Time Magazine's Halo 3 article.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1657825-2,00.html

Now, I find this article amusing, and offensive at the same time. Here is a guy who will take some bashing by slanting a negitive spin on Halo 3, and he knew it. He had to have know it. So I give him points for that. Halo 3 pre-order sales have breached over 4 million, he's bound to get some criticism some where along the lines by all Halo fans. HoweverHe comes off kind of nuetral, but I find what he says about the gaming community in general offensive.

"There's an opportunity beyond video games, too, for Halo to break out of the ghetto and become a mainstream, mass-market, multimedia entertainment property."

I don't find it acceptable that he uses the term ghetto (more than once) to describe any form of buisness/entertainment outlet. Ghetto is and should be considered an offensive term. For one, video games climbed out of the "ghetto" with the release of the PS2 and Xbox game consoles. Video gaming became main stream, and probally way before that when we all sat in our rooms hooked up on our Nintendo or Sega systems. In my honest opinion, using the word Ghetto to describe any broad category of people (gamers) is not only morally wrong, but the complete wrong usage of the word.

"They're happy in their invisible geek ghetto."

Invisible geek ghetto? You see, the only reason I have a problem with this line is it seems contridictory to me. I would assume geeks would be smart, and therefor not living in a ghetto as some as them must have some money. Then again, maybe I'm confusing geeks with nerds.

"But that's the logic of the marketplace: it can't leave subcultures alone; it has to turn them into cultures."

I totally disagree with him on this point as gaming should never be considered a culture, sub or otherwise. Gaming is an entertainment. It is apart of the broad culture of America and the World. It doesn't make it's own subculture, as many different and unique cultures enjoy gaming. I find this guy seems to be living in the old days when Atari was just chillin with some pong and only geeks could be found in arcades.

"It may be time for the Master Chief to come in from the cold and join the party, with the popular kids."

Who exactly are the cool kids when Halo sells to a broad demographic? Halo is Star Wars for our generation, aseries that is considered now very geeky to watch, but then was considered top notch and more than just "geeks" saw. Halo may just be one big bandwagon, but it seems to be a big wagon filled with alot of people. Seems the only one left off the cool wagon was the article's writer.

"There is an invisible subculture in America. Those who belong to it love it with a lonely, alienated, unironic passion."

Lonely, alienate unironic passion? Video games have become more than sociable. Gone are the days of sitting on your couch alone playing Mario. Online play/friends list made gaming one of the most preferred enjoyments of all people from ages 10 to 40. Hooking up with new people, good friends, and coworkers has made video gaming a better choice than going out to a club. Though you will find some irratating people online, there are alot out there who you can enjoy playing with.

In closing, I understand Halo might not be a big deal to some people, but to pass it off as a geek cult following is ludacris. I found this guy to be some what nuetral on the matter, but his choice of words should not only offend Halo fans, but gamers alike. I just found this article interesting and thought I'd share it here as it has to do with Halo 3 upcoming, and the 360. Let me know what you guys think.

Edit: The link was sending to the second page of the article, I've fixed it to send to the first page.

The above quotes were taken from LEV GROSSMAN's article published by Time magazine, and they have every rights to it.

First I should say that I haven't read the article. I did read your post, however, and wanted to offer my impression of why his ideas seem so extreme to you.

I accept entirely your point that gaming is no longer the minority activity it was when I was younger. Since I got back into gaming a couple of years ago I found a much broader cross section of society is involved than ever before. It now includes a pretty wide range of young people. But for the most part they are younger.

Society is no uniform. Below the age of thirty gaming is pretty normal, but for earlier generations it is still seen as a subculture (it is reallya subculture, although more mainstream than ever before). As with many subcultures, they look very different from outside than inside. There are very many people out there who do not play games, and know nothing about them. The few games they may have heard of are games like GTA or Bully, and they will only know them by the hysterical media reaction to them.

I think this article was not written for young people or gamers, but those outside the gaming world. Itdid so in apatronising way. But the point it was making was the point you are making i.e. gaming is either going, or has gone, mainstream. You only disagree about the timing.

First I should say that I haven't read the article. I did read your post, however, and wanted to offer my impression of why his ideas seem so extreme to you.

I accept entirely your point that gaming is no longer the minority activity it was when I was younger. Since I got back into gaming a couple of years ago I found a much broader cross section of society is involved than ever before. It now includes a pretty wide range of young people. But for the most part they are younger.

Society is no uniform. Below the age of thirty gaming is pretty normal, but for earlier generations it is still seen as a subculture (it is reallya subculture, although more mainstream than ever before). As with many subcultures, they look very different from outside than inside. There are very many people out there who do not play games, and know nothing about them. The few games they may have heard of are games like GTA or Bully, and they will only know them by the hysterical media reaction to them.

I think this article was not written for young people or gamers, but those outside the gaming world. Itdid so in apatronising way. But the point it was making was the point you are making i.e. gaming is either going, or has gone, mainstream. You only disagree about the timing.

DrEru

Yeah, I suppose your right. If I looked at it through his eyes, I'd probally see it the same way. I just found his terminology and choice of words offensive. Like you said, it did it ina patronising way, which I think as a writer for a major magazine you should be careful with. I don't think the article should have been published the way it is, is what I'm saying. But then again, that'd be censorship, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. I just think he should of chose more carefully how he worded it.

I'd imagine time magazine would have higher standards than this. Then again they might just like its fancy wording and abstractness...DrewBlood08

I would think so too... lol

Yeah I've seen this before. Really what else is expected from someone who isn't a gamer and knows nothing about it. The last quote of yours proves that he doesn't. If he did he would know how connected and social gamers are. Not only that but that remark is based on an ignorant stereotype. Just ignore the fool, he's not worth our attention.capthavic

Yeah, I felt I was giving him more credit than he was worth by making a long post about him, because that takes time out of my day. I just wanted to hear if I was the only one thinking he was being narrow minded and offensive.

hahaha LMAO @ basically saying anyone whoenjoys videogames or halo is from the ghetto or a geek. hahaha, please.. make the laughing stop.kozzy1234

kudos for writing it, i'm sure as you stated that we would anticipate a large amount of backlash.

It's not an entirely negative article, although the use of ghetto, in my opinion, is not needed. It's a poor choice of word for the context it's used in.

meehh i dont really care buy FYI H3 has a litle over 1 million preorders.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3/news.html?sid=6176420&tag=result;title;0

I agree, while I don't bash anyone who doesn't like Halo, I don't run around screaming that it's the best infront of their faces. This guy is being blatantly rude about the hype of Halo 3, and in ways rude to gamers all around.Southwind20C

meehh i dont really care buy FYI H3 has a litle over 1 million preorders.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3/news.html?sid=6176420&tag=result;title;0

chief_527

It's over 4 million.

http://news.filefront.com/halo-3-preorders-exceed-4-million/

http://xboxevolved.e-mpire.com/article/Halo_3/3837.html

1 Million in North America.

kudos for writing it, i'm sure as you stated that we would anticipate a large amount of backlash.

It's not an entirely negative article, although the use of ghetto, in my opinion, is not needed. It's a poor choice of word for the context it's used in.

Galzakian

I just found his word usage offensive. If it was some one off the street I'd laugh and shrug it off, but for it to be published by a large magazine I think is unacceptable.

meehh i dont really care buy FYI H3 has a litle over 1 million preorders.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3/news.html?sid=6176420&tag=result;title;0

chief_527

It's over 4 million.

http://news.filefront.com/halo-3-preorders-exceed-4-million/

http://xboxevolved.e-mpire.com/article/Halo_3/3837.html

1 Million in North America.

kudos for writing it, i'm sure as you stated that we would anticipate a large amount of backlash.

It's not an entirely negative article, although the use of ghetto, in my opinion, is not needed. It's a poor choice of word for the context it's used in.

Galzakian

I just found his word usage offensive. If it was some one off the street I'd laugh and shrug it off, but for it to be published by a large magazine I think is unacceptable.

I do not think he was meaning it more of a poor group of urban people with the word Ghetto, As it does have other meaning though the most popular is the one the media trys to promote,One example I found on Wikipedia was," In common lingo, it may also be used to describe a place or object that is "poorly maintained" or badly put together."

In that context it is not nearly as bad if you think of a 70 year old rich white guy,I'm sure gamers look like a ghetto with a bunch of young "punks" or "whippersnappers" all grouping together on a friday to play on a video game console,Would seem like a badly group of people at a place.

Not defending the guy,I just think it would be odd,Though likely that a upper class older white male would start throwing the word "ghetto" around in a magazine where most people are anything but from there.More so when you take in to account a sub culture is often very confined places with everyone on the outside being unable to see in,Much like the ghettos of nazi eastern Germany.