In news that will make h4rdc0r3 gamers weep for their lost elitism, former US vice president Al Gore has described games as the “new normal”. No longer will children be bullied for playing Mortal Kombat.<\/p>\n
“Games have clearly arrived as a mass medium,” he told attendees at the Games for Change in New York conference yesterday.<\/p>\n
“This is a very large, extremely significant industry with a wildly diverse and rapidly-growing audience of players on all kinds of platforms. We already know the immense power of popular media to illuminate issues that can seem intractable and overly-complex, but [through games] can be illuminated and presented to general audiences in a way that invites people to become involved in trying to solve the problems that our society has to solve.” he explained.<\/p>\n
“Games are the new ‘normal’ for hundreds of millions of users every month.<\/p>\n
“Game interfaces and scoring rules have become standard… the gamification trend is really, extremely powerful, and you see games dominating the top lists of apps on Facebook and iOS,” he added. “And games are becoming increasingly artful; it’s now a craft taught in universities and trade schools, and we all know that learning by doing is one of the best ways to learn.<\/p>\n
“What we’re seeing in games is art at a world-class stage design that is almost unmatched anywhere else.”<\/p>\n