Games Will Not Supplant Television, says Warren SpectorGames as an entertainment medium have grown tremendously in the last 25 years, and while some would argue that interactive entertainment is set to become the dominant form of entertainment in this century, veteran designer Warren Spector, Junction Point Studios head, isn't so sure. Spector sees one aspect of gaming holding it back from supplanting linear entertainment: you have to "work" for your reward.
Speaking to IndustryGamers as part of the first in a new "Game Industry Legends" series, the Deus Ex and Epic Mickey designer commented, "The implicit question – the one you’re really asking - is, I think, whether games will supplant television as the central entertainment medium of the 21st century in the way that television supplanted radio and movies in the last century. There, I think, the answer is no."
Spector continued, "The internet, speaking generally, may replace television, but I don’t believe interactive entertainment will ever take the place of linear media. The fact is that games are work. You have to, you know, interact, to make things happen. And as fun and appealing as that is, most people don’t want to work for their entertainment – they want someone ELSE to do the work. It seems inevitable that some interactive elements will spill over into linear media, and it seems likely that delivery systems for linear content will change, but games as games are a different animal, complements to linear media, not replacements for them."
What do you think? Is Spector right, or will games overshadow TV and movies in the future?
