Posted Jun 13, 2007 at 09:38AM by Ryan C. Listed in: Interviews, Resistance: Fall of Man, Games Tags: Midway Games, Harvey Smith
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Church - Image 1With all the hubbub about the effects of recreating an actual cathedral into a violent shooting game, it's not surprising that other game developers are talking about it as well. Such is the case with Midway's Austin Harvey Smith, part of the team currently developing the highly-anticipated title BlackSite: Area 51, which coincidentally is also a shooter and also pretty violent.

Citing the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman, Maus, the developer talked about how he believes videogames will be dealing with more sophisticated and sensitive subject matter in the future, just as effectively and succinctly as today's comics and movies do.

And that the common belief that games do not have that level of sophistication needed to tackle such sensitive issues was, in fact, the same thing the public believed with comic books - until Maus, that is.

He then cites America's Army as another example of games dealing with a sensitive issue that's pretty much on par with religion, and that's politics. His statement:

America's Army is the most political game anyone's ever made. It is a complete commercial for the right wing. So, if that's a super-political game, what's wrong with making a game that questions the role of the US military in the world and the role of the military-industrial complex?


Compelling argument, and it's something that both parties in the Resistance: Fall of Manincident should look into. Yours truly can also cite a similar issue that popped up a few weeks after the release of the best-selling movie 300 - where the Persian government actually slammed the movie for its portrayal of the Persian empire. While they were certainly shown as the enemies of the movie, it really doesn't take much to realize that the movie itself was based on a graphic novel, one that takes enormous liberties with the source material.

Here's hoping it all settles down without anyone getting seriously hurt in the process.


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4 Comments


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   by fedup (Unregistered) - 2007-06-13
 » what?

It still amazes me that the church is trying to squeeze sony into feeling some sort of obligation to make reparations. It really doesn't get more retarded than that. On a side note does Austin Harvey Smith even know how to read? He should stop with the Maus parallels and pull his leftist head out of his ass.

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   by albert fish (Unregistered) - 2007-06-13
 » what?

Agreed!! Yes that's right. Don't question anything at all.
It is best to believe what you are told because those in power have your best interests at heart.
Right wingers may be the vanguard of the stupid, but they are wise to never question themselves.
That would mean responsibility for the atrocious direction their inept leadership has dragged us through with this administration. Nevertheless, I feel better knowing jingoist foot soldiers like the the above person are fully cognizant of their intellectual prowess to recognize what is retarded.
The Maus parrallel is accurate. But then you would have to know why it is. And you wouldn't make a very good right wing stooge if you had any sense of historical context.



   by otarumx (Unregistered) - 2007-06-13
 » It's just like

The trouble caused by Ghost Recon for using a mexican city for a game, it created a lot of controversy but in the end "it's not real", I mean, how many other real world locations will be suing from now on, does the video game industry have to stop using real world locations?, Then movies should too and I don't see that happening. In the end it's all about money, thats what the church wants ¬_¬.

   by Senor DingDong (Unregistered) - 2007-06-14
 » Persian Government?

Um, Persia doesn't exist anymore. It hasn't existed since before WW2. The last remaining Persian region was Iran which had a name change back in the 30s. I'm guessing you meant Iranian government.



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