E-games: come in spinner

With so much content churn in the media these days, it’s hard to know what is real and what is spin. Most of our modern ideas about the uses of the intellect were formed by the printed word, as were our ideas about education, knowledge, truth and information.

As typography moves to the periphery of our culture and visual entertainment takes its place at the center, the seriousness, clarity and, above all, value of public discourse dangerously declines.

As a former ‘spin doctor’ my meter is highly attuned to spin and waffle and there is no greater purveyors of dodgy facts and post facto reconstructions than the Australian electronic games industry.

Recently the Sydney Morning Herald carried a particularly fine example of Australian games industry bull dust which appeared under Catherine Armitage’s byline called ‘All work and no play thing of the past.’

Armitage is an excellent journalist and as this was a news review, she merely reported what she was told.

The article’s first sentence does not bode well. ‘Being at work is often like being in a computer game. You need to keep away from the beasts and monsters and build up your protective resources.’ What? Does it really?

The article draws parallels and metaphors between the corporate environment and the type of scenarios found in games such as Minecraft and Assassins Creed.

These games are fantasy projections which appeal to young men - predominantly in their late teens and 20s - who, instead of exercising their charm and magnetic sexuality on the opposite sex, have turned it inwards to battle monsters emerging from their repressed libidos.

The article cites a number of major Australian organisations that are using electronic games to praise their employees. I checked this out. There are no such programs. Indeed Telstra closed down its Second Life site because it could find no commercial application for the program.

If you want to praise your staff ignore the mindless tokenism of sending smiley faces for a job well done - give them a raise, allow them flexible work times or pay for them to study.

The article’s confusion turns around a simple point: simulations are not electronic games. Simulations help in training pilots, surgeons and train drivers. In medicine high definition 3D imaging is most useful for practicing delicate and difficult operations.

But note that while there is overlap in the technology, simulations and program scripted electronic games are two entirely different concepts.

For example, Qantas pilots routinely have to practice emergency procedures on simulators but rarely do they also have to battle monsters dressed in S&M leather to save a barely dressed young woman from being ravished by a beast who looks like Tony Abbott in Speedos.

The Apollo astronauts learnt the numerous computer codes to fly and land on the moon in a simulator. This had absolutely nothing to do with the type of programming or scenario setting with today’s electronic games.

The whole notion of ‘gamification’ is a ridiculous and meaningless gerund concocted by the electronic games lobby. They want more development subsidies for their products and they will say and do anything to get them.

Indeed, the sad fact is that a considerable amount of imagery and plotting for these games is pornographic and denigrates women to such a degree that if mothers knew what sort of fantasist role playing their boys were engaged in, they would have conniptions.

The article goes on to quote social media advocate Lauren Papworth who says that Generation Y “are video gamers, so they are very used to the concept of micro tasks within a collaborative whole.” Huh?

Why ask a social media expert about business management theory? And does she mean teamwork? There is absolutely no statistical or trialed evidence that electronic games make for better team players or happier workers.

One would think that the electronic gamer lobbyists would cite some major European or American studies about the unforeseen benefits of electronic games. The citation would start something like:

“A three year study by Stanford University or MIT has found that those who play electronic games have a greater chance of being a CEO, making a million dollars before they hit 25 or bedding more women than Warren Beatty.”

Here’s the truth. There is absolutely no benefit to any commercial organisation of using any form of gaming to enhance profitability. Not a hint. Nada.

And here’s why. The electronic gamers industry knows that for all of the spin and hoopla, they are hawking a product that is at war with the rising zeitgeist of authenticity. While I am not a great fan of the Greens and some of their allies, their pursuit of an unmediated and unscripted life, has merit in a world whose moral and ethical compass is spinning wildly.

The electronic games industry is pushing video technology and computer programming as a kind of panacea to the problems which corporate Australia faces.

Alas, many of the problems corporate Australia faces are due entirely to ignoring market realities such as a looming energy crisis and radical demographic workforce change. They need people hawking electronic games like a chocolate teapot needs hot water.

The electronic games industry knows that university courses such as those at RMIT, QUT and Bond University, are packed to the gunnels with students studying gaming (programing and scripting), who have no hope in hell of getting a job in Australia. Between them, they currently have about 400 students enrolled in game-type programs.

In fact the Australian electronic games industry is in serious trouble. Last year saw the closure of Melbourne's Blue Tongue, Brisbane's THQ Australiastudios as well and Team Bondi studios.

These closures threw hundreds of people out of work. Before them Pandemic,Visceral Games, Transmission Games, Red Tribe, Auran, Melbourne House, Ratbag and Krome crashed. These were major gaming studios.

When KMM Brisbane shut late last year, the studio's art director, Jason Stark, "We've all expected the industry to be shrinking - it's been bad times. It's gone from being a mild contraction to being pretty much obliterated," Stark told ABC radio.

Australian game industry website Tsumea announced in 2011 that there were approximately 931 of people employed making games in Australia. Insiders put the real figure at about 700. That’s a massive drop since 2007 when the Australian Bureau of Statistics reportedthat 1431 people were employed in games development around Australia.

If you have more than 400 students enrolled in games based university courses where there are only 700 currently filled positions, you have a major problem.

That’s the real story.