There's a difference in public perception of games and movies as artistic media, according to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, speaking in an interview with Kotaku. He's annoyed by criticism that Call of Duty games get for their apparent glorification of violence.
“There's a sense that games are more exploitive in a way that The Hurt Locker —which also was designed as form of entertainment—isn't.” Hirshberg's believes “video games are fictitious popular culture” and not attempts to promote violence. “I think they are an art form ,and I think that 'too soon' criteria is not applied to things like Green Zone. Or United 93. There will be a time when we look back and find it quaint that video games were so controversial. I think the active ingredient to changing that attitude is time.”
Activision's latest game in the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 generated $775 million in sales in the first 5 days, which puts it way ahead of any movie grosses for a similar time period. That level of success, and widespread cultural impact, has not surprisingly drawn criticism from people who dislike games anyway, or think games have bad effects on children. Hirshberg thinks there's a different standard for movies and games. “The producers didn't create The Hurt Locker as a public service; they did it to tell a story that they thought needed to be told. It was a piece of entertainment that they sold tickets to and sell DVDs with.” Yet the movie is seen as an artistic piece, and a game dealing with current events is seen as a crass moneymaker.
The aspirations of the piece may have something to do with the perceptions, too. Usually games stay away from social or political subtext, where movies often embrace that as a way to provide depth. The Call of Duty games have obviously tried to be action-oriented because that's what players expect. Perhaps expecting deeper meaning in a Call of Duty game is like looking for deeper meaning in a Chuck Norris movie; it's just not the right place to find it.
Maybe we'll see more respect for videogames as an art form when a leading game franchise figures out how to add depth and nuance without losing the fun of running around and shooting things.
