 The villian from Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth
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On the first day of classes a group of students file into a medium-sized classroom and take their seats. A few minutes later the professor walks in and starts writing his name on the board. "Okay, welcome to English 240, Video Game Literature." Why not? Is it so hard to believe that a billion dollar industry, in which the development of games can cost in the millions, would start invading our academics? Video game plots are intricate parts of both single-player and multi-player video games. Isn't it reasonable to say that one could get the same out of character analyses of classic literary heroes such as Odysseus and Aneus as he or she could from a character analysis of Gordon Freeman? Granted, not all video games have detailed and captivating storylines, but neither does all examples of classic literature. The Elder Scrolls series, the Resident Evil series, the Metal Gear series, and the Halo series are just a few examples of video-game stories that people love. Characters can be just as interesting in video games as they are in movies or novels. You can apply all those classic themes we have come to love in the English department: gender roles, class struggle, treatment of children, guest-host relationships, etc., to any video game story. Some of the best examples of intricate and well written stories are Square Enix's Final Fantasy games. Any story that people love to the point where they write hundreds of fan fictions about must be worth taking a look at. So why don't scholars address video games as a serious form of literature? Well, the most obvious reason is because they are video games. Video games have gotten a bad reputation of being something people with no lives like to play. Only geeks and losers play video games, right? Well, as much as many of us disagree, this is the opinion of old, narrow-minded scholars who are unwilling to entertain the thought of video games having a place in academics. When you write a paper about Oliver Twist or The Odyssey, what is it you get from them? Can you honestly say that you would absolutely not be able to get the same out of writing a paper on the storyline of Final Fantasy VII? Understand that the class would strictly revolve around the stories, not the playing of the games. It even adds other elements to the discussion that classic literature cannot. For example, generally the player is the main character of the story. Therefore, you are getting an almost first-person perspective on that character. Yet, at the same time, you may see things that your main character does not, giving you the role of the audience also. Video games are breaking into a ton of other fields. Designing the visual elements of video games is becoming widely accepted as an art form. Using innovative styles such as cell shading and high dynamic range has sparked interest from the art world. Musical scores created just for video games have become very popular. Remember the Final Fantasy concert that was scheduled to play once in Los Angeles? After being sold out, Nobuo Uematsu decided to take the concert on a nation-wide tour the following year. People even make a living by playing video games competitively! According to an article on the Concordia Thursday Report, Bart Simon, a sociologist professor, stated that "Because of the boom in popularity and market penetration of video games, today they form an important part of the cultural landscape. So the argument is pretty strong; if you think television and film is important, you have to think video games are important." Despite all the progress video games are making in other professional areas, its future in academics is debatable. Nevertheless, video games aren't just a geek's hobby anymore. Artists, musicians, writers, professional athletes, actors, and tons of other people with varying professions and interests are playing video games more than ever. So while we wait for institutions of higher learning to accept the inevitable, I'll have my character analysis of Gordon Freeman on file, just in case.
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