possibility. Robert Lewis Stevenson's
dictum that “to travel hopefully is a
better thing than to arrive” has lost
meaning in an arena without any
notion of "sportsmanship." How do
you play fair against a machine?
The challenge is playing to the
point of boredom (i.e., “to win”),
outwitting the computer program
by hook, crook or strategy book.
The manufacturers know this.
Most are reluctant to disclose the
simple rules of their games, forcing
each player to figure things out by
trial and error. Nineteen-year-old
Hirschfeld’s manual does well by
providing simple rules rather than
arcane strategies, and his initial
volume for 30 games has not one,
but two, sequels in the works for
the more recent machines and up
dated programs. The better you
understand what you are watching
on the screen, the more power you
have towards achieving the sought
after boredom border. (See Level
Seven).
The informed player won’t mista
kenly shoot his little pink hu
manoids in DEFENDER, taking them
for yet another enemy. The smart
player will trust his own experience
over the touted rules of strategists.
LEV E~L F O U~R~
Typical Attacks and Uncopyrighted
Rebuffs
Attack #/.- These games are
corrupting our youth,” says a Long
Island housewife who is working
toward their banishment in her
area, a move already taken in parts
of Texas, Rhode Island, Illinois,
Massachusetts, other states and even
entire countries “They are not
wholesome. They mesmerize our
children, they addict them and
force them to mindlessly pour one
quarter after another into the slots.
We see 15 year olds playing on
school nights and during school
hours. We want the games out of
our town.”
Rebuff: Mitchell Robin, a child
psychologist and instructor of data
processing, wrote the New York
Times with this statement: T have
seen absolutely no scientific evi
dence to date that video games are
mesmerizing our children.' There
has simply been no such research.
Campaigns against video games are
created out of a fear of the un
known, in this case, computers,
Adults are afraid of the power of
computers, because we didn't grow
up with them What better way to
be introduced to them than
through friendly software such as
computer games?"
Attack #2: "People are sepa
rated from society already with
each new technological advance
The car, the telephone, television
. all keep us at a distance. You
don't have a comrade in arms Even
when you play the games with
someone else, you're just waiting
your turn. The machine stands be
tween you more than ever "
Rebuff: Unlike many other ac
tivities, electronic gaming brings
families closer together," writes
Frank Laney, Jr., editor of Electronic
(lames Magazine "How many
other things can mother and son,
father and daughter, enjoy on an
equal basis? Most participation
sports give such a tremendous ad
vantage to bigger and stronger
players that the idea of, for in
stance, a family game of tennis or
golf becomes an exercise in bore
dom and frustration." And Mitchell
Robin again: “Children who aren't
athletically inclined can use video
games as a means to success that is
accepted by their peers. That type
of acceptance through a particular
skill is very important to the psy
chological health of adolescents.”
Attack #3: "The games are ac
tually sort of stress-related," says
Larry Gertz, owner of Chess and
Games, one of the largest game re
tailers on the West Coast. “I find
myself wasted when I'm competing
with Entex Football Four. I'm
exhausted physically and mentally. !
can feel the muscles in my body all
tense.” Contributing editor of
Games magazine, Roger Dionne,
writes, "I was amazed at the hostil
ity the machine has aroused in me.
I walked away trembling" The DE
FENDER callous and PAC-MAN blis
ter have already been cited as other
physical handicaps of the games.
Rebuff: Steve Nelson, doctoral
candidate at New York University,
deduces from his research that “a
video game can teach you how to
process information on several
channels at once. The Army and Air
Force are experimenting with them.
The rapid increase in learning abil
ity they can provide is amazing.
Therapists have been using them in
rehabilitation of the handicapped.'
Linda Duesterhaus, mother of a
3-year-old video arcade habitue
named Zack, comments, "People
don't have to use their wits any
more Maybe some street people
survive that way, but mostly soci
ety’s too safe. The positive aspect of
video games is that one must be
alert in many sensory modes at
once. ’’
Attack #4; I don't see why
people put their money in them
They’re frustrating, make irritating
sounds, and all you get if you win
is more of the same and all of it is
torture. And the people who hang
out there are just a mess,” com
ments Katherine, a young library
assistant who likes the theatre
Rebuff: This is pure prejudice,
based upon bordello assumptions
from the pinball past The person
just hasn’t tried a game suited to
his or her personality Perhaps
Katherine should try DONKEY
KONG for its narrative element
The best answer here, however, is
just a "you won t know until you
try it" laugh The pool hall mys
tique does get a foothold in some
arcades, handed down from the un
informed fears of River City. Not
worth huffing at.
Attack #5: Audio visual coor
dlnator and part-time TV talk show
host Scott Parsons says, "The real
question Is whether video games
are more addictive than other ad
dictive things, and I think they are
The manufacturers are just begin
ning to realize how to capitalize
upon this aspect of the games
Rebuff: None Change the sub
ject. He is right
•My baby's spending ah het^d cUmb.
Dodging monger, electronic toy.
SheTreams of centipedes and fleas,
invaded all my W
(Chorus)
S tVe’Sme/g^sh^ ^ monster feasts
Hear the blips and boops^^
SEES ‘SS 5ft “*
In the video arcade
"te«»anJ *°°J£ ^oS'S'brisim* «*»
£ »V we spen, -
life
che f,„ures out attack plans
Siill She'd rather run htm round
The answer is, 1 guess, ^
To learn “ Pl^jde her on adjoining stool.
s;'™;.«w«"-ir .»;»»*
If she discovers Donkey ‘ na be her fool
1 know that ha»ry monkey s gum_
LEVEL FIVE
The sexual component of video
games isn't due to suggestive im
ages on the screen. There are very
few — if any — of these and they're
lx-st left to the archaic pinball era.
Instead, sexuality becomes both
sublimated and transformed into
metaphor during the experience of
videogaming.
The DEFENDER player, for
example, needs a physical position
ing over the machine that allows
no room for distraction Me may
have to use an elbow to fly into
hyperspace, since both his hands
and all his mental (sower must be
intricately aligned with the buttons
and joystick. As he defends his hu
manoids ami planet against the in
vaders, the emotional experience
grows into one of serious right
eousness and a do-right edge of
will The humanoids, of course, are
androgynous.
Winning any of the video games
at best entitles you to put your ini
tials at the top of the board.
Machismo conquest and egotism
can trail one whose initials fre
quently are seen on various ma
chines and in various arcades
"Stud" has become one common
designation for a games adept,
while "wimp" is the sort of conge
nial taunt allocated one who fails.
Sex linking the games made a
breakthrough with PAC, MAN, the
first video game to attract as many
women as men One regular male
player insists it is the perfect pick
up ploy, offering a round ol PA(.
MAN as an opening line. Because
the yellow Japanese gobbling ball
survived the sex test better than
any before it, the new game MS
PAC MAN has now been introduced,
in which a female gobbler, wearing
a ribbon and dancing in circles
when captured, moves in pink and
yellow mazes and through a dual
set of Freudian tunnels. Special in
terboards depict the new Pac
Woman falling in love with the
Original, a First (but probably not
the last) in the infant world of
video game evolution.
LEVEL SIX
Philosophical Finish
A bored kid sits on his stool,
watching the yellow PAC-MAN run
by itself toward the bottom left
wall l.ix)k, Ma, no hands, he seems
to want to say, but to whom? No
one is watching, no one cares, anil
the I>oy hesitates briefly before con
tinning his pattern play to rack up
impressive points. Having spent his
lunch money to be here, he has
achieved the ultimate goal of video
games: success by saturation.
The theory of entertainment is
that the formula shouldn't change
F.ntertainment is a commodity
which trades I test when quality con
trol is high, standard, and utterly
predictable An, on the other hand,
makes us nervous, challenges our
assumptions, involves change, and
lives on risk McDonald s hanihuf
gets, with across the country uni
fortuity In Its product, make a good
case Idr entertainment fixxl
The movies rely upon a great
deal of repetition sometimes
called sequels to Ixilsier Ixtx ol
flee That's entertainment Movies,
however, are trying hard now to
win back the dollars that video
games have stolen away from them
Five billion dollars were grossed by
the video games Industry In l‘)g|,
only $2 H billion came to the movie
lx>x office Hollvwixx! is wasting no
time getting the attractive video
image onto the big screen I'm afte
front \cu York and Wnlfcn were
lust two of last year s movies to tea
ture video-generated techniques,
and Walt Disney Studios have re
leased Tron, a feature-length com
puter animated film about life
within the videogames reality. (One
might be tempted to claim that Star
Wars inspired the videogames
boom — and there is some connec
tion — but the first computer game
was called SPACE WAR, created in
1962 by Steve Russell.) More than
this, film exhibitors are bringing
games into the lobbies of the
theaters, hoping to augment the
concessions income which already
accounts for the largest percentage
of a theater owner's income.
Movies are just an excuse. That's
entertainment, too.
Are video games art? Of course
not. For a quarter you get a
scenario that is infallible and pre
dictable, like a good 48* ham
burger. But with that limitation, you
also get a chance to interact in
ways Raiders of the Ixxst Ark never
could provide, and the aesthetic
experience is quite likely of a
higher order on the tjnachines than
at the movie. The game lets you re
late, revise, devise, experience all
the synthetic emotions of hate, fear,
anxiety, and (with MS. PAC MAN)
even romance. You come away
sweating, and you — not Indiana
Jones — have done something
about the survival of the plastic
planet. Aldous Huxley’s prediction
of participation “feelies” in Brave
New World may only be as fat away
as 3-D and holographic video
games.
Not since classical music has am
entertainment form allowed as
much fascination within a rigidly
fixed form. The rigid guidelines of
a Bach fugue — consistent within a
strict structure — have a symmetry
and recursive design already
praised highly by computerists. It
takes many many listenings before
one tires of the intricate music
that's hard to unwind. Video games
are as constricted as a sonnet, yet
— like Wordsworth's praise of that
confinement have the beauty of
playing within pure form. The
games may provide the revenge of
the IV generations We re capable
of talking luck at last, we re finally
getting our crack
Monotony, uniformity, and hyp
nosls have their place in coping
with a rough world where
sportsmanship is largely a game for
hypocrites. A quarter may give com
fort. II Marcuse or Mcl.uhan were
alive today, much hypothesizing
altout the future of a planet popu
lated by video gamers could lx- ex
pected
Are games really that important?
Hesse thought so when he wrote
//>*• (Hass Htskl (lame, predicting a
world where gaming controlled all
politics, religion, and language. Cer
tain lx the Zen archer would have
DEFENDER blisters on his hands
Even it artificially induced, the
hypnosis" of video games creates
an intense emotional concern,
something re ter reel to in the Sixties
as “involvement." Maybe it will
spread to other human realms once
the feeling is reawakened The
more things change, the more they
stay tlte same 1'he universe recy
cles and is saved once again insert
coin.