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Top of FormBottom of Form | | | | | | | | | HOME ABOUT US FAQS TRAFFIC CONTACT US TEACHERS' CORNER SUPPORT US DONORS & SPONSORSSelect Language ▼ | | | | | Do violent video games contribute to youth violence? Micro Site | | 97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence.

Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.

Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may reduce violence by serving as a substitute for rough and tumble play and by providing a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings. Read more... | Did You Know? | | Pro & Con Arguments | | Top Pro & Con Quotes | | Background | | Video Gallery | | Comments | | | | | Video Games ProCon.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit website that presents facts, studies, and pro and con statements on questions related to whether or not video games contribute to youth violence. | Did You Know? | Sales of video games have more than quadrupled from 1995-2008, while the arrest rate for juvenile murders fell 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes declined 49.3% in this same period. The 2008 study Grand Theft Childhood reported that 60% of middle school boys that played at least one Mature-rated game hit or beat up someone, compared to 39% of boys that did not play Mature-rated games. California passed a law in 2005 that would have required violent video games to include an "18" label and criminalized the sale of these games to minors. On June 27, 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association (485 KB) that the law violated free speech rights. Following the controversy involving hidden sexually explicit content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then-Senator of New York Hillary Clinton introduced a bill in 2005 to criminalize selling "Mature" or "Adults Only" rated video games to minors, arguing that video games were a "silent epidemic of desensitization." The Family Entertainment Protection Act was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and expired at the end of the 109th Congress without becoming law. In 2008, 298.2 million video games were sold in the US, totaling $11.7 billion in revenue. Six of the top ten best-selling video games included violence, with four of the games carrying a "Mature" rating recommended for persons aged 17 and older. | | | | Pro & Con Arguments: "Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?" | PRO Contribute to Youth Violence Increasing reports of bullying can be partially attributed to the popularity of violent video games. The 2008 study Grand Theft Childhood reported that 60% of middle school boys who played at least one Mature-rated game hit or beat up someone, compared to 39% of boys that did not play Mature-rated games. [2] Video games often reward players for simulating violence, and thus enhance the learning of violent behaviors. Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit increased aggressive behavior (112 KB) compared to players of video games where violence is punished. Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence. It is common for victims in video games to disappear off screen when they are killed or for players to have multiple lives. In a 2005 study, violent video game exposure has been linked to reduced P300 amplitudes in the brain (275 KB) , which is associated with desensitization to violence and increases in aggressive behavior. A 2000 FBI report (187 KB) includes playing violent video games in a list of behaviors associated with school shootings. Violent video games teach youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy (193 KB) and an appropriate way to achieve one's goals. A 2009 study found that youth who play violent video games have lower belief in the use of nonviolent strategies and are less forgiving than players of nonviolent video games. Violent video games cause players to associate pleasure and happiness with the ability to cause pain in others. [3] Young children are more likely to confuse fantasy violence with real world violence, and without a framework for ethical decision making, they may mimic the actions they see in violent video games. [4] Violent video games require active participation, repetition, and identification with the violent character. With new game controllers allowing more physical interaction, the immersive and interactive characteristics of video games can increase the likelihood of youth violence. [5] Playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior and arousal (162 KB) . A 2009 study found that it takes up to four minutes for the level of aggressive thoughts and feelings in children to return to normal after playing violent video games. It takes five to ten minutes for heart rate and aggressive behavior to return to baseline. Video games that show the most blood generate more aggressive thoughts. When blood is present in video games, there is a measurable increase in arousal and hostility (144 KB) . Playing violent video games causes the development of aggressive behavioral scripts (141 KB) . A behavioral script is developed from the repetition of actions and affects the subconscious mind. An example of a common behavioral script is a driving script that tells drivers to get in a vehicle, put on a seat belt, and turn on the ignition. Similarly, violent video games can lead to scripts that tell youth to respond aggressively in certain situations. Violence in video games may lead to real world violence when scripts are automatically triggered in daily life, such as being nudged in a school hallway. A 1998 study found that 21% of games sampled involved violence against women (165 KB) . Exposure to sexual violence in video games is linked to increases in violence towards women and false attitudes about rape (47 KB) such as that women incite men to rape or that women secretly desire rape. Several studies in both the United States and Japan have shown that, controlling for prior aggression, children who played more violent video games during the beginning of the school year showed more aggression than their peers (288 KB) later in the school year. Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy in players (192 KB) . In a 2004 study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Professor Jeanne Funk, violent video games were the only type of media associated with lower empathy. Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another's feelings, plays an important role in the process of moral evaluation and is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior. When youth view violence in video games, they are more likely to fear becoming a victim of acts of violence. According to a 2000 joint statement by six leading national medical associations including the American Medical Association and American Psychological Association, this escalated fear results in youth not trusting others and taking violent self-protective measures (103 KB) . Violent video games can train youth to be killers. The US Marine Corps licensed Doom II in 1996 to create Marine Doom in order to train soldiers. In 2002, the US Army released first-person shooter America's Army to recruit soldiers and prepare recruits for the battlefield. [6] | CON Contribute to Youth Violence Violent juvenile crime in the United States has been declining as violent video game popularity has increased. The arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71.9% between 1995 and 2008. The arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes has declined 49.3%. In this same period, video game sales have more than quadrupled. [7] [8] A causal link between violent video games and violent behavior has not been proven (112 KB) . Many studies suffer from design flaws and use unreliable measures of violence and aggression such as noise blast tests. Thoughts about aggression have been confused with aggressive behavior, and there is a lack of studies that follow children over long periods of time. A 2004 US Secret Service review of previous school-based attacks found that one-eighth of attackers exhibited an interest in violent video games, less than the rate of interest attackers showed in violent movies, books, and violence in their own writings (1.6 MB) . The report did not find a relationship between playing violent video games and school shootings. The small correlations that have been found between video games and violence may be explained by violent youth being drawn to violent video games. Violent games do not cause youth to be violent. Instead, youth that are predisposed to be violent seek out violent entertainment such as video games. Playing violent video games reduces violence in adolescent boys by serving as a substitute for rough and tumble play (115 KB) . Playing violent video games allows adolescent boys to express aggression and establish status in the peer group without causing physical harm. Video game players understand they are playing a game. Their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life. [9] Playing violent video games provides a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings. A 2007 study (261 KB) reported that 45% of boys played video games because "it helps me get my anger out" and 62% played because it "helps me relax." Violent video games provide healthy and safe opportunities for children to virtually explore rules and consequences of violent actions. Violent games also allow youth to experiment with issues such as war, violence and death (211 KB) without real world consequences. The level of control granted to video game players, especially in terms of pace and directing the actions of their character, allows youth to regulate their emotional state during play (601 KB) . Research shows that a perception of being in control reduces emotional and stressful responses to events. Alarmist claims similar to current arguments against violent video games have been made in the past when new media such as radio, movies, and television have been introduced. Claims that these various mediums would result in surges in youth violence also failed to materialize. Violent video games may affect the form of violence (191 KB) , but does not cause the violence to occur. Youth might model violent acts on what they have seen in video games, but the violence would still occur in the absence of video games. Exposure to violent video games has not been shown to be predictive of violent behavior or crime. Any link found between video games and violence is best explained by other variables such as exposure to family violence and aggressive personality. [10] When research does show that violent video games cause more arousal and aggression, it is because the comparative game is less exciting (286 KB) . A short-term increase in arousal and aggression does not mean a child is going to leave his or her house and commit a violent act. In 2005, the US had 2,279 murders committed by teenagers (27.9 per million residents) compared to 73 in Japan (3.1 per million). Per capita video game sales were $5.20 in the US compared to $47 in Japan. This example illustrates that there is no correlation between violent behavior and playing video games. [11] [12] [13] | | | Background: "Do violent video games contribute to youth violence? | (Click to enlarge image) | Mature-rating assigned by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board
Source: Deanne Fitzmaurice, "Video-game Ban Considered by Appeals Court," www.sfgate.com, Oct. 30, 2008 |
97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence. [1]

Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.

Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may reduce violence by serving as a substitute for rough and tumble play and by providing a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings.

The debate over violent video games can be traced back to the 1976 release of the game Death Race (191 KB) . The object of the game was to run over screaming "gremlins" with a car, at which point they would turn into tombstones. Controversy erupted because the "gremlins" resembled stick-figure humans, and it was reported that the working title of the game was Pedestrian. After protestors dragged Death Race machines out of arcades and burned them in parking lots, production of the game ceased.
(Click to enlarge image) | Chart showing the decline in violent crime offenses and increases in video game sales from 1996-2004.
Source: "Chasing the Dream," www.economist.com, Aug. 4, 2005 |
In 1993, public outcry following the release of violent video games Mortal Kombat and Night Trap prompted Congress to hold hearings on regulating the sale of video games. During the hearings, California Attorney General Dan Lungren testified that violent video games have "a desensitizing impact on young, impressionable minds." [14] Threatened with the creation of a federal regulatory commission, the video game industry voluntarily established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) on Sep. 1, 1994 to create a ratings system. Based on the video game's content, the ESRB assigns one of the following ratings: "Early Childhood," "Everyone," "Everyone 10+," "Teen," "Mature," or "Adults Only." In a 2008 survey, 50% of boys and 14% of girls aged 12-17 listed a game with a "Mature" or "Adults Only" rating (6.78 MB) in their current top three favorite games.
(Click to enlarge image) | Political cartoon about video games and school shootings.
Source: Brian Fairrington, "School Shooting Influence," available on www.caglecartoons.com, Mar. 29, 2005 |
The controversy over violent video games resurfaced following the massacre of 13 people at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, CO on Apr. 20, 1999. The two teenage shooters were revealed to be avid players of weapon-based combat games Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Following the shooting, 176 newspaper articles across the country focused on the allegation that video games were the cause of the tragedy (955 KB) .

A 2005 resolution (47 KB) by the American Psychological Association called for the reduction of violence in video games marketed to youth because of possible links between video games and aggression towards women. In response to the discovery of disabled but accessible sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then-Senator of New York Hillary Clinton introduced a bill in 2005 to criminalize selling "Mature" or "Adults Only" rated video games to minors, arguing that video games were a "silent epidemic of desensitization." [15] The bill died in committee at the end of the 109th Congress.

On Oct. 7, 2005, California passed a law that required violent video games to include an "18" label and criminalized the sale of these games to minors.
(Click to enlarge image) | Screenshot of controversial violent video game Death Race. The object of this 1976 game was to run over "gremlins" with your car.
Source: "Death Race Remake Recalls First Violent Game Controversy," kotaku.com, Aug. 2, 2008 |
The law was blocked by the US District Court for the Northern District of California and was struck down in Feb. 2009 by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals citing First Amendment protections and the inability of the state to demonstrate a link between violence in video games and real-world violence. As of Dec. 2008, six other state statutes and two city ordinances (539 KB) concerning the sale of violent video games to minors have been stricken down on similar grounds. On June 27, 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association (485 KB) that the California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors violated free speech rights. In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "A state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm... but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”

Within hours of the Virginia Tech shooting on Apr. 16, 2007, attorney and anti-game activist Jack Thompson appeared on Fox News to blame the tragedy on the violent game Counter-Strike. Other high-profile figures such as television host Dr. Phil McGraw and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that video games were to blame for the shooting. However, it was later revealed by the Virginia Tech Review Panel that the shooter did not play video games (279 KB) .
(Click to enlarge image) | Image from 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV.
Source: "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned," www.ign.com, Feb. 12, 2009 |
Critics of violent video games argue that playing violent games desensitizes players to real-life violence and is responsible for the increasing rates of bullying. In 2007, 32% of students aged 12-18 reported being bullied at school (1.9 MB) , compared to 5% in 1999 (2.2 MB) . Some researchers are concerned that violent video games teach children that violence is an acceptable approach to solving conflicts and achieving goals.

Defenders of violent video games argue that the research has failed to show a causal link between video games and real-world violence. They argue that correlations between video games and violent behavior can be explained by youth predisposed to violence being attracted to violent entertainment. Additionally, if video games do cause youth to be violent, then one would expect juvenile violent crime to increase as more youth play violent video games. Instead, the arrest rate for juvenile violent
(Click to enlarge image) | Results of a 2008 Pew survey on the favorite video games of teens
Source: "Teens, Video Games, and Civics," Pew Internet and American Life Project website, Sep. 16, 2008 | crimes has fallen 49.3% between 1995 and 2008, while video game sales have quadrupled in the same period. [16]

Several games have garnered significant media attention, including 2004's JFK assassination reenactment JFK Reloaded, 2005's Columbine shooting reenactment Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, and 2006's RapeLay, a Japanese video game where the player stalks and rapes a mother and her two daughters. Prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on to gross $550 million in the first five days after its Nov. 10, 2009 release, leaked footage of the game stirred enough controversy that publisher Activision issued a response defending the game's violent imagery. [17] [18]

In 2008, 298.2 million video games were sold in the US alone, totaling $11.7 billion in revenue (2.7 MB) . Six of the top ten best-selling video games (789 KB) in 2008 included violence, with four of the games carrying a "Mature" rating recommended for persons aged 17 and older.

Worldwide sales of video games are predicted to reach $73.5 billion by 2013. [19] As games get more sophisticated and realistic, the debate over whether or not children should be exposed to violent video games continues. | | | Video Gallery (click to watch video) | | |

Video Game Development - Wikipedia
Overview
Game development is the software development process by which a video game is produced.[1] Games are developed as a creative outlet[2] and to generate profit.[3] Development is normally funded by a publisher.[4] Well-made games bring profit more readily.[5] However, it is important to estimate a game's financial requirements,[6] such as development costs of individual features.[7] Failing to provide clear implications of game's expectations may result in exceeding allocated budget.[6] In fact, the majority of commercial games do not produce profit.[8][r 1] Developers such as BioWare, Blizzard Entertainment, and id Software are renowned for releasing quality games on completion, rather than being constrained by financial limitations.[9] However, most developers cannot afford changing development schedule and require estimating their capabilities with available resources before production.[10]
The game industry requires innovations, as publishers cannot profit from constant release of repetitive sequels and imitations.[11] Every year new independent development companies open and some manage to develop hit titles. Similarly, many developers close down because they cannot find a publishing contract or their production is not profitable.[12] It is difficult to start a new company due to high initial investment required.[13] Nevertheless, growth of casual and mobile game market has allowed developers with smaller teams to enter the market. Once the companies become financially stable, they may expand to develop larger games.[12] Most developers start small and gradually expand their business.[13] A developer receiving profit from a successful title may store up a capital to expand and re-factor their company, as well as tolerate more failed deadlines.[14]
An average development budget for a multiplatform game is US$18-28M, with high-profile games often exceeding more than $40M.[r 2]
In the early era of home computers and video game consoles in the early 1980s, a single programmer could handle almost all the tasks of developing a game — programming, graphical design, sound effects, etc.[15][16][r 3] It could take as little as six weeks to develop a game.[16] However, the high user expectations and requirements[16] of modern commercial games far exceed the capabilities of a single developer and require the splitting of responsibilities.[17] A team of over a hundred people can be employed full-time for a single project.[r 3]
Game development, production, or design is a process that starts from an idea or concept.[18][19][20][21] Often the idea is based on a modification of an existing game concept.[18][22] The game idea may fall within one or several genres.[23] Designers often experiment with different combinations of genres.[23][24] Game designer usually produces initial game proposal document, that contains the concept, gameplay, feature list, setting and story, target audience, requirements and schedule, staff and budget estimates.[25] Different companies have different formal procedures[26] and philosophies[26][27] regarding game design and development. There is no standardized development method; however commonalities exist.[27][28]
Game development is undertaken by a game developer—ranging from an individual to a large company. There can be independent or publisher-owned studios.[29] Independent developers rely on financial support from a game publishers.[30] They usually have to develop a game from concept to prototype without external funding. The formal game proposal is then submitted to publishers, who may finance the game development from several months to years. The publisher would retain exclusive rights to distribute and market the game and would often own the intellectual property rights for the game franchise.[29] Publisher's company may also own the developer's company,[29][31] or it may have internal development studio(s). Generally the publisher is the one who owns the game's intellectual property rights.[r 1]
All but the smallest developer companies work on several titles at once. This is necessary because of the time taken between shipping a game and receiving royalty payments, which may be between 6 to 18 months. Small companies may structure contracts, ask for advances on royalties, use shareware distribution, employ part-time workers and use other methods to meet payroll demands.[32]
Console manufacturers, such as Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony, have a standard set of technical requirements that a game must conform to in order to be approved. Additionally, the game concept must be approved by the manufacturer, who may refuse to approve certain titles.[33]
Most modern games take from one to three years to complete.[citation needed] The length of development is influenced by a number of factors, such as genre, scale, development platform and amount of assets.[citation needed]
Some games can take much longer than the average time frame to complete. An infamous example is 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, announced to be in production in April 1997 and released fourteen years later in June 2011.[r 4] Planning for Maxis' game Spore began in late 1999 and was released nine years later in September 2008.[citation needed] The game Prey was briefly profiled in a 1997 issue of PC Gamer, but was not released until 2006, and only then in highly altered form. Finally, Team Fortress 2 was in development from 1998 until its 2007 release, and emerged from a convoluted development process involving "probably three or four different games", according to Gabe Newell.[34]
The game revenue from retails is divided among the parties along the distribution chain, such as — developer, publisher, retail, manufacturer and console royalty. Many developers fail to profit from this and go bankrupt.[32] Some developers seek alternative economic models through Internet marketing and distribution channels to improve returns.[35]

Ideas for Video Games
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Getting an Idea for a New Game * By Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams * May 9, 2003
Professional game designer Andrew Rollings discusses various ways you can come up with great ideas for your next game project.
Getting an Idea for a New Game
Game ideas come from almost anywhere, but they don't walk up and introduce themselves. You can't sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. Creativity is an active, not a passive, process. You have to put yourself in an inquisitive frame of mind and then go out and look for game ideas. Look everywhere. Some of the most mundane things could be hiding a game idea. Even delivering newspapers provided the basis for a successful arcade game, Paperboy, though developers spiced up the job by letting the player break windows with the newspapers and making him dodge cars on his bicycle.
One idea isn't enough. It's a common misconception that a brilliant game idea will make you a fortune. In fact, this occurs extremely rarely. You might think you have the game idea of the century, but concentrating on it without bothering to think about other game ideas is a little like pinning all your hopes on a single lottery ticket and not bothering to get up for work while you wait to see if your numbers come up. Unlike lottery tickets, ideas are free, so think about new ones constantly. Make a note of them and go on. If one seems especially promising to you, then you can start to expand and refine it, but don't let that prevent you from thinking about other games as well. When thinking up game ideas, more is always better.
Dreaming the Dream
Many game ideas begin as dreams. Not real dreams, but daydreams, things you think about when you're staring out the window or watching the clouds on a summer afternoonæthese are the thoughts that you have when you let your mind roam free.
Computers can make dreams real. This is the unique characteristic of interactive entertainment that sets it apart from all other forms. Interactive entertainment can take you away to a wonderful place and there let you do an amazing thing. Books and movies can't do that. They can take you away to a wonderful place, but they can't let you do an amazing thing. Books and movies can create fantastic worlds and show them to you, but they can't let you be part of them. Computer games create worlds, and they can let you live inside of them as well.
A lot of computer games are light entertainment, designed to while away a few minutes with a puzzle or a simple challenge. But larger, richer games begin with a dream. If you've ever thought to yourself, "I wish I could..." or "Imagine what it would be like to...," then you've taken the first step on the road to creating a computer game. The computer has the power to simulate reality (with varying degrees of accuracy), but, more important, it has the power to simulate dreams. Computers can create almost any sort of experience you can imagine visually, even experiences that are physically impossible in the real world. The design of a computer game begins with the question, "What dream am I going to fulfill?"
Perhaps it's a dream of exploring a dungeon infested with monsters. Perhaps it's a dream of coaching a football team. Perhaps it's a dream of being a fashion designer. But before you do anything else, you must dream the dream. Understand it. Feel it. Know who else dreams it and why.
Game Ideas from Other Media
Books, movies, television, and other entertainment media are a great source of inspiration for game ideas. The game Interstate '76 (see Figure 1) was inspired by 1970s cop shows. Movies such as the James Bond series often inspire games. Any story containing an exciting action with something important at stake can form the kernel of a game. Think over the books you've read and the movies you've seen, and ask yourself whether any of the scenes in them could serve as the basis for a game.
Figure 1 Interstate '76 was a great game inspired by another medium.

You can't, of course, go stealing other people's intellectual property. Even if the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland seems like the basis for a great game, you can't go ahead and make it without Disney's approval. But you can certainly make a lighthearted game about piratesæas LucasArts did with its Monkey Island series.
You should also look beyond the usual science fiction and fantasy genres and beyond the usual sources. How about poetry? Beowulf's epic battle with the monster Grendel and then his even more terrible battle with Grendel's mother in a cave at the bottom of a lake sounds like the basis for a game. "The Charge of the Light Brigade" might make you wonder about cavalry tactics. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Would a game based on cavalry warfare be interesting to anyone? It's worth thinking about. The smash-hit game The Sims was partly inspired by a nonfiction book called A Pattern Language, which is about the way people's lives are affected by the design of their houses.
Game ideas can crop up in all sorts of unlikely places. Just as great scientists look at even the most common things in the world and ask how they work, great game designers are always looking at the world and wondering if it can be made into a game. The trick is to develop a game designer's instincts, to look for the fun and challenge even in things that don't sound like games at all.
Game Ideas from Other Games
A great many people who play computer games want to design them as well. Something about playing games stirs up people's creative juices. When you play a lot of games, you develop a sense of how they work and what their good and bad points are. Playing games is a valuable experience for a game designer. It gives insight and lets you compare and contrast the features of different games.
Sometimes we get game ideas through frustration. Most of us have had the experience, at one time or another, of playing a game that wasn't quite right somehow. The user interface was awkward, the game was too difficult, or the payoff was boring. We think, "If I had designed this game, I would have..." We have in our minds an imaginary ideal game, the one that would fix all those problems and the one that we would make if we had the chance.
To learn from other games, you have to pay attention as you play. Don't just play them for fun; look at them seriously and think about how they work. Take notes especially of things that you like or don't like and of features that seem to work particularly well or particularly badly. How do resources flow into the game? How do they flow out? How much is luck, and how much is skill?
As creative people, our instinct is to devise totally new kinds of games that have never before been seen. Unfortunately, publishers want games that they are sure they can sell, and that usually means variants on existing genres, perhaps with a new twist that they can use in marketing. This is why we keep seeing sequels and thinly disguised copies of earlier games. As designers, we have to learn to balance the tension between our own desire to innovate and the publisher's need for the comfortably familiar. Leonardo da Vinci warned against persistent imitation, however, in his Treatise on Painting:
The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the work of others as his standard; but if he will apply himself to learn from the objects of nature he will produce good results. This we see was the case with the painters who came after the Romans, for they continually imitated each other, and from age to age their art steadily declined... It is safer to go directly to the works of nature than to those which have been imitated from her originals, with great deterioration and thereby to acquire a bad method, for he who has access to the fountain does not go to the water pot.
There is a downside to deriving game ideas from other games. It tends to result in games that look or work alike. It's an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, approach. Deriving game ideas from other games is an excellent way to learn about games and gameplay, but if pursued exclusively, it produces similarity and, ultimately, mediocrity. The greatest games break new ground. They're unlike anything seen on the store shelves before. To achieve that, you have to dream.
From Dream to Game
A dream or an idea alone is only a start; it is not enough to make a game. A dream is a fantasy that you have by yourself. You can make computer games purely for yourself if you like, but most of us don't have the money to do that. A computer game is something that you make for someone else. You'll also discover after you've built a few games that playing a game that you worked on is a very different experience from playing a game that someone else has created. When you know what's on the inside and how it works, some of the fantasy is lost. Just as actors often don't watch their own movies, some game developers don't play their own games. For one thing, of course, if it's a single-player game, they already know how to beat it. But the experience, the dream, isn't quite the same when it's a game you built yourself. In your heart, you know it's an artificial simulation.
The chief purpose of a computer game is to entertain someone else. This means that you and your development team are the performers, the people who create the entertainment. An essential part of your job is communication, transmitting your dream to your audience, the players. If the game is in a well-known genre and setting (for example, a World War II flight simulator), you can be pretty certain that a number of people already share your dream. But if your game is in a new setting (a futuristic city of your imagination, for example)æand especially if it's in a new genreæyou have to be very careful and thorough in communicating your dream to others. Some of the very first questions a publishing executive is going to ask you are "Why would anyone want to play this game?" and "What's going to make someone buy this game instead of another?"
But what does it mean to entertain someone? Many people think entertainment is synonymous with having fun, but even that isn't completely straightforward. People have fun in all kinds of ways. Some of those ways involve very hard work, such as gardening or building a new deck. Some of them involve frustration, such as solving a puzzle. Some, such as athletic competitions, even involve pain. One person's entertainment is another person's insufferable boredom. In building a computer game that entertains, it's important to understand how it entertains.
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