Leigh Alexander, News Director at Gamasutra, has an opinion piece which attempts to mellow out the masses. As the influence of video games continues to grow, so does the desire for cultural acceptance. She quotes Ian Bogost’s thoughts on the topic, who frankly thinks we have more important things to be worrying about.
According to Bogost, legitimacy simply can’t be judged in the current era in the same way it could when we had few radio stations and fewer television channels, and all art and entertainment existed in individual walled gardens.
“Legitimacy has become distributed, a mesh,” says Bogost. “We should all just work on our little vertex of the mesh, like we’re weaving a big macrame of legitimacy.”
Professionals and fans so involved in the game industry can forget that the uninitiated population may still consider video games as a whole to be worthless or simply juvenile. It can be frustrating, perhaps even infuriating at times, being unable to just grab and shake these people out of their misconceptions. They can’t be reasoned with. Though if they were to experience something profound–like playing Flower perhaps–it may change their tune.
We don’t exactly need a standard bearer to rally behind. Time is on legitimacy’s side, and if we all keep doing what we’re doing eventually there will be no one left to discount the idea.