Computer games have changed a lot since Nolan Bushnell brought Pong to the masses more than 30 years ago. Advances in technology have spawned immersive, hyper-realistic simulations where players can compete against each other from opposite sides of the world, an impressive achievement to be sure. But the 63-year-old Bushnell isn't impressed with one facet of 21st Century gaming – the sleaze.

For the makers of games like Grand Theft Auto, the Atari Inc. founder has some choice words; a warning: "Swim in a cess pool, you're going to wind up swallowing some shit."

Speaking both on- and off-stage at the recent Vidfest digital media conference in Vancouver, B.C., Bushnell noted that the video game industry is in danger of becoming irrelevant, and possibly even obsolete. It's happened before, he added: in 1982, there were roughly 44 million core gamers – today defined as those who spend more than $1,000 a year on games – in the US, out of a total population of 231.7 million. In 2000, when the population numbered more than 280 million, the number of core gamers was estimated at a scant 18 million. "In 1983, everyone thought the video game business was over," Bushnell said, referring to the demise of the first wave of gaming consoles due to a glut of poor-quality titles and increasing competition from home computers.

According to Bushnell, part of the reason for the smaller gamer demographic today is that the core gamer population is heavily skewed to males under 35, a fact that has left much of the remaining population – older gamers and women of all ages – uncovered. That, Bushnell said, represents a huge untapped market. Although the reality is that "most people in the world don't play video games and will never play video games," Bushnell added he believes innovations such as Nintendo's touch-based portable DS system and the company's upcoming Wii wand-based console will be "very successful" in luring some of that "empty demographic" to gaming.

Then there's the blood and gore. Bushnell said there was always a standing rule at Atari while he was in charge: no game will depict violence against a human-like figure. "I'm not a prude, but what it does is acts as a lightning rod for people who want to regulate things that have previously been free of interference," he said. Although the video game industry has set up its own self-regulatory body – the Entertainment Software Rating Board – Bushnell worries that legislators and law enforcement are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the content of video games.

In an interview after his keynote speech, Bushnell offered more thoughts on the graphic nature of many of today's games. "There will always be those who will race to the bottom, and there'll always be a market at the bottom, but that doesn't mean that it's OK," he said. "It doesn't mean we shouldn't say, 'Grow up and do something worthwhile.'" The best tool for weaning the game development industry off of a reliance on violence and explicit sexual content, he says, is "moral approbation – just 'Shame on you.'"

Related to concerns about graphic depictions of violence and sex are the massive leaps in hardware and processor capability, to the point where the graphics in video games are now approaching photorealistic levels. "Photorealism is very interesting, but it will do two things: it will drive up costs, and it will diminish the potential for product differentiation," Bushnell said. When costs go up, he continued, industries tend to stagnate: "When you up costs, the correlation is that innovation drops, because innovation is risky, and sequelism is lower-risk from a marketing standpoint."

On the product differentiation front, true photorealism is obviously the pinnacle of gaming – once it's achieved, there's not much more to do with graphics engines and other previously competitive technologies. "As you get into photorealism you will have stuff that will be intense," such as lifelike gore and blood, Bushnell said.

Resolving the issue of explicit sex and violence might also further help woo the empty demographic: games have become too complex, Bushnell speculated, with too many rules and input commands to remember for most. The popularity of casual games – simple, low-budget time-wasters that don't involve lengthy quests or multiple episodes – reaffirms that belief, he added.

With new experiences offered by the ubiquity of wireless phones – and the increasing trend toward wireless capabilities in portable game consoles such as Nintendo's DS handheld – lapsed gamers or those new to gaming altogether might be temped back by the excitement of games that take place partially in the real world. When you can immerse yourself in a game while out of the home, "it blurs the line between what is real and what is a game," Bushnell said.

Education could benefit immensely from turning to video games to teach, instead of vilifying them as time-wasters. "School is thin gruel – totally outgunned" by games in the battle for kids' attention, Bushnell said. Why not harness some of that power? "I believe that any educational game is better than Mr. Jensen with a piece of chalk in 5th Grade history class," he added.

Kids are quite savvy, however, and a game's fun factor must be showcased with its educational role hidden in the background in order for it to succeed. If, for instance, a game was designed that could teach animal classifications for biology class, "through stealth, guile and misinformation, we could get [kids] to learn something," Bushnell said.

Finally, Bushnell had some predictions for the shape of things to come in gaming and digital entertainment. With an eye to current trends such as machinima – using 3D game engines to make animated movies – he offered the following: "I believe that in the next five years there will be a movie that will make over $100 million that will be made by three people."

And, with a nod to his own roots as a game designer, he opined that "sequels will fail, and innovation will triumph" when it comes to new game titles. Given the nearly-fatal downturn in video gaming in the early 1980s, when originality was scarce and games were being rushed to market simply because competing titles were, the "core" can only keep its collective fingers crossed, lest it all come crashing down again.

(Photo Credit: Ken Bautista)