The New Generation Of Entertainers

Christmas came early this year to San Francisco's video game fanatics thanks to GAME: the Games and Music Experience, there was no need to wait and unwrap the newest titles under the tree.

Instead, 10,000 fans paid up to $35 apiece for the chance to get a first crack at the latest, and according to the marketing blitz, greatest games, CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

Good news for an industry which typically rakes in nearly half its revenues during the holiday season.

When Blackstone remarks that GAME resembles an auto show, the founder of gamespot.com, Vince Brody, who organized the event, agrees, adding that conventions geared toward enthusiasts served as his inspiration for GAME.

"And we felt like, you know, the gaming community is big enough now. It deserves to have an event which celebrates it and lets people touch and feel the stuff that's coming out in the future, just like the auto show does," Brody explains.

At the ripe old age of 38, Brody is also an example of someone companies are eager to court: the adult gamer.

"I always say that as long as I'm alive and playing games, the market will continue to grow," Brody says. "And I think that what you're seeing is gaming, unlike a lot of other pastimes that kids do, is a lifelong passion. So, people that play games as kids, tend to keep playing them as they get older."

Asked what makes gaming unique from other leisure-time activities, Brody says that the experience of playing video games puts the individual in control. "The individual is the star of the show," Brody says.

Aaron Ruby and Heather Chaplin explore this concept in their book "Smartbomb," a history of the video game business. It's a phenomenon which has hit them right where they live.

"There's no question that games are here to stay," Rubin remarks. "They're not going to replace books. They're not going to replace movies. But they are going to take up a monumental position right next to them."

Chaplin, Ruby's wife, recalls that, "I came home one day in the spring of 2001, to find my husband here, setting up a PlayStation 2 in the living room. And I was so distressed by this, and sort of horrified at the idea that this man I had married was a gamer."

Pressed as to why he kept his video game passion a secret, Ruby quips, "Well, I knew it would be a sore subject. I was kind of -- it wasn't a lie -- but, I just neglected to fully divulge."

Ruby adds, "People have a conception of games as being about shooting and killing. But it's now at the point where, It's kind of like asking, 'Are movies about murder and mayhem?' Yeah, there are those movies and there are those games."

No doubt, plenty of video games are little more than shoot 'em ups, Blackstone observes. Players often stare down the barrel of a gun looking for a target, but sports games are among the most popular and many games are at least as innocent as kids' cartoons.

The industry says just 16 percent of games are labeled mature and more importantly, almost two-thirds of gamers are over age 18.

And, Blackstone says, they have money.

Many camped out all night last month to pay $400 for the newest game console, the Xbox 360. Sales of game software and consoles in the United States alone topped $10 billion last year and all predictions are that sales will keep climbing.

The same can't be said for Hollywood, which has seen three years of steady declines at the box office.

Foreign sales, DVDs, pay-per-view and other revenues are keeping studios in the black, but it seems like everyone in the entertainment business is looking at video games as the next big thing.

"We are definitely entering a golden age of game development right now," believes Peter Hirschmann, vice president for product development at LucasArts, the video game division of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' entertainment empire.

"You're seeing games come out that have openings that are bigger than movies," Hirschmann says. "And you see the pent-up anticipation for a big game title rivaling that of the biggest summer blockbuster."

LucasArts has recently moved into a new headquarters in San Francisco, sharing a roof with the LucasFilm division. And the connection, says Hirschmann, is more than just about common real estate, it's about common vision.

Hirschmann says the stories and characters in video games are just as important as in the movies. "Absolutely," Hirschmann says. "And if not more so because you are spending 12 to 15 hours with these characters. They better be interesting characters and it better be an interesting story."

He adds, "You know, movie, if you go see a terrible movie, you're out nine bucks and maybe two hours of your life. If you buy a bad game, you've maybe dropped down $30, $40 and invested 10 to 15 hours.

"The best game designs are ones that always hint at what's next," Hirschmann says. "You know, they're like good, you know, page-turners in a book where, you know, you, you can't wait to see what happens next."

Of course, movies like the six "Star Wars" films seem custom-made for conversion into video games, something Lucas got started on in the early '80s. And while the original "Star Wars" is almost three decades old, its inspiration endures.

Hirschmann says of Lucas, "George likes to say, you know, 'The movies are just six episodes telling the story -- one story in this giant expansive galaxy.' And he lets us play in all the other parts of it. So, he likes to say, 'There's a spaceship. There's a character. There's a planet.' For any story you wanna tell, "Star Wars" will be there for you."

And of course, as video games aspire to Hollywood-like ambitions, they're also demanding Hollywood-like budgets.

Hirschmann says games can range from $15 to $20 million to make. "There's never been, thank God, a $100 million game yet," he says.

Of course, there is less overhead with video games. Hirschmann says that, "one of the nice things about games is we don't have trailers for the game characters. We just save them on our hard drive and at night, we just turn off the computer and they're fine."

But there are other trappings of Tinseltown pervading the game business, including that Hollywood tradition: the awards show.

So it's probably no coincidence that Hollywood movies themselves are looking more and more like games.

Even Steven Spielberg just made headlines for his entry into the video game biz and "King Kong" director Peter Jackson had an active role in the design of his movie's new game.

And that's why the University of Southern California's famed film school, the alma mater of no less than George Lucas himself, has added video games to its curriculum.

"There was a moment, say, when film, which as the dominant form, the dominant form of media for the past century, was not considered an important art," Tracy Fullerton explains.

Fullerton, who teaches game design at USC, adds of film, "It was not considered an important cultural force. It was considered sort of entertainment and I think that's where games are. And as we see more and more examples of important games with maybe a deeper content, then I think that notion will change."

Asked if filmmaking and video game design are equally complex, Fullerton, herself a graduate of film school, says of video games, "In my opinion, I think it is technically more complicated. I think that what's interesting is that I think it's become creatively more complicated these days as well."

Creative potential is one thing, but the game industry is hungry for new talent and new ideas.

USC students have already created one game that's attracting attention from the big-name companies. It's called "Clouds" and it gives gamers a chance to play God, assuming God flies around in his night shirt. It's a textbook example of a new kind of game, according to its creator, Taiwanese student Jenova Chen.

"Having been playing the video games for 15 years, I'm kinda tired of the gun, the violence," Chen says.

Chen adds of "Clouds," "It's the kind of emotion I never feel in video games. I'm trying to see if I can do that: make a game that makes you feel like you're a kid again."

And games like "Clouds" just might be the answer to many of the complaints leveled at games: that they're too heavy on the violence, too light on creativity.

"The video game industry is definitely suffering growing pains," Chaplin says. "It's definitely in the early stage. A big question people always ask is, 'Do we have our "Citizen Kane" yet?' And mostly people will answer no.

"So you have to understand, it's really very much at the beginning, just coming out of the Nickelodeon stage," Chaplin says. "And if you think of how sophisticated games are already and how much more room there is to grow, it really takes you into almost a science fiction future."

Ruby adds, "We're kind of at the stage where the train has come, has come out of the screen and the audience is kind of shrieking. And it's not, we're not clear where does it go next."

The video game industry's growing pains are hardly surprising to anyone familiar with the history of Hollywood.

The enormous upside to video games could lead to more aspiring creators hoping to design games as opposed to making films.

"Well, I think you're seeing a whole new generation of people who make entertainment that have grown up on games," Hirschmann says.

He adds, "It's something that shaped people's perception of what's fun, of what's entertaining. And the memories that people have of, 'I saw this great movie and it changed my life,' people have the same stories about games that changed their life."

Like the movies, games are only as good as the minds that make them. And while the game industry has arrived in financial terms, its next step will decide its place on the cultural landscape.