Dead Pixels has 41 chronicles

1. This Modern Game
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jun 02 2009

   THIS MODERN GAME
   
   Dead Pixels
   By Ryan M. Eft
   06-01-2009
   
   When it comes to games, there are certain debates you kind of expect to hear. Things such as “Are games too violent?” and “How far should games push the envelope?” come up at frequent intervals. That sort of thing has been going on since the original Mortal Kombat hit arcades.
   
   Well, a lot has changed in gaming since Mortal Kombat’s then-controversial, now-tame content hit the world. When Konami deigned not to publish Six Days in Fallujah, it sparked a debate that is not of a nature usually heard in the hallowed halls of gaming.
   
   But what might have been even more interesting than the debate was the fact that Six Days existed at all. Back in the days of MK’s glory, it could never have been.
   
   The story behind it is about as interesting as most gaming plots.
   Some time ago, Developer Atomic Games was working on training materials for the Marines. Assigned to help them were some members of Third Battalion First Marines. Until they were sent to Iraq.
   
   Explains Atomic President Peter Tamte “"When they came back from Fallujah, they asked us to create a videogame about their experiences there, and it seemed like the right thing to do.”
   There were worries the game would be too close too reality. The fact that these worries were not shared by the actual soldiers who participated in the events doesn’t seem to have made too much of a difference.
   
   Now, some soldiers have expressed concerns, but there’s a refrain in those concerns that seems largely due to a lack of understanding of our medium. Tim Collins, a former member of the Royal Irish Regiment, said that making a game based on such recent events was “An extremely flippant response to one of the most important events in modern history.” Other comments seemed to echo the idea that games were not a suitable vessel for this story. No mention of whether those folks consider any other storytelling medium to be inappropriate.
   
   Now for my part, I would like to see this game completed and published. I’m very curious to experience what it would be like to be those soldiers, and I even think it would be an important insight for most gamers. We go by playing military shooters that are decidedly un-realistic, no matter how many Havok physics we throw at them.
   
   But I’ll freely admit to an ulterior motive that anyone who reads this column often might be able to guess. I want to see what video games can do. I want to see how far they’ll stretch before they break in two. It’s my personal theory that this will prove to be a very long way.
   
   See, I don’t think outlandish situations are necessary to a good game. Nor do I think it is necessary for realistic games to be set in other time periods. Six Days in Fallujah, when it releases (I do believe that’s going to happen eventually) is the kind of title that could be a watershed.
   
   Sure, in order to make interesting gameplay, we might have to fabricate some precise situations. After all, going to work 9-to-5 wouldn’t be very interesting (unless you’re one of those Sims people, I suppose). But a game set in places where people do go to work 9-to-5 could make for a backdrop at least as interesting as a fantasy landscape. How about a game about the reality of drug wars south of our borders?
   
   It’s a situation most of us cannot understand, because it dwells in a level of real-world horror we have never experienced and hopefully will never have to. Movies can give us some insight, but ultimately movies and books draw their own conclusions, even if they try not to. Those conclusions are foisted upon the audience, sometimes unintentionally.
   
   With a game, this would not have to be the case. Sides of a real-world conflict could be thoroughly explored from multiple points of view. Players could feel part of what is happening, and not have to be strictly spectators.
   I’ll make an open confession: I am nowhere near smart enough to conceive of the mechanics of a game centered on real-world, current events. But from Somali pirates to fishing boats, the real world is packed with more thrills than the best potboilers, and more real, intense action than anything the next Devil May Cry could possibly offer. The media would have a field day, but I can’t help but notice that hasn’t done much harm so far. And anyway, the media’s job is to get offended and make people mad. One of the jobs of games is to let us see things we think we know about in new ways.
   
   So what do you all say? Games are, as I’ve said often, a powerful medium, and I truthfully perceive no limits to their potential. The only limits are the ones we think we have.

   
   

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Dead Pixels has 2 comment s on this chronicle.

1. ZMaine
   Posted On Jun 02 2009

   Pie

2. JackDaniels624
   Posted On Jun 02 2009

   Well, the media has done harm in that it can blatantly lie and still people will believe it...I've fallen for it, and my dad and brother most certainly have too...However in a sense of gaming, you are right. Anyway I totally agree with what you say! Personally, I hate CSI and Bones and stuff, yet I love the First 48 and Forensic Files, solely because that's the harsh reality of life, where as CSI and Bones are just made up stories.