In Praise of Video Games - Test 1
B2 First · Gapped Text · Cambridge B2 First 4, Cambridge University Press
You are going to read a magazine article about video games. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
In praise of video games
Why do serious media commentators largely ignore the biggest entertainment medium in the world? Author Naomi Alderman investigates.
With books you have authors; with films you have directors; so the situation is very different.
However, gamers are still being viewed as socially inadequate teenagers.
So what difference would, for example, a weekly games programme on TV make to it?
Those for games are only for industry specialists.
This is that the people in the games industry itself don't care enough.
That's because they usually need to make technical changes right up until the last minute.
By contrast, I spend hours doing phone-rounds in the hope of getting hold of a copy of a game.
Why do video games receive so little coverage in the mainstream media? It's a question that's troubled me for years – I even made a programme about it for the radio. Games are the largest entertainment medium in the world, yet newspaper culture pages tend not to cover them. Cultural programmes on TV and radio might do a short feature about them once in a while at best, reserving serious discussion and analysis for special things with a very limited audience like interpretive dance and experimental opera. My novels, which sell tens of thousands of copies, are shortlisted for prizes that appear in the news. My games, which have sold millions of copies, don't even make the news. Film and TV awards ceremonies are a news story.
I think all this is a shame because it affects the way people think about the medium. It means we don't get the kind of analysis that mainstream media can produce, and we're prevented from asking interesting questions about games in our culture. There are several reasons for this exclusion. People who control programming and edit papers tend to be in their 50s and older, and are still a bit old to have come of age with video games or to understand them. And games, because they're very much products of a collaborative effort, normally don't have a single creator or celebrity to represent them in interviews.
But I want to suggest another reason why games aren't treated as an important cultural form.
At least, that is the impression I get. They make it annoyingly hard to get hold of new games, even for someone who writes about them. I write about novels as well as games and barely a day passes when a publisher isn't posting me a copy of a new book in the hope I'll review it or mention it somewhere.
If the games industry wanted to be treated like other cultural media, it could start by making its work accessible to mainstream journalists. There's a timing issue too. In the past, I've tried to persuade review programmes to cover games more frequently. But I always seem to come up against the same old problem. Film companies organise pre-release screenings. TV companies send out early versions of their shows, publishers send copies of new books, theatres do previews – but games companies won't send out advance versions of games.
Furthermore, the games industry itself does not seem too bothered about being covered in broadcast culture sections, because it doesn't think this would sell more games. It is already the biggest selling entertainment industry in the world in any case.
It's a fair point, but I wish the industry would cooperate anyway because games are important and deserve to be regarded as such in the mainstream media.
Why do video games receive so little coverage in the mainstream media? It's a question that's troubled me for years – I even made a programme about it for the radio. Games are the largest entertainment medium in the world, yet newspaper culture pages tend not to cover them. Cultural programmes on TV and radio might do a short feature about them once in a while at best, reserving serious discussion and analysis for special things with a very limited audience like interpretive dance and experimental opera. My novels, which sell tens of thousands of copies, are shortlisted for prizes that appear in the news. My games, which have sold millions of copies, don't even make the news. Film and TV awards ceremonies are a news story. ___ I think all this is a shame because it affects the way people think about the medium. It means we don't get the kind of analysis that mainstream media can produce, and we're prevented from asking interesting questions about games in our culture. There are several reasons for this exclusion. People who control programming and edit papers tend to be in their 50s and older, and are still a bit old to have come of age with video games or to understand them. And games, because they're very much products of a collaborative effort, normally don't have a single creator or celebrity to represent them in interviews. ___ But I want to suggest another reason why games aren't treated as an important cultural form. ___ At least, that is the impression I get. They make it annoyingly hard to get hold of new games, even for someone who writes about them. I write about novels as well as games and barely a day passes when a publisher isn't posting me a copy of a new book in the hope I'll review it or mention it somewhere. ___ If the games industry wanted to be treated like other cultural media, it could start by making its work accessible to mainstream journalists. There's a timing issue too. In the past, I've tried to persuade review programmes to cover games more frequently. But I always seem to come up against the same old problem. Film companies organise pre-release screenings. TV companies send out early versions of their shows, publishers send copies of new books, theatres do previews – but games companies won't send out advance versions of games. ___ Furthermore, the games industry itself does not seem too bothered about being covered in broadcast culture sections, because it doesn't think this would sell more games. It is already the biggest selling entertainment industry in the world in any case. ___ It's a fair point, but I wish the industry would cooperate anyway because games are important and deserve to be regarded as such in the mainstream media.
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