Controversy

As a ‘new’ medium computer games have always been surrounded by controversy, naysayers and negative press. Jack Thompson and his ilk have always been quick to point out the evil that computer gaming has unleashed upon the world at large and we gamers have always been quick to jump to the defense of our passion. Although, when it comes to Jack Thompson even I have to admit that I respect him for the way he goes about his nefarious business. As crazy as he sometimes appears, he’s more willing to engage the gaming community in discussion and debate than most of those who have spoken out against computer games. He even went so far as to attend ScrewAttack.com’s convention SGC in order to participate in a live debate on the issue.

Like I said, I usually have a response to all of this fear-mongering….something along the lines of “Shut up and grow up in equal measure”. The big problem for me though is that the industry has looked at all this negative press that they get and thought “Wow…look at all this FREE press that we get!” Rather than trying to show the world that computer games are capable of being an experience unlike any other and can be mature about their content, most developers are happy to take the opposite route.

The whole ‘women in games’ debate is largely caused by this as few developers take the time to make their female characters believable to all but 14-15 year old guys. The fact that Team Ninja spent more time developing “Breast Physics” than they did developing an actual story for Dead Or Alive is a telltale sign that all is not as it should be.

The sad fact is that controversy can sell anything. Even the established religions of the world were considered controversial at some stage, and some still are in areas where they are ‘new’.

As long as this is the case we will continue to see developers and publishers alike using controversy as part of their marketing strategy. If you don’t think that this is the case ask yourself the following: Why did Infinity Ward release information about MW2’s “No Russian” level? Surely they could’ve kept it quiet and saved themselves from the barrage of negative press and concerned parents if they’d truly wanted to, so why do it?

Why were Lara Crofts jubblies so jubbly? Why does Bayonetta spend most of the game semi-naked? Why does having sex with prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto restore your health?

Because these things make your game a talking point. If the mass media are talking about a game then people are hearing about a game and, regardless of what’s being said, a good percentage of those people are buying that game.

Looking at things this way it’s easy to see why games contain controversial content. It has little to do with games being more mature, as the mature content is rarely treated in any such manner. I don’t mean to keep on at Infinity Ward but they’re not killing playable characters because they’re being mature; they do it because it’s shocking. Oddly enough the more they do it the less shocking it will become. Even stranger is the fact that they’re rather adept at treating killing NPC’s with the maturity that such a graphic and harrowing act warrants.

Sex scenes are just as bad, if not worse, and really don’t add anything to the game. Films use sex scenes to great effect (in some cases) but when they’re in computer games they just feel so false. Animation just isn’t at the stage where characters can share a loving embrace down by the fire and have it look natural, or even enjoyable for those involved. The fact that nudity is still a minefield in games only compounds this further, as characters usually have their undies on the whole time. Forgive my vulgarity, but I don’t seem to recall wearong clothes as being all that conducive to the act. Even the few games that dare show a bare (sometimes blue) bottom do so with very carefully managed camera angles, which in all honesty make the whole spectacle even more embarrasssing to behold. The whole mess screams of a 15 year old boy chuckling to himself as he backs Ms. Croft into a corner to get a better look at her polygons. Purely for educational purposes of course.

Hopefully this will be a short lived trend and game developers will go back to the days of story and gameplay being the talking points of their games. I’ve no doubt that there will still be some people out there who will damn games for the corrupting influence that they may well be. On the other hand, at least we’ll be in a better position to defend the medium. Perhaps one day we’ll even be able to ask “Games have grown up, so why can’t you do the same?” Personally I very much look forward to hearing the answer.