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Playing Mogul In The Games Industry
incognitius writes "As sometimes happens, a mainstream publication (the New York Times Magazine, free reg. required) has a feature article on videogames written by a non-gamer. The piece, called 'Playing Mogul', discusses how and why video games conquered music, TV and the movies to become America's pop culture of choice. The article offers some interesting insights into the future of the industry, though it's pretty incompetent in places. It also gives one a good idea for what Atari is doing these days. Worth a read, especially to see what millions of non-gamers will read next Sunday morning." Particularly notable is Atari boss Bruno Bonnell's turning down of a game featuring "a major hip-hop artist" which it's claimed "would net Atari many millions of dollars" because it "lacks an ethical dimension."
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One of the things people forget alot, when theyre talking about videogames with god p.o.v. or any game where you get to choose how violent to be or how good or evil, is that the choice belongs to the player, its not forced on them by the game. For example, in a game like Black and White, you can choose to be a good god, or a bad one. Or in KOTOR you can choose to be light side or dark side. What these games really do is show what people like to do in a situation without consequences, whether you may be preternaturally good, or evil. granted its not a perfect microcosm of life, but there is something here. Maybe the game isn't whats fucked up, its us. This actaully reminded me of when my brother tryed playing postal 2, and he was disgusted when he tasered a cop so much that she urinated on herself. Well, he didnt HAVE to do it that much, if he really hadnt wanted to.