The creator of the Gears of War game franchise announced the release date for the third installment.  This is big news for the series fans, but what makes it even more interesting is that it was announced on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  This type of exposure for a video game is pretty remarkable.  It’s one more example of the gaming industry pushing further within the borders of mainstream entertainment.  For those people who grew up with the Playstation, I’m sure it doesn’t seem all that amazing.  But for my generation, it’s quite a turnaround.  I grew up in the eighties (1980s, smartasses) when video games were pixels that went bleep bloop bleep.  We speculated about the day when games would rival movies the way generations before us speculated about ray guns and rocket ships.  We never believed we’d actually see it happen.  Back then there was also the stigma of being someone who played video games.  If you ever wanted to date, you just couldn’t admit it openly.

Now, they’re playing Wii Sports in resting homes for Christ’s sake!

It makes me slightly angry.  Some of the same people who told me that video games would rot my brain are now waving Wiimotes around in public like they just don’t care.  I knew I was onto a good thing if they just would have listened to me.

I don’t even know why we’re still calling them “video games?”  It’s such a dated term it’s almost embarrassing to say.  With the release of a title like Heavy Rain it becomes even less appropriate.  The entire experience of this “game” is more or less an interactive movie.  You watch the narrative, and occasionally perform timed button presses (“quick time events” for you noobs) to continue the story.  You’re not shooting aliens or traversing mazes; you’re simply guiding the events of the story.  No more a game than is reading a book, really.  But we are so accustomed to calling them video games that I’m not sure if anything else would work.  I thought of combining “game” with “cinema.”  Then I got “Gamenema.” 

Hey, gang!  Anyone up for a gamenema?

You won’t make many friends like that.  Not the good kind anyway.  I’ll keep working on it.

For those interested, here’s the Gears of War 3 trailer that debuted on Fallon’s show.