The industry is coming under attack at a more frequent basis yet its defenders always seem to be on the defensive. Why hasn't the industry launched a preemptive strike? What is left for the industry to do to protect itself?

Absolutely correct. We are playing defense, they are playing offense, and that means they get to decide what games become the center of debate, where and when the battles take place, and they set the terms of the debate.

If the industry doesn't want to focus its energies in defending media violence, then it needs to be devoting its energies more broadly towards educating the public about games. A lot of these controversies center around the fact that games are more and more being targeted at adult players who have different tastes and interests than child consumers, while many parents blithely assume that games are mostly about speedy little hedgehogs and plucky plumbers, as if nothing has changed since the first Nintendo systems shipped. This is a danger point for any media industry—they are broadening what they are producing and parents are being indiscriminate in making choices about what is appropriate for their kids. This is what got the comics industry in trouble in the 1950s—moral reformers targeted works aimed at adults and demanded to know why they were being sold to their kids. How much thinking would it take to decide that something called Grand Theft Auto III may not be the most prosocial and family friendly game ever made? Some of the energy has to go into expanding the educational function of ratings and informing consumers to make intelligent purchases. Right now, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the overwhelming majority of game purchases are made by adults, including those where the kid is the ultimate consumer, but that doesn't mean that adults know what they are doing when they are making those purchases. I know the IDSA is in the process of re-examining its ratings system and thinking more aggressively about how to educate the lay public about it. I applaud such efforts.

We need to promote game criticism—not simply the kind of hardcore gamer targeted writing that dominates most game magazines, but more broadly humanistic criticism which helps to explain to the consuming public why innovative games are important and provide a context for thinking about the aesthetic potentials of the medium. These writers need to be entering into general interest magazines where they reach people who are not already game enthusiasts, helping them to get a fuller picture of why the medium is going and why it matters. It is nothing short of scandalous that most of what gets written about games in newspapers and magazines is preoccupied with the violence question at the expense of any broader understanding of the social and cultural impact of games.

More generally, the industry needs to be putting some of its resources behind more prosocial uses of the technologies, such as developing compelling game titles which enhance k-12 education and working to develop curricular resources around games, such as Sim City or Civilization, which already have clear pedagogical potential. This is at the heart of the work we are doing with the Games to Teach project. THey should be doing this because it is the RIGHT thing to do, but they should also recognizing that getting teachers and parents on their side, helping them to see that games can be a lot more than first person shooters, is their best line of defense against moral panics.

What kinds of games do you play if any? What kind of games do you allow (or not allow) your children to play?

I have played a pretty broad range of video games in the name of research. In truth, I have very poor hand-eye coordination so most of the hardcore gamer titles are outside my range of competency. The games I enjoy are more the classic casual player games. I loved Tetris and now spend a lot of time with Snood and Super Collapse. I also have spent a lot of time experimenting with the Sims and have gotten very interested in Animal Crossing—a kids game but one that is engagingly fun.

My son is now 21. He doesn't exactly let me pick out his game titles for him anymore. When he was younger, we tended to be pretty permissive about what we let him play but we made sure we understood what it was and what kinds of themes or images it contained. I think it is essential that parents be informed and engaged with the media their children consume. Here's one of the ways we would do this from a very early age: We'd have him make up bedtime stories which we typed into the computer; we'd print them out, he'd illustrate them, and he'd choose the best for a book to send to his grandparents for Birthdays or Christmas. Every step of the way this process gave us a window into his thinking process and created an opportunity for conversation. Much of what he wrote and drew built on video game imagery. He loved to map out levels for the games he played. And this would allow us to better understand his fears, his fantasies, so that we could make sure he wasn't getting himself in over his head with some mature content.

You say that the industry's need to promote more "game criticism." Can you name some sites or sources that are doing what you feel are doing that?

At the moment, my favorite site for game criticism is Joystick101.org which, in full disclosure, I should mention is edited by a member of our research staff. There is about to be an explosion of new books on games, many of them written by a generation of hardcore gamers who have made it through grad school and have smart things to say about the medium, some by game designers who want to share what they've learned about their craft. And, yeah, I am looking forward to seeing what happens with your site.

We'd like to thank Henry Jenkins for taking the time to talk with us.

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