scottishgamesOpinion: The Invisible Powerhouse – Why The Herald’s Culture 50 Has An Interactive Blind Spot
This is a fantastic list. Truly. As I read through The Herald’s 50 most powerful people in Scottish arts and culture (Paywall), I see names that represent the very best of our nation – musicians, producers, actors, and advocates who have fought to keep Scotland’s creative heart beating during some of the toughest years in recent memory. I recognise many of them as allies. I respect all of them as peers.
But I also noticed something else. Or rather, I noticed a void.
In a list of 50 powerbrokers shaping what Scotland consumes in theatres, galleries, and concert halls, there is not a single representative from the Scottish games ecosystem. Not one. In 2026, as our world becomes increasingly defined by digital interaction, the country’s largest, most successful, and most productive creative export has been missed entirely.
The Billion-Pound Ghost
This is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that we can no longer afford to ignore. For decades now, the games industry has been the billion-pound ghost in the room of Scottish culture. We are frequently cited for our extraordinary GVA and our global commercial reach, but we are almost never invited to the table when the conversation turns to artistic merit or cultural impact.
By excluding (ignoring? Missing?) games from a list of the most powerful people in culture, we are essentially saying that the millions of people who engage with interactive storytelling, virtual performance, and digital art are not engaging in culture. We are saying that the world-class designers in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Elgin – people who are masterminds of empathy, systems, storytelling and aesthetics – are somehow separate from the creative fabric of the nation.
Beyond the Bottom Line
While the economic argument for games is inarguable – as I have highlighted in the Level Up Scotland Games Action Plan – my challenge to the wider arts sector is to look beyond the balance sheet.
Games are the golden thread of the 21st-century creative economy. They are where music, narrative, visual art, and technical engineering collide to create entirely new forms of human experience. When we talk about the power of the arts to transform lives, why are we not talking about the therapeutic impact of the Gamer-in-Residence at Glasgow Children’s Hospital? When we talk about cultural legacy, why is the ongoing lack of preservation of our digital heritage still treated as an optional extra?
The isolation of games is a uniquely Scottish problem in one specific, structural way. In the rest of the UK, games are tucked under the wing of the screen industries. In Scotland, we are one of the 16 official sub-sectors of the creative industries – standing alongside architecture, design, and visual art. On paper, we are integrated. In practice, we are siloed. In policy terms, we are entirely invisible.
A Hand Across the Aisle
I am not writing this to complain; I am writing this to offer outreach. The ongoing exclusion of games is a missed opportunity for the traditional arts. Imagine the cultural impact of a collaboration between the Citizens Theatre, or Dance Base and a real-time 3D studio, or the RSNO performing alongside a live interactive performance. These are the opportunities that stay locked away when our worlds remain apart.
At the Scottish Games Network, we are working to bridge this gap. Following our More Than Games events in 2022-25, we are preparing to launch Project Pathfinder. This initiative is specifically designed to bring games technology into the wider creative and cultural sectors, acting as a force multiplier for artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers and performers.
The Wake-Up Call
To my friends and colleagues in the traditional arts: consider this a friendly wake-up call. The next generation of Scottish creators does not see a boundary between a play and a game, or a gallery and a virtual world. They see a single, fluid creative landscape and open opportunities.
If we want a Culture 50 that truly reflects the power and influence of Scottish creativity, we have to start looking at the digital screen with the same respect we give to the stage, the cinema screen or the canvas.
SGN is here to facilitate that conversation. I am here to be the architect of that bridge. Let us make sure that by 2027, the 50 most powerful people in Scottish arts and culture include the pioneers who are building the interactive future of our nation.
Brian Baglow is the Founder and CEO of the Scottish Games Network.
Photo by Anthony Camp on Unsplash
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