2 Reviews: Untitled Game and Ego Image Shooter

[opensorcery at opensorcery.net]

>the issue of the underlying violent death, decapitation, torture, and >mayhem
>in these games is not addressed. that is to ignore the ugly reality
>simulation created by these juvenile software artists. these software
>artists can be influenced by more mature artists. you can ignore the
>sickness in these games at your own degradation. i do not enjoy killing >my
>son when i play him. i no longer participate. when these software agents
>become conscious will we still enjoy killing them?

did you read the second review? it was about "ego image shooter", a game with a critical/subversive perspective on shooter games...

>the following game was banned in australia because of the following
>scenario: your health is failing, you can restore it by getting a blow job
>from a prostitute, and you can retain your wealth by not paying her, by
>killing her in violent fashion. this sort of thought process invades our
>dreams and changes us in ugly ways.

>http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,3405948%5e15306%5e%5enbv%5e,
00.html

yes, and recently in wired there was an article about white supremicist sites distributing racist mods of castle wolfenstein etc.   quite disturbing amount of downloads. http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,50523,00.html

violence in games is one of those ultra big topics that needs to broken down into much smaller pieces: 

-all games are not for kids.
games are also an adult entertainment/art medium.  just as some literature is not appropriate for kids (i remember reading white hotel when i was 9 and was  very disturbed by it) some games are intended for adults and contain violent and sexual content.  

-scapegoating games> censorship
back when columbine high school attack happened the american press was blaming computer games--and whenever there are outbreaks of RL violence people the press turn their eyes toward action movies and games--a dangerous precedent  of scapegoating  for other societal problems(legal guns, bullying) that could lead to censorship. 

-otherizing of the enemy/binaryness
different genres of games operate differently--network shooter games employ binary competetive tactics and otherizing of enemies that can become a tool for hate.  but interchangebility of sides in games like counter-strike can also undermine fixing hate on one particlur enemy (in counter-strike u switch places with terrorists and counter-terrorists)

-reality games trend(convergence)
has been a potentially disturbing trend toward "realistic" games that converge "real" military situations with game play.  also related to the increasing popularity of reality tv shows like survivor. am currently developing a collaborative project with some other game mod artists--a kind of protest of increasing military "realism" of games--more later.

-virtual violence = queer love
have made the argument in the past, borrowed from queer theory readings of horror films by people like judith halberstam, that in fantasy dream spaces like games and actions movies, transgression of bodily boundaries, pixelated blood explosions etc transform the abject disgust at real life violent situations to pleasure in virtual "bleeding" of boundaries. plus power ride of bad-ass female avatars can be joyous.
see "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons?"
http://www.opensorcery.net/lara2.html


xo.
anne-marie