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AICN Games: Monki interviews Matt Fox, author of THE VIDEO GAMES GUIDE!!!
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.
Until next time, back up the tree I go!
-Monki
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Come on! To suggest that GTA III is the Citizen Kane of gaming is like suggesting that there were several films released years before Citizen Kane which did everything as well as this great film did (and in some cases did it better), but Citizen Kane just got better exposure. Because this is certainly the case with GTA III. Hell, even Matt FOx shot that comparison out of the air with his Elite reference, although I'd have gone for more recent games.I'll probably pick up GTA IV because the GTA series remains a good (sometimes really good) series, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the most overrated franchises in the industry. Out of all the games I was going to get this year, I'm glad that the one which slipped was GTA IV, because I'm much more excited about the others on my worryingly long list.
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...I´ve seen ROBOCOP when I was 10. I saw all the FRIDAY´S 13rd movies during my youth. I played videogames all my life (violent and not), and I am a normal nerd. We must unite against the MANHUNT haters! GO CASH!
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Great job Monki - your best column yet. This is what we want, substance, not youtube links and press releases. I'm a big fan of The Video Games Guide it's a book every self-respecting gamer should own. Matt Fox comes across as a knowledgeable good guy in the book and also in this interview. My pick for most influential game: Donkey Kong (launched Nintendo, Miyamoto, and entire platform genre).
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Doom! my eyes nearly fell out my head, then almost did it again with Quake! recently GTA was another benchmark because you could finally roam around a non linear fully realised, living breathing city in 3D - awesome!
In my opinion video games have always been a legitemate from of art as Sculpture, painting, Grafiti, movies or dance coz if it's been made by artists then it's art!
some of the most Monumental moments from my gaming life were Space Invaders, Starwars arcade!Gauntlet, R-Type, Another world on Amiga, the Sentinel on C64, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teken, Wipeout, and more recently Halo, Far Cry, Shadow of the Collossus, and soon Crysis! -
Congratulations on some real content for once Monki. I may even pick up this book at one point or another. But I do have to take Mr. Fox to task for the way he disregarded movies as art because of commercial cash ins (I believe that Cheaper by the Dozen 2 was his example). I agree that not all movies are art but neither are all video games art. For every Ico (one of his picks) there is a Yo! Noid! How is that any different than films where for every Kubrick there is an Uwe Boll. Personally I like video games more as a hobby but that comment struck me as just ludicrous.
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Quoting the year of each games commercial release is just obnoxious. Also, since Mr. Fox seems to favour British words and spellings in his interview, are those European release years or U.S. Domestic or even Japanese? If those are the Eurodates does that mean that games which were never released in Europe will not be covered in the almanac? Further down this line of questioning, are any games that never received release outside of Japan going to be included here or if they are is it all/none/some/few and barring.....
Shit, I've gone crosseyed. -
Birth of Nation of videogames. Where as the Citizen Kane videogames is Doom. If Citizen Kane is when "modern" filmmaking came to age then Doom is where "modern videogames" came age. GTA3 would be the Jaws of videogames -- meaning the rise of the Event Game.
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Already been made...or at least parodied.
http://tinyurl.com/jq8u7
I'm sure there is a mega man movie trailer somewhere too.
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