Page 27 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

I ogy behind the
remember picking up
Joystick Nation at the
video game phe-
oddly-named Little Pro-
fessor book store in Green nomenon. Did
these concepts go
Bay late in 1997. I was so so far over the
enthused at the thought heads of the audi-
that someone had written a ence as to create a
book about video games hostile reaction?
then and now that I Perhaps Joystick
snatched it up and gladly Nation will fare bet-
paid the steep cover price ter in its upcoming
on the spot. ken, opinionated, and ardent fans, and of televised form on PBS. While the book’s
Now, not quite three years later, I’ve course the video game violence debates text is more about people than games, the
come to realize that I’m probably one of five that have erupted since the past few years’ use of video and audio from those games
people who actually really, really dig this series of school shootings. may balance things out better for the gam-
book. Listening to fellow game fans and So, does Joystick Nation merit a second ing audience, and make them feel like
collectors discuss Joystick Nation, I think it’s look? You betcha! The psychology of the they’re on safer ground.
down to me, J.C. Herz, her editor, and her game designers and the game players can’t Joystick Nation never claimed to be a
parents. And sometimes I wonder about be overlooked. The culture that gave rise to concise history of the video game industry.
this. Has a small handful of negative re- video games – and the culture which those For that, you’d be best advised to check out
views prevented many people from enjoying same games have spawned – bears exami- Don Thomas’ I.C. When web site or Leo-
what is actually a good book? (Or am I liv- nation. The marketing of games, both in the nard Herman’s book, Phoenix. Joystick
ing in my own bubble, isolated from all that days of the Atari 2600 boom and in the Nin- Nation, on the other hand, is about “how
is hip? After all, I thought Jar Jar Binks was tendo age, is a fascinating exercise in cor- video games stole our quarters and rewired
pretty cool, so what do I know?) porate (and consumer) psychology. our minds.” The book isn’t just about the
Where I think many classic gaming afi- Why do gamers seem to be so intent on games – it’s also about us. And perhaps,
cionados go wrong is in expecting a com- bashing Joystick Nation? Maybe it’s be- when one considers that much of the Atari
prehensive history of the video game indus- cause they don’t know the meaning of the generation grew up to become what some
try. They’re looking for release dates, tons phrase fin de siecle. This is not a book that people might less-than-kindly refer to as
of photos, behind-the-scenes dirt, and other makes fun of gamers – if anything, a cynical computer geeks, this is why some readers
such information. This is not Joystick Na- eye is more likely to be turned toward the have a problem: it’s a reflection, and not an
tion. What J.C. Herz’s book is, is a broad corporate entities that milk game fans for all entirely inaccurate one, of us.
sociological overview of how videogames they’re worth. The author herself is a clas-
have changed the face of entertainment, sic game fan and makes several shrewd
and how we, the players, have responded in observations about the kind of people we
turn. It looks at such issues as videogame are. But she also makes equally astute ob-
violence, how games are marketed, and servations about the psychology and sociol-
how the internet has come to challenge car-
tridges and CD-ROMs as the de facto vehi-
cle for game software. There is also a com-
parison of how game development has
changed – from the early days, when a
Eugene Jarvis could single-handedly create
a classic like Defender, to the present,
where a whole company is required to crank
out a single game.
But is this stuff of any interest to the play-
ers of those games? As far as I’m con-
cerned, it most certainly is.
Joystick Nation provides an interesting
study of how people have come to regard
games, and how the game designers and
manufacturers have responded. It points
out some fascinating, and often curiously
conflicting, trends: arcades were once
dimly-lit places where people from all walks
of life could gather (so long as they had a
roll of quarters), and have now mutated into
pastel-colored Chuck E. Cheese-esque
“family entertainment centers,” which appeal
largely to middle-class white baby boomers.
In the meantime, the games themselves
have gone from mildly harmless abstrac-
tions to exercises in constant tension and, in
some cases, graphic violence.
And despite what game advocates may
say, it’s hard to ignore the issue of violence
in videogames in the post-Columbine world
in which we live. It’s not an issue that is
likely to go away any time soon – if any-
thing, Herz’s brief discussions of game vio-
lence and ratings systems is pretty tame
compared to debates on the same topics
just a few years later. I actually think that a
second edition of Joystick Nation is merited.
What has transpired since then? Copyright
battles over emulation, the classic gaming
“scene” has been filled with more outspo-
Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 27