E3 2008: ESA's President and the Age of Acceptance

Has the game industry finally reached a turning point in widespread cultural acceptance? ESA's President, Michael Gallagher, weighs in on the subject in his E3 keynote.

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Meh.

To an extent, we've always been at that 'Age of Acceptance'. I mean, remember when almost everyone went to the arcade to play Space Invaders back in the day? Really, we've never lost that feeling for games, but the advent of new ones has left people confused and worried (especially if they pay attention to the mass media). We'll always have that connection to the wider world (thanks to the 80s) but really, can you imagine an old woman staying up until one in the morning to play videogames? No; Because it is still seen as pathetic by the older generations. Gaming may be becoming more widely used (primarily thanks to Nintendo's own wonderful publicity department) but it is definitely not to the extent that we use other mediums.

Besides, what's a random bloke (who heads an organisation that is more out of touch with the industry than the audience he speaks of) know more about gaming than we do? Is that what developers and publishers paid the ESA to do? State the obvious? No wonder they bloody left.