Slashdot Mirror
Flash Games as Political Commentary
Clive Thompson writes "All over the net, there are little shockwave games inspired by political events -- from the WTO-style New York Defender to War on Terrorism to even Downing Street Fighter (where British politicians beat each other senseless, Street-Fighter-Style). Sure, like most Shockwave-generated stuff, they may suck as games. But that's missing the point. What's happening here is nothing less than the emergence of the online video game as a form of social comment -- something you dash off in a couple of hours to make a sardonic political point about something. It's a new notepad for communication. Or at least, that's what I argued in this piece in Slate today. In addition to the craven self-promotion of sending it in to Slashdot, I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks of this issue. After all, courts have recently been arguing that video games cannot be protected speech; these games make it patently obvious that this view is insane." The columnist missed a better example of the genre - the EFF's game of digital restrictions management.
geeks always think that what they are doing is more important and has more social relevance than it is. Where Katz when you need him?
love is just extroverted narcissism
and of our continuing infantilism that our political views are expressed through games?
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Ummm, I clicked the 'War on Terrorism' link- I might have gotten the game- I don't know because I restarted my machine to expedite the closing of about half a dozen adult site popups. Can we check these out before our friends who might be reading from work stumble into them? I know better than to click on a link in a post, but this was *in the article*.
Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
I see most flash programming as a big cartoon. If people can make political statements in cartoons, how does making the "cartoon" interactive remove its rights for free speech?
I think that law makers just don't like the fact that we can go around killing them w/lightning and nail guns.
After all, courts have recently been arguing that video games cannot be protected speech; these games make it patently obvious that this view is insane."
I have been noticing this trend. There is a little Tinsel Town video on Eff.org that demonstrates this. I hope it continues to catch on so the courts will realize how foolish it is NOT to protect the artistic, educational, often useful (math blasters/diet programs/financial) and thought provoking programs ppl can come up with.
But that's missing the point. What's happening here is nothing less than the emergence of the online video game as a form of social comment -- something you dash off in a couple of hours to make a sardonic political point about something. It's a new notepad for communication.
;P
Whoa, settle down Katz, their just games
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Someone, somewhere has cloned Jon Katz.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
Many would argue that a lot of games have always been a form of social commentary - not just cheap flash ones. Most "art" is.
:)
Fallout, Civilization, Alpha Centauri, GTA, etc...
(Disclaimer: Haven't read the article yet, this may be completely redundant - if it is, mod me to oblivion
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
--Chag
"WTO-style New York Defender"
And here I was hoping I got to run around in riot gear beating tree-hugging hippies senseless... I call false advertising on this one!
In my humble opinion, it's just another method of providing content to a viewer. Not everything printed in on paper is protected speach, just as not everything found on the internet is protected.
Suppose I make a game where the goal is to go around shooting politicians; its just as poor taste if I decided to print "paper dolls" of the pol's along with text encouraging you to cut them into pieces. What is the point that you are trying to make in either case?
But, suppose I wrote a game called "Fur Fighters" where the object is to throw cans of paint on people wearing furs? Thats much more aligned with a political message...
In short, its not the delivery medium that matters, it all comes down to the value of the content.
A voting drive? Now where am I going to get the cash for a truckload of "complimentary" cigarettes?
How much time will you spend on reading a political pamphlet, or listening to a political speech?
Compare this to the amount of time you would spend on a game, with some political content.
If these numbers are the same, then neither is really more effective than the other, on you.
But, I'm willing to wager that for a large number of people, they'd spend more time on the game than the pamphlet. The time spent translates into mindshare. In other words, if people spend a lot of time on an item, they are more likely to tel others about it.
Thus, for many people, they represent a good way to get a message across.
They are _not_ about pursueading many people to vore with them, they are about one issue (every vote must represent a comprimise between many issues). The establishment, to use your term, has always recognised that entertaining policical commenty is a powerful way to show flaws, inconsistancies and disagreement with established figureheads. See Punch, Private Eye, Spitting Image, Brass Eye and so on.
Your argument, based on the fact that there are more productive ways to topple the current political leaders, misses the purpose of this form of political speech. You would replace them wholesale. Satire will cause them to modifiy thier position and statements. These are distinct aims.
is here.
Friend of mine pointed me to this one a while back... There's 2 more in the series, but this is my favourite.
I can spell. I just can't type.
... a little game as a protest (of sorts) against the Australian government's policy on, uh, unsolicited refugee landings. For what it's worth (which isn't much, given my game design skills), it can be found here.
Who says code isn't speech?
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
This is an example of what I think of as "Wired journalism". Everything is new, exciting, revolutionary. No historical perspective is given - there is no historic continuum, everything is a new. Of course in the real world very few things are a revolution, things change slowly, most ideas have been around for centuries but every new generation thinks it's got all the good ideas.
Where is the wise analysis from journalists with a historical perspective and knowledge outside their tiny specialisms? I'm getting bored of all this sensationalist stuff.
Isn't a sign of the times... and of our continuing infantilism that our political views are expressed through games?
No.
It is no more infantile than scratching crude pictures on paper mocking politicians or political events.
We call those political cartoons, and they are a venerated way of making exactly the same kinds of sardonic, and sometime crass, criticisms of public policies and public politicians. The flash games described here are exactly the same thing, printed in a new medium (the interactive internet as opposed to the passive, one-way old media).
Games and programming in general are obviously speech deserving of "at least the same protections as the print media" to paraphrase the supreme court's opinion in their ruling which overturned the SCA. Things like this are invaluable in driving that point home in terms even non-tech savvy, but non-whored-out-to-the-media-cartels judges can understand. In other words, it won't sway Kaplan, but it will likely sway the supreme court, and it is there opinions which count.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Yes. And all the one I've seen are puerile rubbish. Good political satire is intelligent and thought provoking. A site where you click your mouse button to throw bananas at Dubya or some such is neither.
"Information wants to be paid"
Just to help keep this clear, because some people *still* don't get it...
Flash is Flash. Just Flash, that's it. The most recent version of the authoring tool is Flash MX and the most recent version of the plugin is Flash 6.
Shockwave is the 'net export version of an app made with Director - an entirely different product.
Shockwave games/files as a whole tend to be larger and more bloated than Flash movies because Flash is vector based rather than raster based like Director.
Flash movies aren't automatically big/slow/ugly - it all depends on the skill of the developer. Most of the Flash stuff that I do comes in at under 40k.
A|Q|U|A
Putting that statement's mildly elitist slant -- that certain media are more entitled to express social commentary simply because they are held in a higher esteem -- to the side for the moment, there's a simple fact (well okay, generalization) that folks seem to be missing here:
People express themselves with the tools they have access to and/or are most comfortable with.
Which is to say, painters paint, writers write, orators drag soapboxes out to the park, manual laborers withhold their services, etc. Why should we be surprised when interactive producers do the same within their chosen medium?
Were these games the *only* form of commentary taking place right now, I could understand your point. But given that I can walk down the street in a couple of weeks and catch over 50 different plays, songs, and other multimedia pieces in response to Sept. 11, it's probably safe to say that the other media are holding their own.
..but I think they require the Flash plugin. It's like a gateway drug, first you play some stupid Flash game, next thing you know you're staring stupidly at Flash advertisements. Ohh Look! Shiny things!
Thanks, but no thanks.Indeed. I seem to recall a cartoon abou the "Clinton Memorial"
It had statues of Bill and Monica, and showed a mother covering her child's eyes.
What's this Submit thingy do?
Isn't that the point of any political medium?
What's the difference between blind hatred and cold, calculating anger, if both produce political content, which in turn provokes thought?
What's this Submit thingy do?
You mean like the Flash player?
Flash movies can already request more data after they've started, they can use sockets and recieve streaming audio. The reason people tend to hate it is because it's so often abused with the "Skip intro" type rubbish. Since content is streamed down in a compressed binary format, and most competent designers uses vector graphics wherever possible, it's a far more efficient method for transferring data than HTML/XML/CSS pages.
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Been noticing that over at SF Gate with Mark Fiore's stuff. Heavy handed political cartoonist whose pieces are often presented in a flash game format.
Never never never smoke crack before geometry class!
Miller v. California" (1973) - "In order to be considered to be obscene, the works in question have to depict or describe sexual conduct in a way that is patently offensive to local community standards and which is specifically prohibited in state law; and, taken as a whole, it has to appeal to a prurient interest in sex and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
a rtoon.h tml
I should have added the adjective "obscene". Case in point though, for example a cartoon depicting a naked man prostrate on hands and knees with a dog going at him wildly from behind and a caption "MAN'S BEST FRIEND" *could* fall under this catagory.
Note, I say, "could". The problem of course is that it's a very fuzzy criteria and can be argued either way. A lot of wheter somthing is premited under freespeech falls under state and local goverment jurisdiction.
What could be gotten away with in one location, might not in another.
Luckily we hardly ever have to deal with such cases because of editors. (And the pulp books that do contain the offensive imagary aren't readily accessable by those who would take offense at them... even if they were, the worse that could really happen is for the offensive material to be removed from the store it could be purchased in.)
Anyrate, since we're talking about banned cartoons heres a good link for you: (not dealing with the US mind you.)
http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/Cartoon/c
Do a search on "Neal Horsley" or "The Neuremberg Files"...
Warning: Viewing the actual website will probably make you puke.
I'm not going to state an opinion either way.
What's this Submit thingy do?
(* I seem to recall a cartoon about the "Clinton Memorial" *)
Some of those Clinton cartoons were pretty funny, although I wouldn't want my kids to see them.
One had the "Lincoln in Chair" statue, and right next to it the Clinton version: Clinton was sitting in a Lincoln-esque setting, but with a smerk and Monica nealing giving him a hot-dog hummer. (It did not show the hot-dog itself, but the activity was clear to any adult.)
Another had Monica on the witness stand *sucking* the microphone, and the judge saying, "Monica, please, not so close to the mike!".
I can imagine similar cartoons that border on porn. The courts have a hard time with such hybrids I imagine.
Table-ized A.I.
I thought games weren't speech at all!
:-P
If games aren't speech, then there is no reason these "interative political cartoons" can't be censored.
And heck, why not censor political cartoons altogether? I mean, it's common sense that all cartoons are meant for children, right? Comic books too, since they're practially the same thing.
From there it's a short step to books, music, video, and anything else these pesky consumers invent.
And no, you can not ride the slippery slope when I'm done with it.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Why not assume that any site unrelated to what you are paid to do is out of bounds?
An IT professional is paid to maintain IT (information technology, not Segway HT). In order to maintain IT, a fellow has to be alive. If a fellow is killed by a terrorist, he is no longer alive. Therefore, a limited amount of discussion of anti-terrorism is on topic in an IT discussion.
I am stretching things, but you may be able to pull this one over on your boss.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Please don't let your cynicism cloud your judgement on this one. Yes, there is an underlying thread of political commentary in many of these flash games. It's not overanalysis.
The point, as someone already mentioned, is that a medium, any medium, is just a means of achieving a goal.
It reminds me of people arguing whether games or comics can be "art". It's a silly question; any medium can be "art" if you make art with it. Likewise, there's nothing outlandish about flash games that entertain while offering political commentary.
Where do you work, man? I want a job where I can play loud video games at my desk, especially if pop-up ads aren't allowed in the workplace.
Here's another good example of political commentary ala Flash. This one is about gaming community politics (before watching, know that the UT2003 demo has been due out in "two more weeks" for several weeks now):
h /
http://www.planetunreal.com/features/ut2003flas
This was made by Fragmaster, who is quite possibly the only entertaining figure left in the gaming community.
So only intelligent speech should be protected?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
There are games out there that slip a little social thought into the plotline; Deus Ex's prescient consideration of "How much will people tolerate in the name of fighting terrorism?" is the first thing that comes to my mind.
But what is the political commentary of "New York Defender" and "War on Terrorism" supposed to be? "Terrorism bad!"? "We need a system of powerful anti-aircraft lasers mounted outside all major cities!"? "Man, it'll be great to beat the crap out of bin Laden!"?
People are just taking advantage of the medium, as they did with cartoons.
You have a good point.
If games with a message are infantile, then perhaps enjoyable books with a message suffer from the same complaint -- why aren't you reading a bland, straight political pamphlet if you want a "mature" medium?
May we never see th
Using crude artwork to express a political concern or viewpoint has been going on for hundreds of years. They were originally called 'editorial cartoons'. While today's updated version adds sounds and interactivity, the purpose and message are the same.
//e. They were crude, and in retrospect, not very fun, but I was hardly a big corporation, but they were, indeed, games. The difference is, when I finished the only method of distribution I had was swapping floppy disks the next day on the playground with a handful of my nerdy friends.
What we have here is an author that seems to have graduated from the John Katz school of technology journalism; Lets make a big deal about some 'gee wiz' new technology that translates something that's been done for ages into the digital world, but lets forget to mention it's been done for ages.
The revolutionary aspect of politically motivated video games is really a non-issue. The revolutionary aspect is in that anyone who does it can get it distributed easily. The author sort of missed the point on this too. From the article:
This material would have been unheard of a few years back, when only corporations could afford to code video games
Not so. I was coding video games back in the 80s on my old Apple
A crudely produced political video game is just as easily to make by the common man as a crudely drawn etching of a political cartoon was to produce 150 years ago. The types of messages aren't different, but today the common man can get his or her work viewed by thousands, if not millions of people with little or no cost.
And here is where the author misses the boat! It doesn't matter if they are political video games, self published manifestos, communities based on a common interest... These are all nothing new. What's new is the way these publications can be created and distributed by the common man with no corporation behind him or her.
It would be as if somebody wrote an article about websites like Slashdot and said 'Gee wiz! Look, today people can now make critical comments or discuss magazine articles', forgetting to mention that nearly every magazine prior to the Internet had a page for feedback and reader mail, and that the articles were discussed around the dinner table. The only real difference is now I can write this in 5 minutes, post it, and it will be scanned over by thousands, perhaps even read by 50 or 60 people. Now THAT'S the revolution I like and wish were looked at by writers more thoughtful and critical then myself.
The Internet is generally stupid
A direct link to a program that will crash a windows box.
A story about how to illegally make your own cisco box using warez.
Links inside a story that have PORN POP UP ADDS.
The days of my reading slashdot while at work are numbered. Are you intentionally trying to drive away your reader base? Is news just that slow?
Admitted, slashdot is not the greatest news source out there, but occasionally you can find a gem or two amongst the articles... but with crap like this, it's not worth it.
Personally, I prefer the withering critique of modern adolescence of High School of the Apes and Hentai- Sim Girl.
Hopefully, the appeal of such enlightening games as these will continue to grow.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Well I dont know about politcal flash games, but this one is a hell of a lot of fun. We usually do it while drinking and see who can get the highest score - the more buzzed you get, the more difficult it is to avoid the obsticles.
This game is very simplistic - yet very fun.
Also another fun diversion is this one, called ant arena (at bottom of page)
I had to look twice. I cannot believe this is not an article by JonKatz. The medium is not speech. The content may be. The content may not be. It absurd to argue that all computer games are protected speech. Some may be, although I haven't seen anything the rises to that level.
As for things we should be getting hot and bothered about, I don't think (here in the USA) that the worry is about government limiting speech. Rather we should be worried about the increasing consolidation of handful of media companies controlling the production and distribution of "speech."
No free speech law prevents any private party from refusing to publish, print, or broadcast anything they don;t want to publish, print, or broadcast. Censorship is legal provided it is a private party doing it. Now what are we worried about, again?
How about a suicide bomber game?
people that have a platform forced on them, they might not be able to disable popups.
/. needs to make money
Perhaps you need to inform the person responsible for your playform that their restictions are interfering with your productivity. It certainly isn't Slashdot's fault.
I understand that
Slashdot doesn't get a cent of the advertizing on the sites it happens to link to.
linking to porn sites is a little over the top.
Slashdot links to any site related to the story. In my oppinion the site in question certainly qualified.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
"The problem of course is that it's a very fuzzy criteria..."
Is that anything like a golden retriever?
[NOTE: posted on behalf of another Slashdotter who fears professional repercussions]
In addition to the craven self-promotion of sending it in to Slashdot, I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks of this issue.
Ah, yes. Craven self-promotion and karma-whoring wrapped neatly in a mock self-deprecating tone designed to defuse any criticism. Classic Clive.
What you forgot to mention was WHY you are interested in hearing what everyone thinks of this issue.
For those who are unfamiliar with the esteemed Mr. Thompson's work, he seems to have a history of strip-mining the ideas of people he meets to fuel his lecture-circuit, TV appearances and column-fodder. Those people instantly become his so-called 'friends'. That wouldn't be quite so bad if one could be sure that there was any consistency in attributing those ideas to their respective sources instead of conveniently presenting them (uncredited) as pearls of wisdom from the Oracle of Clive.
[Ed.] The columnist missed a better example of the genre - the EFF's game of digital restrictions management.
Those familiar with Thompson's work already know that he has a history of frequently missing all kinds of things that are evident to people who actually try to be diligent about researching the stories they write.
If the criticism sounds harsh (to some degree) it's meant to. After observing him for some years, he's not quite as bad as some of his pseudo-intellectual contemporaries because his work sometimes rises to the level of being competent. But being damned with faint praise such as that is hardly cause for joy.
Clive, the last thing the world needs right now is yet another self-annointed technology pundit.
I was refering to /. writing and linking stories with shocking and unnerving content to sell their own advertising.
/. stories are reader submissions, and as someone pointed out in another thread, the slashdot staff probably wasn't even aware of any porn pop-ups. They probably have scripting disabled just like I do.
Somehow I don't think "Flash Games as Political Commentary" is exactly shocking or unnerving. If you weren't interested in that subject you probably didn't click the link. If you were interested in the subject, the link was on-topic.
Most
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.