I believe that the Gaming Community/ computer community is responsible for society, just like any other media. The reason I say this is because media has an impact on society and which ideas are express. For example, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith help found our modern economic systems of capitalism that are the model for most of the world. Another example is the day after tomorrow because it helped aware of climate change. According to a Yale study, people were more aware of global warming’s changes affecting them personally and were more likely to do something about it. While there isn’t anyone video game that has been massively influential to society as a whole, video games are essential to the world. This is due to video games not being around for a long time compared to books and movies as books have been around for a Millenium Plus, and films have been around for two centuries. Video games have only been around for approximately 70 years. Video games are unique in the way they can send their message. Opposed to movies and books where the participant is only as an Observer in video games, they are active participants, meaning that they can make choices, and the video game can respond to those choices. The fact that they make you an active participant indicates that the message is much more effective. Still, there aren’t any single influential video games that have a massive impact on society because they’re mostly repeating the same themes from books and movies.
Since a game’s responsibility is to create and promote ideas, the person in charge of his duties is the game developers since they are responsible for a game’s stories and things. For games to express their themes and ideas in a fulls compacity, all the aspects of a game must be working towards the theme. That means that the art Direction, sound Direction, cinematography, and game design must be all working towards the game’s theme. Game developers will try to fulfill this goal to various degrees. Game developers fall into one of two camps on this particular responsibility. The first Camp is those who just ignore it as the story is an excuse for the gameplay, example some of these are the original Doom and Mario. The second camp tries to incorporate themes into their games. While some do it partway, they are still trying to incorporate themes. Some games that represent this are persona and The Legend of Zelda.
Spencer, I think you make some important points here about the impact of video games on society and how they carry forward the impact of earlier “entertainment” forms like books and movies. Even more important, however, is your point about interactivity — that’s one way to make these stories (and all their subtle and not-so-subtle messages about society) even more impactful and even give them the potential for making serious changes in society. Which makes the whole “responsibility” argument take on a whole new layer of importance. If interaction can bring about different understandings, then, as you say, is it not the responsibility of at least some game developers to challenge the status quo?
Okay, I could talk about this all day, but I won’t. Do go take a look at Luidjy’s post and see if you can respond to his position.