I’m coining a new phrase– “Epic Win” Idealism.

“Gaming Can Make a Better World” seems to be full of it. That isn’t to say McGonigal has no point– I think her position as a video game designer and gamer has given her an interesting idea on where the answer might lie in the question of our future. What it also seems to do is give her a very single-minded and idealistic view of what gaming can mean for the world. Games are full of promise; they’re full of the ability to succeed without fears that plague people in the real world. It’s why they’re so popular. To say they also have the potential to save the world is patently misleading. Video games are missing key elements of the human experience that make them unsuitable for the purpose McGonigal has proposed. “Epic win” scenarios are nice, but where would we even begin to consider connecting games in which there is the potential for these sorts of scenarios to a world where that simply isn’t always the case? Even her real-world trial games were incongruous with her message– asking people to ration gas in the face of a faux shortage has real-world implications and problems that cannot possibly fit an “epic win” reality.

I’m starting to sound crotchety and backward, but as much as I’d like to believe that her brand of thought in this particular area is worthwhile, I can’t bring myself to see it. Maybe it’s because I never had the patience for the final boss, or because I tended to button mash during Street Fighter matches.

Even if they’re incapable of ending world hunger or diffusing conflict in the Middle East, who’s to say video games aren’t art? Roger Ebert, apparently, although you’d think they’d be right up his alley. He argues against them, saying they manipulate emotion rather than inspire it, and therefore have no place as an art form. Video games take scenarios, feed off real life to create and manipulate world to meet the expectations of its user. In that way, I would almost be inclined to argue that video games are high art. They can represent; they can convey. Individual aspects of the creative design process in games can be art worthy, and the final product is something unprecedented. Does that make it lesser?