The C-E staff give their views on gaming's most important issues.

Games are entertainment. Obviously. But sometimes they become more than that, in some effort to teach us something or convey a message. Metal Gear Solid, for instance, has a clear anti-nuke message, encouraging us to enjoy life rather than wipe it out. And the closing credits are very definition of subtlety...not. But one wonders whether or not games should just stick to entertainment.

Should games be used to put forward some sort of message, political or otherwise?

Tom:

I think that games designers have every right to put messages into games. They are an expression of the creators feelings, and are an art form. Art has always been tightly and inseparably linked to politics, thought and issues key to the creators mind - look at Picasso's 'Geurnica' to see what I mean, or Orwell's '1984'. I believe that a game that has been thought about, rather than just churned out, is valid as art, and could be used to put in a message.

I am not just saying this because the message in point is one that I share, but any feeling that is relevant to the creator, that can be put into that game to give it more spirit and atmosphere is great, and could only help to improve the perception of games by non-gamers.

Matt:

Gaming could and should be used to put across messagery and such, but it could just never happen on a console.

For example, like, in music, if a band is against a war, they often make songs against it, or to try and press their views to the public. If an author feels strongly about something, they'll often write a book or article about it.

And gaming? Why couldn't it be used? Because of the money involved in gaming, that's why. A company isn't going to grant a studio �500 000 just so they can put across their views on communism and the state of Africa. Hey want a game which will sell, and, most likely, shift systems.

The only way in which gaming could be used to put across messaging is through bedroom coding and independant developers. Through flash games, and tiny, spare time projects. As there is no way we're ever going to see the kind of artistic freedom on consoles in which we do music and books.

Vive la radio.

Dan:

I have never thought about this before. Well thats a lie. I think about everthing! Videogames are a chance to escape from real life, well apart from The Sims. But I think that is a good idea to put 'messages' or 'morals' into games. Things like 'Don't Do Drugs' or Stay in School' type of thing would work very well. Add that to Pokemon and we would have a load of little angels. As some younger people look up to and want to be some gaming heroes, so will copy them when they say 'Don't Do Drugs' or Stay in School'. But the political is a dodgy message to use but Metal Gear did pull it off. although that is very hard to do. Add messages to game would work I think!

Franklin:

If a designer has a message they want to put across and can put it into a game that remains entertaining and enjoyable then by all means they should do it. Political messages are likely the hardest because of the cost of making games it's harder to take such risks for most companies because like all companies they still nees to make a profit. However Metal Gear Solid was able to pull it all off very nicely.

Games in my opinion are a form of art and are as valid as films and music. But sending messages are not limited to the designers political view points and the state of the world today, it need not be so complex. Games could and have been used to send messages of friendship, do the right thing and in some cases preserve life. Whether it was intentional or not I feel you can find such messages in game as Zelda and Pokemon and many others like them.

Iun:

Euch... a difficult one.

On the one hand, games are there to have fun with and you don't want someones political message interfering with the game that you are playing -unless of course that the message fits in well enough with the story and the characters.

Examples of such games are the Rainbow six and Conflict Desert Storm. They're usually based around political or other motivations but they fit in very well and often you don't know about the political subtext that is present in the games' structure.

Edge:

Political messages? Well, my opinion on that would depend on the context of the word. If I ever come across a game that randomly cuts to a 'Vote [Political faction]' screen then I'm going to take it right back to GAME. Or burn it. If, however, we're discussing whether software should delve into the icy depths of social commentary, then I certainly won't block the diving board.

In my opinion, adult games are not the GTAs of this world � whilst Rockstar's game is designed for adults, it in itself is not mature. If we ever get to stage where games consistently tackle real world issues, relating their content back to what isn't virtual, that is when I will say we're dealing with a full-fledged media.

Some might say that games are there for fun, not teaching. But surely they can fulfil both criteria? Of course not all videogames have to be designed with furtherance of the human conscience in mind. Just as Hollywood rolls out the Vin Diesel films, the games industry, too, can develop shallow, fun titles for those times when, well, you don't want to go wading straight into a philosophical sea.

Also, the inclusion of messages into a storyline can make it much more intricate. At present, many videogame stories do a darn good impression of a plastic bag; a loose fitting container in which to place all the required items, whilst being as thin as our imaginations can deal with. Tales that engage your brain, make you think, are much more likely to captivate the players attention.

Basically, as long as videogames don't become the new home of governmental propaganda, nothing bad can come from developers putting a little more though � a little more passion � into their products.

Dennis:

Should games be used to put forward some sort of message, political or otherwise?

First of all, games are meant for entertainment. Secondly, games are played all over the world, regardless of political borders (or: so it should be). Putting politically flavoured messages into a game could offend other people. That's not my idea of entertainment.

Then there are people saying games should 'teach' the gamer lessons about life itself, or at least have some educational value. We already have a word for this kind of programs: e-learning or e-tertainment (notice that the 'n' from entertainment was removed)

Of course I'm not saying a game should be 'blank' entirely. This would only cause a game to have no content at all. But the main point I'm trying to sketch here is that a game should be based on entertainment, not on a message you want to pass to the public.

Jayseven:

Ignorance is bliss.

We've all heard this so many times, but what does it mean? It means that the less you know, the less you can possibly worry about, so the more you can enjoy yourself - or at least, that's what I take it to mean.

For me, computer games are my primary entertainment source ahead of TV, books and movies. I love to get into a game, get into the storyline and everything. Computer games are a reminder of childhood to me, yeah I'm only 17 but to me my childhood is over, I'll save reasons for this for another day.

When I play games I get away from any hassles I have. I no longer need to worry about which artists to research for my graveyards art project, nor worry about re-doing portions of my tech coursework, nor worry about the lack of jobbing I find myself in at the moment.. Instead I just worry about where the hell that last dog tag is, or what's the quickest way to get the shotgun without running into any hunters along the way. These are a lot easier to deal with somehow.

Politics. One reason I reckon my childhood is over is because of these things. As you get older you learn more about them, you learn how politics and economics run the world we live in, how interest rates and the budget affect you and your job and your lifestyle. Politics is a whole world of worry, my life has been strongly effected by the governments decisions on student loans for university, my life will be affected by the interest rates on my mortgage and my life will be affected by the amount of tax I'll be paying out of my wages/salary. If I think too long about these things I get waves of teenage depression/angst because I start to think "life sucks". Some of you may be thinking "tsk, typical. jayseven's gone off on a complete tangent again -- what on earth does this have to do with anything?" Well if games get more and more political, will I be constantly reminded of these depressing things?

I think that games should not be used as a vessel for developers' political thoughts. I like to enjoy my games, I like being carefree when I play video games, I like being ignorant for those couple of hours.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed MGS:TTS over and over, and apparently this game has a deep political message. What does this mean about all I just said?

Conor:

I'm going to have to disagree with you Jayseven (and what do you mean 'apparently'?) and agree with most of what has been said above. In theory at least, there's no reason why games can't convey the artists' feelings about certain subjects, political or otherwise. Although with games taking armies of people to create these days there would be little room for such personal injection, unless it was coming from Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto etc.. But there are bigger roadblocks to doing something that like with videogames than there are with other forms of art.

Does a painter have to create a concept, get a team together, work on it for a few months, find a publisher, work on it for a few years, costing thousands or millions of pounds/dollars? Hell no. He just grabs a brush and starts throwing it about. Opportunities for games developers to inject some kind of message into their games are no doubt few and far between. So if they can manage it, all the power to them.

Joby:

Games should be used to help gamers escape into a world where they don't have to deal with the trials and hurt of the real world. A game to most people is a sort of mini-matrix. A place where nothing can effect them apart from the fact they ultimately have control over their character and their decisions in the game. A game isn't like life - if you go wrong you can restart or just not save. That's what games should aim to do. Help the world from the bad times. At the end of the day. Isn't that what entertainment is about?

Should games remain only entertainment? Or something more?