spend all their time playing games. Children do.

S: That’s just a misconception. The highest percentage of people that play games belongs to adults.

M: In high school, girls didn’t like the guys that played videogames.

S: But girls at our high school were whores. Who cares?

M: I think it means something that they would sleep with anybody, and yet they didn’t like gamers.

S: Because games are for children, or because games are a technology-niche thing? Twenty years ago, comic book movies were a niche thing. Now, films like The Dark Knight and Spiderman 3 are universally accepted, and a huge percentage of those sold tickets are female viewers. I’m just saying that perceptions change, and games are already making an impact on the mass market thanks to more universal appeal and the Wii.

M:…

S: What say you?

M: Oh, you’re done?

S: Of course I’m done, I stopped talking.

M: Sorry, I thought you were giving a dissertation. I wasn’t sure. Spiderman 3 sucked.

S: Yes, it did, but that’s not the point. At the end of the day, it all comes down to games the fact that games do not possess the mass appeal held by film, television, and books.

M: Definitely not. Not even close.

S: Everyone’s a critic. That’s okay though, fair enough. Last question then: fix it.

M: That’s not a question.

S: No, I…okay, technically, whatever, I’m saying what would you do to fix it. According to a non-gamer, how do you help gaming make the leap to mass-market appeal.

M: Well, make games available that are easy to learn and fun. I love Cake Maker because it’s simple and addicting. You make cake. Then you serve the cake. But there’s nothing like that on the PlayStation 3. I want Cake Maker with the same production values as the games with bigger budgets, like all the Halo’s. As long as it’s easy and fun, I will like it. Games will never get anywhere if they just try to make the hardcore gamers like you happy. Mass appeal is about making games fun for everyone, not just the fans they already have.

S: So the answer to saving the industry is Cake Maker in 3-D.

M: That’s what you took from that?

S: No, I’m sorry, you actually a very good answer. Very insightful. I’m impressed.

M: Great. I’m going to watch Glee now.