My friend and I were talking about the new Star Trek: Picard recently, and he was complaining about how the series wasn’t the same as The Next Generation.
“The universe has gotten darker and everyone just shoots everyone,” he said, “and the admirals are all inexplicably evil.”
“Well, that’s to be expected,” I responded, “the media we love tend to grow and change as the people who make them grow and change.” (I didn’t have the heart to remind him that Star Trek admirals have always been evil, though.)
That got me thinking about the video games I always love: how have they changed over time, and how might they continue to evolve? I’m, of course, speaking only from my perspective, as a boy born in the 1980s who grew up with popular video game trends practically marketed specifically towards my demographic.
Let’s start where I started, in the late 80s to late 90s, in what I’m going to arbitrarily call the Childhood Era. This was when arcade games were reaching the end of their popularity and 3rd gen and 4th gen video game consoles (notably 1983’s Famicom/NES, 1990’s Super NES, and 1988’s Sega Genesis) were coming in strong.
Early classics like Super Mario Bros (1983), Sonic The Hedgehog (1991), and Pokemon (1996) emphasised things that children my age would like – fun gameplay and fun characters.
I love this era – realism and common sense never got in the way of play or sheer joy and wonder of these digital playgrounds for kids. Why does eating a mushroom make a plumber large? Doesn’t matter, it’s fun! How does Pokemon biology work? Who cares, I’m going to spend the rest of my life catching these critters!
Of course, there are exceptions to this arbitrary rule; for example, the beautifully melancholic action RPGs (role-playing games) Illusion Of Gaia (1993) and Terranigma (1995) explored the profound sadness and joy to be found in the transience of life... though those concepts flew over my head, because by the late 90s/early 2000s, I entered the Teenager Era, where all the cool games were rated M for Mature, Blood, Guns and Explosions. This era is very embarrassing, in retrospect.
The cartoonish 2D violence of Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) turned into the gritty realistic 3D violence of GTA 3 (2001) and San Andreas (2004), and games enjoyed using the new “high fidelity” 3D graphics of 5th gen & 6th gen consoles like the PlayStation and PS2 to render bloody scenes of carnage.
God Of War (2005) is perhaps the best example of this era; it starred Kratos, the incarnation of senseless violence, graphically murdering giants and Greek gods, pausing only to engage in “sexy” minigames with topless participants.
To a teenage boy’s brain, this is goshdarn awesome, but from a proper adult’s perspective, these “mature” games are anything but. Actual maturity, as I’ve come to realise, involves a lot more sensible responsibility and respecting people, and a lot less cathartic violence.
Which explains why no actual adult I know has ever uttered, “Gosh honey, work was really hard today because Johnson from Accounting kept badgering me for my finance forms... so I had to rip out his spine and put his head on a stake as a warning to others. Let’s just order takeaway tonight.”
Thankfully, mainstream video games stopped being so pointlessly edgy after that – I consider the late 2000s onwards to be the Working Adult With A Family Era, when the gamers of my generation become professional game developers while also starting their own families.
A large number of popular triple-A titles became introspective and started to use cinematic storytelling techniques to tell narratives full of character growth and weightier themes of responsibility.
It also helps that the 7th gen & 8th gen consoles are now able to render beards in great detail, because for some reason, this was also the era of Daddy Games.
Daddy Games are where main characters are defined by fatherhood. The Last Of Us (2013) and Telltale’s The Walking Dead (2012) are two strangely specific examples of post-apocalyptic scenarios where a grizzled man is given a child to protect because they’re the last semblance of innocence and hope in this god-forsaken world, etcetera, etcetera.
Even Kratos (God Of War, 2018) gets in on the action. The man who once ripped a Greek god’s head off and used it as a flashlight! What kind of fatherly advice will this murderous man give when the school calls to say his son started a playground fight? “Boy, what you did was wrong... next time, leave no witnesses.”
Oddly, I haven’t encountered any major Mommy Games, and no, Cooking Mama doesn’t count. Maybe I’m not exposing myself to enough video games (e.g. What Remains Of Edith Finch comes to mind), or maybe the triple-A video games industry still has an issue with gender representation. Hmm.
The closest thing to Mommy Games for me are Metroid 2 (1991) and Super Metroid (1994), where protagonist Samus Aran adopts a baby alien jellyfish, and that baby gets kidnapped by a space pirate dragon, and then Samus goes to rescue it but is nearly defeated by the final boss, and then the baby alien sacrifices itself so its adopted mother can shoot lasers at a giant evil brain.
I asked my own mum if this is a close enough approximation to the experience of motherhood, but she hasn’t given me a conclusive answer yet, so I’ll have to assume: yes.
So now I’m wondering: what’s next? What kind of games will I play once gamers of my generation join the uncles and aunties era? What will I play when I’m much older, have a lot more free time in retirement, and I just want an excuse to go out and meet some friends?
OH! I’m just going to play Pokemon Go, aren’t I? I am going to spend the rest of my life catching these critters!
(Raised by wild Nintendo consoles and trained in the ways of the computer scientist, Shaun A. Noordin tries to use his knowledge of web development, technology and video games for the greater good. Or for entertainment and amusement, whichever is easier. He has a lot of advice, but they’re all inadvisable to follow.)
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
