Theescapist 037.Pdf

To the Editor: With all due respect, I meet the aforementioned standard of must disagree with your assertion that expression. the protection of games under the First Amendment is due to their status as The Appellate Court disagreed, and their Last week, we discussed various theories but it’s a fantastic read – all four parts of “art.” comparison of video games with other of game design. We interviewed Trip it over the next four weeks. media is meant to demonstrate that Hawkins, who began the largest game In fact, the landmark case you cite says video games utilize some of those same company in the world, and delved into Enjoy! nothing of the sort. The Court finds that media (music, pictures and writing) in some of the prominent factors in game games are protected speech based on a their own construction and thus are design, such as narrative, gameplay and standard other than the highly subjective capable of the same expression. graphics. question of whether they are art. This week, we’re looking at some of the The District Court’s decision (which can less glamorous, but no less important, be viewed here: http://1stam.umn.edu/ aspects of game development, the ones archive/fedctapp/interactive.pdf) simply that often go unnoticed in our conscious states: “In order to find speech, there thought about a game – the side must exist both an intent to convey a dialogue, the architecture of the setting To the Editor: I don’t normally do this particularized message and a great and the voice acting. This week, we but I just wanted to drop you a note and likelihood that this message will be explore “What’s in a Game?” tell you what a great job you’re doing understood.” That expression need not with the Escapist. The articles are be political or ideological, but can take Additionally, we have the first of a four consistently well-written, researched and the form of entertainment. part series of articles by uber-producer/ thoughtful. Your layouts are always gaming god/industry insider and great, and the subject matter Ico was released in September of 2001. generally all-around cool guy, Warren provocative. Baldur’s Gate II in September, 2000. Spector. He’s agreed to give his thoughts Instead of those well-respected on the game industry, and the problems Please keep it up! examples of the medium, the District and potentialities it faces. Yeah, it’s a Court’s 2002 ruling based its judgement departure from the topic of this issue, Thanks, of expression on violent clips from -Jon Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, and Doom. Perhaps wrongly, but not surprisingly, the Court found these examples did not There is no description of artistry, and above, had very little connection with coarsening, in other words destructive, artistic merits are not considered by the Trip. influence on society. Courts. Trip should get huge props for signing There are some games that are better Sincerely, Madden when he did – at the time EA not to be played. Just as there are -B. Doskocil signed Madden, he wasn’t the #1 Color destructive books, TV shows, movies, Commentator as he would become later etc. that should not be read nor To the Editor: Just so there is a chance on. He was, at that time, more well- watched. But we depend on a mature at correcting a vast overstatement by known for the Miller Lite Beer market to make wise choices. For Trip or, more to the point, to give an commercials that he was a part of where wherever there is a market, there will be appropriate amount of props to the “Real he would burst through scenery to talk people ready to cater to it. Even if it is Creators” of the Madden Franchise we some more as the commercial faded out. illegal. are still playing versions of today, the Lost in all of this is that John Madden only people who should be claiming they was a great football coach ... most Thus the existence of games like Grand created Madden Football are: people today only know him as an Theft Auto, Dungeons and Dragons and announcer, and will probably think that is other games that are recognized by Jim Simmons why he is being inducted in the Pro Scott Orr Football Hall of Fame later this year. Richard Hilleman Kirk Toumanian (sorry if I spelled Kirk’s Love the mag, last name incorrectly ... it has been a -Happy Keller while since I needed it) To the Editor: I’m a bit late to respond There are many others who came to the threat of having no games. After afterward, including myself, who have all, I played games. contributed to the Madden Franchise, but Trip’s version of Madden existed on the “The blood was crimson...” as Tom Apple //e. It took almost six years to Rhodes started his piece. It is fitting that build, and was a commercial failure on he should start with an ancient the Apple // and IBM PCs of the day. reenactment of spectator games that The Sega Genesis version of Madden, were eventually banned. And why were completed primarily by the names they banned? It was because they had a many as having a negative effect on the individuals who make unwise choices in individuals who play them is less an the games they play. indictment of the gaming industry, as it is of society as a whole. True, for most A second response is to segregate players that negative affect will be small, negative games to the equivalent of the offset by other influences in the players’ red light districts of yesteryear: a good, lives, but it is still there. Your magazine consistent rating system will help people has given examples of such negativities recognize and avoid the red light district in past issues. That is what animates the if they so wish. And no cheating, for Cary Nations and the Prohibitionists of though it may confer a temporary today, who want to get rid of the modern financial advantage to the cheater, it also equivalent of “devil liquor” out of brings on unwanted attention of those gaming. But just as Prohibition didn’t who would wish to ban them, which work, nor is the “War against Drugs” would hurt the industry as a whole. having much success, so banning destructive games without drying up the Personally, before I play a game, I ask market for those games will be “What is this game’s message?” “How ineffective. will it influence me?” Games that deal with destructive themes such as occult The proper response to destructive or unnecessary violence don’t even get games is not to ban games, rather it is opened. Our family had hours of fun to be creative and make good games years ago when we hooked up a group of that are at worst, fun ways to relax, and Macintoshes over Appletalk (before at best games that have a positive ethernet became common) and played influence on our lives. Further, it is to against each other. I used that as an show that games affect the people who opportunity to teach my children about play them and to show what the affects what to look for in a game. Now that are, both positive and negative. they are grown, I am pleased to see that Thankfully, the state sponsored blood for the most part, they make wise sports of the ancient arena are no longer choices in the games they play. available, but there will always be -Karl W. Randolph. In November of 2005, I gave a talk at the Montreal International Game Summit. To say the reaction to my talk was “incendiary” might be something of an overstatement, but not by as much as you might think. I thought I was providing a relatively straightforward counterpoint to what I saw as relatively foolish optimism on the part of many of my peers, the press and industry analysts. “Things will be great in the grand and glorious future,” everyone seemed to be saying. I saw a more precarious and unpredictable future for gaming, and the organizers of the Montreal conference gave me a marvelous international forum to talk about that. (If you want to check out the slides from that talk, they’re posted here - you can also check out talks by other conference participants, which I highly recommend.) Recently, The Escapist offered me the opportunity to return to the topics I’d discussed and expand on them in We work in a medium of staggering potential. I And though I sometimes worry that players seem a way I couldn’t in a 45 minute lecture. Those of you who believe with all my heart in that potential and in willing — even eager — to settle for the mediocre, attended the Montreal conference will find what follows the creative capabilities of the people who create, the rehashed, the non-interactive experience familiar (though I hope there’s enough new material here critique and play games. masquerading as interactivity, I have hope that, to keep you reading). Those of you who didn’t attend the as gamers grow up, they will begin to demand conference can judge for yourself if I’m completely off my Our ability to take people places they’ve never more than they did as children or adolescents. rocker, instead of having to depend on press reports and been before and allow them to do things they forum posts for your facts. couldn’t do in any other way is hugely powerful.

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