The Measure Of Success

In class we discuss the topic of what makes a good video game, and someone expressed the idea that the amount of money a game makes is what makes it good. I strongly disagree with this view for a number of reasons.  One, as Prof. Leeper mentioned, is money is the measure of success then the porn industry is a good thing, because you have millions and millions of dollars being spent on porn every year. Also, in its time, the Mafia made tons of money, but does that mean that the Mafia was a good thing? I would disagree.

Not every film that makes tons of money is necessarily good, take the Transformer films for example. I have to tread lightly here, while I understand that some people may get a lot out of a film like Transformers, I can say with confidence that the story and characters in the Transformers films do not compare with a film like Sophie Scholl: The Final Days or Saving Private Ryan. It’s not the amount of money that makes a film great, it’s the richness of the story and the characters that makes a film (and a video game) worthwhile.

BenCrane