Ralph Baer believes games have become "a disgrace"

Who is Ralph Baer? Well sit down, whippersnapper! Time to learn you about the father of video games!

Ralph Baer has such a prestigious title because he is the mastermind by the first real game consoles; the Brown Box and the Odyssey. Both were remarkable inventions of their time that preceded the even the likes of the Atari. Other highlights of Baer’s career include the invention of the colored lights memory game Simon and the first light gun peripheral. One of the most interesting creations was a motion controller for the NES that involved a motion-tracking camera placed on a TV that could track a light gun and other movements. Nintendo turned him down. Today, Baer has a few regrets about his contribution to what games are today.

“I think it’s a disgrace…What I created got abominated. You can see the same thing in music, literature, art — any form of art,” he’s stated on the matter.

We could make some snide remark about him being grumpy that the Wii was basically his idea, but let’s be mature here. It’s hard to imagine being the man behind an invention that created an industry as diverse as the games industry. We have games that let us explore entire fictional worlds, visit Renaissance Italy, deal with decisions we’d otherwise never be able to, and be fucking Batman. Of course, we also have army porn and crapped out wagglefests as well. There’s good and bad here, like any entertainment industry. Calling it a disgrace as a whole is in my opinion a harsh statement, but not completely untrue for the entire industry.

Let’s not jump into the immediate “An attack! Man the ballistae and unleash the trolls!” reaction we gamers tend to get whenever someone coughs out some criticism. We don’t have to worry about every little negative observation about games becoming more ammo for political game slander anymore. We won at the Supreme Court.

Take the criticism and learn from it. That’s how the games industry will grow up.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune