BlackSite Developer offers insight on Church versus Sony deal

With all the hubbub about the effects of recreating an actual cathedral into a violent shooting game, it’s not surprising that other game developers are talking about it as well. Such is the case with Midway’s Austin Harvey Smith, part of the team currently developing the highly-anticipated title BlackSite: Area 51, which coincidentally is also a shooter and also pretty violent.

Citing the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman, Maus, the developer talked about how he believes videogames will be dealing with more sophisticated and sensitive subject matter in the future, just as effectively and succinctly as today’s comics and movies do.

And that the common belief that games do not have that level of sophistication needed to tackle such sensitive issues was, in fact, the same thing the public believed with comic books – until Maus, that is.

He then cites America’s Army as another example of games dealing with a sensitive issue that’s pretty much on par with religion, and that’s politics. His statement:

America’s Army is the most political game anyone’s ever made. It is a complete commercial for the right wing. So, if that’s a super-political game, what’s wrong with making a game that questions the role of the US military in the world and the role of the military-industrial complex?

Compelling argument, and it’s something that both parties in the Resistance: Fall of Manincident should look into. Yours truly can also cite a similar issue that popped up a few weeks after the release of the best-selling movie 300 – where the Persian government actually slammed the movie for its portrayal of the Persian empire. While they were certainly shown as the enemies of the movie, it really doesn’t take much to realize that the movie itself was based on a graphic novel, one that takes enormous liberties with the source material.

Here’s hoping it all settles down without anyone getting seriously hurt in the process.

With all the hubbub about the effects of recreating an actual cathedral into a violent shooting game, it’s not surprising that other game developers are talking about it as well. Such is the case with Midway’s Austin Harvey Smith, part of the team currently developing the highly-anticipated title BlackSite: Area 51, which coincidentally is also a shooter and also pretty violent.

Citing the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman, Maus, the developer talked about how he believes videogames will be dealing with more sophisticated and sensitive subject matter in the future, just as effectively and succinctly as today’s comics and movies do.

And that the common belief that games do not have that level of sophistication needed to tackle such sensitive issues was, in fact, the same thing the public believed with comic books – until Maus, that is.

He then cites America’s Army as another example of games dealing with a sensitive issue that’s pretty much on par with religion, and that’s politics. His statement:

America’s Army is the most political game anyone’s ever made. It is a complete commercial for the right wing. So, if that’s a super-political game, what’s wrong with making a game that questions the role of the US military in the world and the role of the military-industrial complex?

Compelling argument, and it’s something that both parties in the Resistance: Fall of Manincident should look into. Yours truly can also cite a similar issue that popped up a few weeks after the release of the best-selling movie 300 – where the Persian government actually slammed the movie for its portrayal of the Persian empire. While they were certainly shown as the enemies of the movie, it really doesn’t take much to realize that the movie itself was based on a graphic novel, one that takes enormous liberties with the source material.

Here’s hoping it all settles down without anyone getting seriously hurt in the process.