Here is a new video game trailer. It starts with an attempt to be serious, with an expression of a desire—presumably by some unseen game creators—for a video game to mean something.
Yes, it starts with gravitas ... joke gravitas, we'll soon find out.
That lasts about 30 seconds, because in the context of this trailer, gravitas doesn't seem like much fun. Blowing stuff up is more fun (let's be honest, in video games it usually is!.
Forty seconds in, the selling point is: "zero accountability".
A few seconds after that, we get bad one-liners and then the clincher: "Hot damn, I love this war."
The trailer here is ostensibly for an early-2013 downloadable Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network helicopter action game Thunder Wolves, but it also doubles as a perfect encapsulation of a cynical view of the video game industry: that the attempts to be serious are but a tedious token effort eagerly disposed of by those who would rather just get to the action and the blowing up of things. Who wants to waste time with somber messages? There's fun to be had. That's what games are best at. Right?