Rock, Paper, Shotgun

If you were listening to BBC Radio 4 earlier this morning, you’d have heard the presenters of the Today programme poking that most ancient, tedious and meaningless of chestnuts – are games art? While it was grand indeed to hear Auntie’s invaluable but oft-haughty talk station taking games this seriously, everyone involved loses points for not saying “it just doesn’t matter, and why does no-one bother to have this argument about JLS records?” And for repeatedly using the term “computer games”. That said, GameCity judge Charlie Higson did attempt to educate listeners on the matter of gaming being impossibly broad and changeable rather than neatly fitting one category or description, so there was talk of worth in there.

The spur for the discussion was the weekend just gone’s GameCity festival in Nottingham, and its attempt to bring about a videogames equivalent of the Man Booker prize for literature.
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I’ve been meaning to blog about this all week, but with the preparation for The Road Trip (i.e. Trying to find my copy of Munchkin), I haven’t had time. And now it’s almost too late. The key word, being “almost”. It’s the last day of GameCity 3 in Nottingham today, so anyone in the area of the home of Rock City could pop into by any of the following events…
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It was the best of times. It was the worst of timetabling. Somehow, in the videogame cultural desert that is the UK, two progressive, forward looking and fun videogame events got scheduled in the same week.

Nottingham’s GameCity, in its second year, “explores videogames in new ways, trying to uncover the most interesting parts of their culture and inviting you to join in. You’ll find games to play, speakers to hear and talk with, music to dance to and plenty of surprises. We hope you’ll discover something you’ll love”. Meanwhile, the London Games Festival features “diverse events in different venues for different audiences. Whether you’re a gamer, a parent needing advice on games, someone working in the industry, or just want to find out more about how games work and where the future of entertainment will take us, this is a festival for you.” Which makes you think that the Nottingham one, with clear Indie Cred, would be the one the always-ready-to-posture RPS would back up.

It’s certainly what GameCity organiser, the ever-sharp Iain Simmons would argue. “The fact that we’re independent gives us a mandate to do anything we want”, he argues in his GamesIndustry.biz interview. “From what I can gather, we’re trying to do quite different things.” he continues, “The fact that we’re independent and we’re not industry run – not instigated by ELSPA or a publisher’s point of view – gives us a mandate to do anything we want.” Except it’s not that simple. The London Festival is of such a size that it has its own Fringe. Our contacts inside argue that they’re probably just as “independent” as GameCity, and the events are mostly free to get into.

So, being videogames, the only way to settle this is a HEAD TO HEAD DEATHMATCH WHERE I AWARD POINTS FOR RANDOM BITS OF THEIR PROGRAM WHICH CATCH MY EYE.
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