Are video games getting a bad rap?

Soap Box Rants

A WEEKLY COLUMN to CopyLine Magazine

 

By Pamela Bratcher-McMillan
President, Chair & CEO, of PETAL et al.

 

It’s funny how I keep hearing “video games are bad,” “they make people violent,” or this or that company had to close down.

Well, guess what folks? It’s a lot of bull. While the population, mainly the game designers and developers know better and how endless the opportunities are, those that know nothing about the game universe are trying to steer or discourage the pursuit of happiness, making games!

First of all, video game development encompasses so many skills that could be used toward any job. For example, project and product management skills are used in game development and many other jobs, particularly in IT. Game programming languages are programming languages, nothing mystical or magical, just coding in languages like C#, C++, Javascript, Java, Python, and customized languages. The list goes on and on. Music and Art could have really enhanced that presentation you had to give at work, school or at your favorite function; not to mention the leadership and entrepreneurial skills that puts anyone with the passion in a position to run their own software development or publishing company or just contract out skills for someone else’s project.

And who doesn’t need to know math? Math skills are useful in all types of jobs. Scriptwriting and storyboarding writing skills are important for writing papers, manuals, magazines, descriptions, etc. The good thing about scriptwriting is that you can make some otherwise boring materials concise, entertaining and captivating to the reader. Storyboarding is a good way to hold students’ attention or make that advertising pitch make sense to a potential client or game strategy for a team of football players.

Above all of this, what about the great educational video games that have helped children, teens and adults learn and retain information because it was just plain fun?  There is also video game design in structured learning, simulation, training and recruitment. Don’t put that controller down yet.

The bottom line is, video games are a multibillion dollar industry that is doing quite well, especially with handheld devices not appearing to be going anywhere and online playing is growing. Gamers and casual gamers are always looking for that next new, brilliant and beautiful game to encourage their friends to install or play with them online.

For those that can’t keep up, check out what O*Net has to say about Video Game Designers job positions. It is an industry with a bright outlook. And if you get tired of making games (I can’t imagine why), you could use those software and application development skills in another industry with a bright outlook, programmer.

So to all the colleges and universities that think this is not a viable program to keep in your schools, think again. If the interest isn’t there, you probably are not marketing it correctly. And to everybody trying to give the industry a bad rap, your time would be best served to consider how to get into the game.

Pamela Bratcher-McMillan is a technology Expert and President, Chair & CEO, of PETAL et al.