Ok, so, Konami, a pretty big video game company, pulled its recent game, Six Days in Fallujah. It was to basically be a tactical, squad-based shooter, where the protagonist takes the role of a soldier in Fallujah, recreating the feel of what it would be like during the battle. However, because of an uproar from stupid people, Konami has pulled the plug.
Just because it's a video game.
Movies have been made. TV shows could probably be made. Countless books have probably been made. But nooooo, video games are too juvenile to be taken seriously! How could something so important be put in to game form, for entertainment? How cruel to those who lived through it! It's like it's mocking them!
...Ok, really? It's a video game. Movies have been made about Iraq, to little outrage. But when a video game is announced, it's shut down. Konami has already invested millions of dollars into this game, and it actually looked really good. Who says video games cannot be a moving experience? They can be just as emotional as movies; perhaps more so, considering that the player feels they ARE the character. Seriously, Call of Duty 4 was set in Iraq, and it's one of the best-selling games of last year. People claim that when one of the two main characters dies from radiation poisoning after his helicopter crashes as a result of a nuclear bomb going off is one of the most moving experiences they have had. And these are gamers who shoot things in video games! For hours on end! And are portrayed by the media as being heartless!
It just pisses me off that video games are not seen as being serious, as not being able to carry emotion and weight as a movie does.
Anyway, what do you all think, those few who read my blog?
Can't stop the signal, Mal.
One of the major problems with comparing videogames to other art forms is that the interactive nature of it does lend itself to not being taken seriously. Look at the artfully done Halo series and the spin off Red vs Blue.
ReplyDeleteBy opening control of the situation to the populace, you are also opening it up to the lowest common denominator, the hooting racists on xbox Live, the swearing five year olds on Playstation Network, people wwho play games for viceral sensation rather than to experience the game, it's story and it's design. While you could say the same for most action films and other forms of media, videogames have a much more vibrent showing of this darker side.
Now, I dont believe that this is nessessarily a good thing. I consiter myself a cultured gamer. I keep my finger on the pulse of new titles and select only those that I think of as quality, but not all games are quality. Black, Madworld, Manhunt, Bikini samurai squad, DOA: xtreame beach nudity, these are not quality games by my instinct and your apparent standards, atleast not in their larger part. While good games exist, they are in the minoriity.
Still, I agree with you, games are getting too hard a wrap, mostly because the people who are wraping on them dont understand what's going on with them. quality games are a recent event and when our representatives in government are still figuring out the sending end of an email, we cant really expect too much more.