READING COMPREHENSION. ADVANCED LEVEL

Prueba de Comprensión lectora de Nivel Avanzado. Certificación Junio 2009 Principado de Asturias.

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>> COMPUTER GAMES

Thomas Sutcliffe: Why don’t we take computer games more seriously?

The findings of a recent Pew Report – which established that 97 per cent of all

teenagers play video games – are unlikely to rock the world. Yes, the figures were fairly

striking – more reminiscent of Soviet “elections” than the demographic pie-slices we’re

used to in the free world. Somewhere out there, if the statistical analysis got it right,

there’s a stubborn 1 per cent of teenage boys between 12 and 17 who don’t play video

games.

But the 99 per cent who aren’t living in Amish villages or on end-time communes all do.

And 94 per cent of girls play them as well, suggesting that received opinion about

video gaming as a predominately male activity is considerably wide of the mark. All the

same, the results went with the grain of expectation. Teenagers play video games.

What the Pew researchers were interested in wasn’t the crude statistics of

participation as such. They were simply a by-product of a bigger question about how

video gaming was related to teenagers’ civic and political engagement. And again, the

findings aren’t likely to generate banner headlines. Unsurprisingly they found that

teenagers who played socially, with other people in the room, were more likely to

raise money for charity or stay informed about current events or take an active

interest in politics than the lonely singletons whose only contact with other humans

was to frag them in online battles. So far, so obvious.

What did strike me, though – given the almost universal enlistment in an activity that

only 20 years ago was the preserve of home-programmers and hobbyists – was the

mismatch between the scale of teenagers’ involvement in video games and the

relative invisibility of this creative field in what you might call the traditional media.

From time to time a new game release, such as Will Wright’s recently released Spor,

will edge its way on to the news pages – and most newspapers carry some form of

capsule reviews. But usually they’re tucked away in the back alleys of the publication,

while film and music and television continue to dominate the big boulevards.

Mainstream television does virtually nothing. Arts programmes remain almost

exclusively dedicated to cultural forms which are also-rans for many teenagers.

There are two reasons why this should be so. The first would be that video gamers get

this stuff elsewhere – from magazines such as Edge or Wired, and from online gaming

sites, where no one needs to explain what “respawning” or “first person shooter”

actually means. And, since they get it there, they aren’t that fussed that it doesn’t exist

elsewhere.

Unlike jazz enthusiasts – persistently besieging Radio 3 for a better deal for their

favoured art form – gamers don’t need to nag. The other explanation would be that

the traditional media still doesn’t get it.

That, despite all the articles about the scale of the industry and its threat to older

forms of diversion (and older forms of fiction) it isn’t something that needs taking

seriously. Or, possibly, that it isn’t something that can be taken seriously, in the sense

that a film or a pop record can.

For the moment that still isn’t an entirely foolish response, but given those figures in

the Pew report it surely can’t last. There was a time, after all, when no serious

newspaper would have included considered reviews of the kinematograph or the

latest pop single. Now they could hardly call themselves serious without them.

READING COMPREHENSION. ADVANCED LEVEL

Prueba de Comprensión lectora de Nivel Avanzado. Certificación Junio 2009 Principado de Asturias.

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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 – The Independent on Sunday

1. How will people probably feel about the findings of the Pew report?

A. Struck by the figures

B. Nostalgic of Soviet elections

C. Hardly surprised at the results

2. What were the results of the report like?

A. Strikingly unlikely

B. Statistically significant

C. Demographically unpredictable

3. Who play video games?

A. 99% of teenagers in the world

B. More than 94% people between 12 and 17

C. 1% of young people living on end-time communes

4. What does ‘wide of the mark’ mean?

A. Not correct

B. Quite accurate

C. Out of the question

5. What was the aim of the Pew researchers?

A. To be in the headlines

B. To relate teenagers to politics

C. To assess the implications of video gaming

6. What did the writer find surprising?

A. That new video game releases are reviewed in most newspapers

B. That video games are pushed into the background in most publications

C. That 20 years ago only home programmers and hobbyists were into video games

7. What type of cultural forms comes last in their ranks for many teenagers?

A. Short reviews

B. Films and music

C. TV Arts programmes

8. What don’t video gamers mind?

A. Reading magazines like Edge or Wire

B. Explaining what ‘respawning’ or ‘first person shooter’ mean

C. Hearing about video games in other media than the traditional ones

9. What makes video gamers different from jazz lovers?

A. They don’t complain

B. They form groups

C. They are younger

READING COMPREHENSION. ADVANCED LEVEL

Prueba de Comprensión lectora de Nivel Avanzado. Certificación Junio 2009 Principado de Asturias.

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10. What do the traditional media think about video games?

A. That they are a favoured art form

B. That they aren’t worth their attention

C. That they threaten other forms of diversion