passion4games

Philip Pullman, The Greedy Ghost and Our Threatened Creativity

In an impassioned speech in defence of our threatened public libraries - you can read the whole thing here, and I can recommend it - distinguished author Philip Pullman spoke of the 'greedy ghost of market fundamentalism' and set this against 'imagination, knowledge, and the value of simple delight.'

Of course, with ambitions in game design, I'm quite keen on profit as well. It would be a foolish designer who didn't want to keep an eye on the bottom line, if only so that he or she could carry on making the kind of games that we all dream about. But Pullman makes a very strong point too and one I find myself identifying with.

To believe that half our libraries can be staffed by 'volunteers' is to denigrate the hard earned skills of professionals. How about a few volunteer politicians? Lots of people would enjoy sitting at Westminster for free. It can't be that difficult. We're all in this together, aren't we? But it also assumes that the world is full of people with time on their hands, people who can devote large chunks of their week to working for no reward except the grateful thanks of the community. In the current climate, when the majority of people seem to have to work twice as hard, just to stand still, you can't help feeling that it ain't gonna happen. And, as Pullman points out, it won't be those communities where people would most benefit from library services, which will manage to keep their libraries open. Yet it is the poorer communities that really need story sessions for mothers and toddlers, free access to books, and good IT and broadband for those who can't possibly afford it at home.

But there's a bigger picture here, and Pullman describes it very graphically. Unchecked, he worries that 'the market fanatics are going to kill off every humane, life-enhancing, generous, imaginative and decent corner of our public life.' Creativity is much promoted these days, by politicians and educationalists alike. We're all supposed to tap into our creativity in all areas of life. But without libraries, without the arts, without government backing for all kinds of cultural or just plain intellectually speculative activities, it becomes very difficult. And I don't just mean in the Arts either. It may mean - for example - that pure maths is seen as somehow less important than applied maths! The Americans use the word enrichment for these cultural extras that make life interesting. In the UK, the humanities are increasingly under threat. Mostly because they are not seen as money spinners. Everything, now, has to be vocational.

The problem is, of course, that nobody knows what will be a money spinner. In the words of William Goldman, writing in Adventures in the Screen Trade - 'Nobody knows anything.' Goldman was talking about film, but the same could be said for just about every creative endeavour. For every major success, there are many failures, and it's virtually impossible to predict in advance which will be which.  Without the humanities, without all kinds of theoretical and speculative ventures, without permission to experiment and fail, without the possibility of reflecting, and exploring and imagining what might be, we and all our works risk becoming a little less than human. Of course profit and viability are very important, but creativity and humanity are vital too, and at present, there's the uneasy feeling that our current masters are hell bent on ignoring the latter while blindly leading us to disaster for purely idealogical reasons.

Computer Games are not all the same, believe it or not!

Here's a link to a post on my mother's blog:

Rant In Defence of Video Games

Charlie C

 

 

September 12th

I'll be starting a Professional Masters in Video Game Development on September 12th. I'll also continue to work for Bitshift Studios throughout the course. It's going to be a great (and very busy) year.

Realtime Worlds

The troubles affecting one of Scotland’s largest video game developers, Realtime Worlds, are a sad reminder of the perils which impinge on all of us who love and work in, or want to work in the video games industry. This kind of event isn’t just disastrous for the company – it’s bad for its creditors and investors and bad for the Scottish industry as a whole. The coalition government, intent on withdrawing support from the industry, should take note. It’s very hard to get people ‘off benefits’ if you are also creating the very conditions which jeopardise jobs.

But can we learn something from this? Perhaps we can. In an industry which is changing and developing so quickly, perhaps it was inadvisable to concentrate all efforts on a project so huge, so expensive, and something which would take so very long to develop. Something – dare we say it – so very macho. It seems to us, that gambling a great deal of time and money on any single project is a risk only worth taking if the project in question is part of a classic franchise with a certain ‘buzz’ remaining from previous iterations.

But hindsight is easy. If the gamble had come off, we’d all be on the sidelines cheering. All the same, smaller, more flexible companies which can react to current situations –Tag Games, another Dundee based company, springs to mind – are likely to do better in this very difficult economic climate. Realtime was a company we wanted to work for, a company we admired – but it was also a supertanker of a company, and they are notoriously difficult to slow down and turn round, when faced with oncoming hazards. All the same, our sympathies are with the whole company – there, but for the grace of God, go most of us. Let’s hope a buyer is found, and that many of the jobs can be saved.