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June 04, 2003
The Future of Violence
While there's much to celebrate in the <a href="http://www.idsa.com/6_3_2003.html">St-Louis victory</a>, I would hate for this to be viewed as free license to really go ballistic with violence in games (despite having the freedom to do so). I say that because I'm bored with our current formulaic implementation of conflict resolution, not because of any moral opposition or concern...
I'd say one of the most generally misunderstood aspects of appeals against game regulations is that the industry is simply fighting for the right to shove violence at kids. Rather, the situation is much more nuanced, and the biggest stake in the St-Louis case, in my opinion, was reversing the comments of games not being expressive (ie, speech).
(Another misconception, of course, is even understanding what's going on in a game like GTA. It is so not about cop-killing. If only politicians read <a href="http://www.shinyspinning.com/subEmergGTA.pdf">papers from really bright academics</a> - but that's a whole separate discussion ;)
Anyway, what's important moving forward is that designers take this as a call to arms, and explore the boundaries of what can be expressed in games. While there will always be room for violence in the designer's palette, I'd say we've pretty much painted the whole house "red" and need to start applying (or creating!) some other colors...
In the end it is about leveraging the medium, understanding the tools, and pushing the boundary of what a game is.
<a href="http://www.igda.org/newsroom/newsletter_0403.txt">Graeme Devine wrote a bit about innovation</a> in his departing notes, which in part inspired Doug to gear his <a href="http://www.idsa.com/5_14_1_2003.html">E3 opening remarks</a> towards innovation.
Sadly, all this ground breaking work is not going to come easily. Naysayer <i>du jour</i>, Greg Costikyan painfully points this out in his "<a href="http://www.costik.com/weblog/2003_05_01_blogchive.html">Game Industry Crisis</a>" commentary (<a href="http://www.costik.com/digitalgenres.ppt">and slides</a>).
Ah, the life of games.
Posted by della at June 4, 2003 01:48 AM
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Comments
I think we'll see more and more innovation as the technology behind the games advances. You and I as gamers may be able to react emotionally to something onscreen like a Final Fantasy or, uhm, one of those games with something dramatic or comedic in it, but I think things are going to have to get a bit more realistic in their interaction before the general public buys it.
That being said, the care and time that people have put into their virtual pets/people over the last few years is really impressive.
Posted by: Lev at June 5, 2003 09:48 AM
>>I think things are going to have to get a bit more realistic in their interaction before the general public buys it<<
I think Zelda: The Wind Waker and pretty much any animated movie sort of proves you wrong. It's not about visual realism: it's about entertainment.
I also don't see a causal link between the advance of technology and general innovation of interactive entertainment.
Posted by: Jurie Horneman at June 5, 2003 02:08 PM
yeah, i think innovation can occur no matter what technology has to say about it.
Posted by: jonas at June 5, 2003 04:33 PM