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Nolan Bushnell Condemns Grand Theft Auto
Thanks to Newsweek for their extremely short, but somewhat illuminating mini-interview with Nolan Bushnell, timed to coincide with this weekend's Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. The founder of Atari and creator of the RoboCat briefly summarizes Atari's glory days: "Since we were so limited with graphics then, we had to focus on gameplay", but is dismissive of today's violent titles, saying: "I don't like the ones that glorify antisocial behavior, like Grand Theft Auto and Vice City. We actually had a rule at Atari, which seems kind of quaint now, that you could blow up a tank, a plane, a car - but you couldn't do violence against a human." There are more complete interviews with Bushnell archived at the San Jose Tech Museum site and at Joystick101.org.
Entertainment is often controversial. Whether one is speaking of stage productions, film, television, novels, or computer games, one often runs the risk that certain individuals will leap to the conclusion that the existence of negative behavior, self-destructive actions, and antisocial characters proves the approval of such behavior or characters. If there is to be conflict in a story, film, or game, there have to be bad guys. Bad guys make the art forms more interesting and the victory more satisfying.
In computer games, the gamer wants to experience and cause the results, not merely watch or hear. The easiest way to allow the gamer to cause the results is to build in cause and effect contingencies. Unfortunately, portraying violence and its reprehensible aftermath is the easiest and most commonly used means to give the gamer this opportunity to directly cause something to happen on the screen.
After all the Degenatron is way cooler than any old Atari piece of junk. :-)
The Atari.. right the system that has a texas chainsaw massacre game(where you where you play leatherface) Custers Revenge (where you raped a indian woman who was tied up) and E.T. (where your childhood memories of the Spielberg classic where turned into a neverending nightmare of open pits.)
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
If you don't think that there is a difference between (a) a pair of gunfighters trying to shoot each other in a blocky recreation of an "Old West Shootout" and (b) driving through the streets of a realistic 2000-era city, running people over, killing cops and prostitutes and homeless people...
MORTAR COMBAT!
So how does that jibe with your comment that 'the west has stopped having babies'? Again, that's replacement level.
Re-read the comment, please. If you miss what I wrote on that a second time, I'll respond.
Japan is the West all of the sudden? A minute ago you were talking about the west...
Point out where I said Japan was the West, please.
Why? Hispanic culture is more strongly rooted in devout Christianity than the average European culture.
Why should that make me eager to have Hispanic culture replace my own culture? I'm an atheist for God's sake.
This is false. If I recall, peak immigration years were in 1900-1910. During that decade, more than a million immigrants PER YEAR came into the country. Especially if you compare the lower population of the time, those numbers were FAR greater than now.
Please re-read my comment. Notice the words "birth rate ratio." Yes I am aware that the direct population ratio was entirely different, which is why I didn't say it. Funny how that works, me not having said something but you still attacking me for it.
But you make another mistake about immigration between 1900-1910. A far greater percentage of that immigration was from European cultures -- so there was very little pressure on American culture. That is entirely different from today.
Now, when you say that "you can be any ethnicity and be an American," I certainly agree. So long as you share American culture. What sort of migration would be necessary, do you think, to replace American culture? And what about European culture?
Why can't the same standard be held for games? Someone doesn't like violent games... well OK. Let them develop non-violent ones like they enjoy. I can still play Silent Hill and Splinter Cell if I want to.