Mainstream

[Funk Engine]

Several weeks ago in a thread, I saw a post that made me think. I saw a man who seemed completely disgusted at the thought of gaming becoming mainstream. I don't remember where I saw it or an exact quotation, but his basic thought was, "If gaming goes mainstream, it will become garbage."
Does this seem extremely ignorant and short-sighted to anyone but me? I understand the idea of "mainstream" being synonymous with "bland" or "safe", but simply not wanting gaming to become mainstream is an immensely foolish thought. If gaming as a medium of art or storytelling doesn't gain mainstream acceptance, how will we have the necessary confidence and the respect of outsiders to be able to tell interesting, controversial stories? Many games have been abandoned and shouted down do to controversy, while movies tread sensitive subject matter all the time. The difference: movies have the acceptance of the majority of people. Games don't, and until they do, they won't be able to do everything they are capable of.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

i can see both sides of the argument. i agree that the medium needs more widespread acceptance in order to be able to progress beyond what it is now, i.e. percieved to be for children. however, "mainstreaming" does tend to be synonymous with "dumbing down". so... i think it needs to move that way, but there is a fine line to tread.

 

[Gigano]

Probably more an opinion aimed at a mass market commercialization of games, where the lowest common denominators becomes the standard - for script and gameplay - to get as many sales as possible.

A somewhat justified fear, but 1): there'll always be a natural limit to how much a genre can be eviscerated before it's so ruined that sales drop, 2): as "casual gamers" becomes more and more familiar with games the complexity can be ramped (back) up, and 3): it spells an increasingly stronger market for niche games.

A medium doesn't need to be "mainstream" to be recognized as - even high - art though. Opera isn't exactly too mainstream, yet many seem to think it's a form high culture (despite the simplistic plot structure of most of them generally resembling a formulaic one from a mediocre animé, as does the lyrics with their extreme pathos).

Interesting and controversial stories are being told already anyway. Bioshock examined utopian objectivist philosophy, and Portal played around with inertia and dark comedy exceedingly well. Hell, something like Uncharted, while not the most thought provoking series in the world, succeeds very well in the enjoyable lighthearted adventure story it sets out to tell. More standing on the their shoulders and less speculations over whether what comes out of that is "mainstream" or not.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

So we are saying that games have to remove everything that is offensive to a so called mainstream in order for them to have elements that can be controversial? But not the sort of controversial elements that the mainstream doesn't like but the ones they all approve of? Is story telling mainstream and games not mainstream so (wrong controversial) game elements must be removed so (right controversial) story elements can be added?