The Boxes are Gone!: Games as Artifacts
I recently read this post at Sexy Videogameland which made me think about all the old games I played. Consequently, I went around to my parents’ and dug up all the old boxes that belonged to an array of PC, Game Boy, SNES and Playstation games. And this got me to thinking: many of these boxes, particularly PC game boxes, are well designed, embossed, large A4 and look good on a shelf like books do. These days I just download games through Steam or WiiWare or buy it in a standard plastic case. The transition happened without me noticing. So where did the boxes go and why don’t I mind that they’re gone?
There is a debate raging in dorky niche-blogs all over the internet about the death of the book. Not in the video-games-and-movies-are-destroying-books way, but in the e-books-are-cheaper way. People everywhere are worried that e-book readers like Kindle, e-books themselves and print-on-demand services will ultimately result in the demise of the book as an artifact. There seems to be a high value placed on books as objects and I for one can understand why—there is nothing quite like a beautifully designed and printed novel. Here is one example and another.
While there was a similar reaction when music started going digital, there seems to have been no fuss when video games did with the advent of services like Steam. I mean, think about it—books, music and games all manifest in ways that transcend the objects by which they are delivered: books in stories played out in the mind, music in aural and thoughtful stimulation and games in images, narratives and thoughts delivered through the screen. Almost gone are the days when you could buy a game in special edition packaging with embossed titles and shiny foils designed to move more units. I mean, they still exist, but they’re catered to hardcore consumers and have smaller runs than the old Starcraft special edition boxes did. That being said, almost all new games come exclusively via download or in plastic cases pioneered by the DVD and not actual boxes.
Why is this? Why do people on one hand fear the demise of books, records and CDs but barely bat an eyelid when some games become available only online [1] [2]? What’s the difference in these medias that facilitates this?
I personally think all these questions can be answered by considering this last question. Let’s start by comparing books and games. Books as we know them have been around for well over 4oo years when Jonathan was only a twinkle in great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Blow’s eye. Books, as such, have a heavily ingrained set of traditions and practices associated with their appearance, their production and their societal values and people understandably don’t want to let this go. Once books go E, the printing press will all but disappear, designers will struggle for work as more people use open source layout tools to do it themselves, in lieu of reduced revenue publishers will cut costs resulting in lower quality books.
Video games on the other hand have developed in parallel with the technology that’s said to dissipate the book. Many of us, I’m sure, have downloaded demo games before buying their full-version boxed form. And after all, the packaging is secondary to the game itself. Also, video games are delivered in the same forms either by the internet or on a disk whereas books seem to be damaged by this sort of transmittal.
So why then the fuss about CDs? These arguments made about games surely translate there. Well, we musn’t forget that as music went digital, people weren’t sure about how a variety of other technological factors would impact: e.g. internet speeds, availability of media players. In other words, the associated technology was in a state of flux.
Video games, by comparison, quietly go download-only without anyone worrying about it or caring. It happened gradually as internet speeds went up. Also, gamers are generally young and are quite comfy using the internet. They understand that the media is more useful to them when stored remotely: you can’t lose it and it can’t be damaged or stolen. And I personally would rather see a healthy list of games in my Steam client than boxes on my shelf just as I’d rather see my iTunes library carefully organized than my CD cabinet alphabetized.
Like we’ve seen with CDs and even vinyl, we’ll still be able to find most games in stores and I don’t think any of us will live to see the day when bricks-and-mortar bookstores are boutique. But it is an interesting thought—that games, due to their nature, are manifest in something completely transcendent of their associated artifacts whereas books seem not to be. I argue this is to do with the cultures around them and not the objects themselves. As I mentioned earlier, special edition packaging was used to sell more copies of a game, but perhaps the gradual disappearance of such things suggest that gamers never valued these things like readers prefer a hard cover. That is, it’s a different culture with different prerogatives and a different understanding of the impacts of technology. Finally, I’ll leave you with a question not addressed here:
- How do collectors of cartridge-only games fit into this discussion? Are they analogous with readers? How might Virtual Console and the like affect said people?