me@MTV: "Made Man" writer says video games are too violent for the mafia
This entry was posted on 4/3/2007 7:36 PM and is filed under PS2 Surprises,Violent Games,MTV News,Writing in Games.
Now we all know that some people think video games are too violent. Some people even have this funny idea that a lot of games emphasize punching and kicking more than they do conversation. Now I have no idea where they would get that idea from, but it's an intriguing notion.
Also intriguing, and, I think, wholly noteworthy in that it really puts game violence in perspective was mafia expert and author David Fisher telling me that mob life isn't violent enough to realistically depict in video games.
Let me share with you the opening of today's GameFile column:
A few years ago, an employee at video game developer/publisher Acclaim approached crime writer David Fisher with a proposition: to create the most realistic mafia game of all time. Sure, Fisher replied -- before pointing out one problem with bringing authentic mob action into a memorable game: "There's not enough shooting in that world."
Fisher found quite a few things about the real lives of dons and hit men that didn't conform to the normal shape of video games. But what exactly does? The James Bond of games is less the debonair spy he is in the hit films and more of a trigger-happy mass murderer. Superman, a comic book and movie icon, has proved to be the butt of the joke after a string of critically panned games.
So if real mob life isn't violent enough for the average video game, how can it be turned into one?
The story goes on from there. But chew on that.
What's it say about video games and the way stories are padded out with shoot-outs to make them into games? Do you think Bond's character suffers when he's in a video game? That video game Spider-Man seems too much of a brute? That even mobsters seem a bit too violent in the PlayStation world?
