Finishing up Koster
"Creators in all media have a social obligation to be responsible with their creations." Koster also goes on to say that all media influence there audience. Being responsible and ethics go together very nicely. It is a person's responsibility to abide by and follow the ethics of our society. If creators can become more and more responsible with their creations then some of the negativity surrounding violent video games may calm down a little bit. People will see that video games have become more responsible with their story lines and plots.
"If you took out all the sex and all the violence, you wouldn't have very many movies, books, or TV shows." This is an interesting point by Koster because there is so much negative media surrounding video games that involve sex and violence. As most marketing people say, Sex Sells! Our culture is surounded by sexual advertisments. It is not just video games that focus of sexual and violent aspects I believe it is our culture as a whole.
"Games do need to push at the boundaries." This is such a simple yet such an important quote in my mind. Video games need to continue to push the boundaries of our culture and of our imaginations. Fantasy games are so much fun because they push the boundaries outside our natural world and force us to explore the impossible. Pushing the boundaries allows us to maybe escape from the world as we know it and explore other options in video games and in life. It helps us think outside the box.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL250/2010/01/koster_160-223/#comments
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Susan Carmichael on Finishing up Koster: It is interesting that Koster
It is interesting that Koster mentions that developers need to be more responsible but push the boundaries. There needs to be a balance between the two; then maybe the negative media surrounding gaming will subside. I do think that you are correct that video games need to push the boundaries of our culture and our imaginations. If they can accomplish that, can you even imagine what our future games might be like?
Pushing the boundaries is what youth is all about. I remember when my son was first playing Myst at age three or four. He kept asking, "Can I click on this, can I go there?" It really freed him to explore, from the safety of my lap. But a clip of a child exploring a virtual website doesn't get the audience in a talk show riled up, so instead the TV producers are going to feature de-contextualized violence, perhaps with a shot of a kid's glassy-eyed stare. I'm not so sure I share quite this much optimism, at least not until the generation that accepts gaming as a normal part of life levels up to positions where they are the ones making policy.