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Author of 'Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes and Make-Believe Violence' (Basic Books 2002), 'Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book' (Basic Books 2004), and 'Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream' (St. Martin's 1993). Currently at work on a book about the birth of true-story and confessional media for Farrar Straus & Giroux and a screenplay based on 'Men of Tomorrow.' Former scripter for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and others. Creators of the Art & Story Workshops for children. Father of a 13-year-old boy. Lives in San Francisco.
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Controllers and Decontrollers: Games as the Emotional Arenas of the Modern World Viewed through the work of the great sociologist Norbert Elias, electronic games can be seen as valuable arenas for the "controlled decontrolling" of human emotions that are too often incompatible with life in a civilization that puts ever more emphasis on huge-scale organization and individual self-restraint. Games that immerse players in dramas of conflict, violence, and anti-social desire don't necessarily oppose but can actually aid what Elias called "the civilizing process." The "arena" of mass entertainment is a paradoxical battleground in which symbols and emotions become their opposites, and game designers are in a unique position to influence our social arenas of self-control.
Takeaway: Properly designed and presented, games should be allies of the very forces that criticize them most.
Intended audience: Game developers and designers who care about the social impact and public perception of their work.
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