Gaming gains celebrity standing.

Nicolas Stevens

05 June 2008

Margaret Robertson on how games and gamers are tempting more recognition. But whilst Kojima had made it into the paper he hadn't made it into the fashion column or the interview slot. What else would you expect? Game designers just are not great gossip fodder. Guitar hero has modified relationship between games and music But Kojima's presence in the paper - even tho in a paid-for slot - is proof of a trend that's been building for a period of time. In the UK they are getting OBEs, in France access to the Ordre des Artes et de Lettres. Nor are these rising stars brushing up against a military of geeky nobodies. Gaming is drawing celebrity to it like never before. Right now the repertoire - Motley Crue and Def Leppard - may leave you cold, but the reports stories show that games could be a better place to sell a single than iTunes, and a better place to launch an album than a television show or a holiday stage. Expect hours of interviews with Prince of Persia Jake Gyllenhaal earnestly explaining how much he loved the original game on the Apple II, and whatever hunk bags the Gears of War lead to lay claim to 16-hour co-op marathons to get him into personality. Virtua Fighter pros get mobbed by girls in Eastern colonnades.

Korean Starcraft champions are on television each night. In Brazil the top Gunbound player was famous enough to get himself quickly kidnapped. The reality is chillier : overwhelmingly they just don't have the moulah. But that's changing : thanks to new distribution strategies and new monetary models, there are much more tactics for developers to work independently if they decide to, which allows them reach their market direct, speak their minds rather than towing publisher PR rules and keep more of the credit - and more of the profit. Make no mistake, gaming is going to get celebs, and stars are going to get gaming. But I am still not gambling you can see them in the gossip section of the Metro. Not because they are too boring, or too hideous, or too poor.