[casual_games] slamdance competition

[Tom Edwards (Englobe)]

In somewhat brief response to the comments on this issue, since this is the
kind of thing I often deal with specifically, I think a lot of excellent
points have been raised pro and con. Certainly there are issues of "art" and
"free speech" to consider, as well as "social taste" and "exploitation". As
is the case with any type of game, both the ability to adequately prove your
*intent* as a game developer and the ability to produce a solid *defense* of
your content choices are key before ever releasing something to the global
stream. Seeking public provocation is a pretty easy thing to achieve with
inflammatory titles and blatantly offensive subject matter choices, from
this title to JFK Reloaded to a host of other similar titles. It wouldn't
take much to come up with a game that could offend just about any culture in
any locale. Many others games have achieved a more sophisticated form of
social commentary by developing effective satire and parody to make their
statements, without opting for the ease of provoking a knee-jerk for the
sake of attention however I can't and won't assume what the developers had
in mind with this specific example. The bottom line is that if you're unable
to have a clear, thoughtful defense of your intentions - based on a
well-researched political, cultural, sociological standing - then the end
result is likely to yield nothing but negativity. If this was "art" for the
sake of art, then perhaps such works should be more clearly
announced/labeled/described as such. 
 
As some have expressed already, in my view the worst side effect of such
efforts is that the "unintended" audiences - like many parents and
legislators - will perceive it only as the most horrific example of a video
game and only use it to further fuel the "games are evil" backlash. It
doesn't help the specific developers (except perhaps their flash in the pan
PR), it doesn't help groups like the ESA and IGDA who are constantly
striving to wake up the unintended audiences to what games are about and it
certainly doesn't help the image of the game industry as a whole. I'm all
for the use of gaming technology as an unrestricted art form, but I believe
that many developers forget that those "unintended" audiences out there are
lagging far behind in their understanding of what a game is and could be.
 
Thank you,
 
Tom Edwards
Geoculturalist & Principal Consultant
Englobe Inc.
 <mailto:tomedw at englobe.com> 

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From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Jeff Murray
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:14 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] slamdance competition



I know you guys take your games very seriously, but come on . this is
seriously stretching it. If the only way to make a statement or provoke
thought is to use horrific real-life events and potentially cause people a
lot of grief and pain, then it's time to bury the whole damn technology!
I'll be honest and say 'do you *really* think that low-budget indie games
are anything other than a creative waste of time?'. I find it hard to
believe that a low-budget RPG, MMO or puzzle game could provoke any serious
response from anybody without 'shock value'. More cinematic titles? Well,
let's face it unless you have a huge budget you're looking at poly-shaped
heads or animated characters. You're not going to make Ghost In the Shell
and you're not going to make something as cinematic as Half Life 2 . so
accept the genre, use it and stop trying to pretend it's anything more than
it *really* is. No-one is going to change the world with a low-budget RPG
whether it has a shocking subject matter or not. It's still a *game*.

 

Anyhoo . much as I enjoy reading your essays - in the real world it comes
down to the fact that this game has a horrible, offensive subject matter
along with a name designed to shock. Slamdance pulled it from the
competition because it is more than offensive to do that and have people sit
and play it out. It's got nothing to do with oppressing your 'artform' at
all and you guys are just trying to intellectualize it too much. reading too
much into it. If you don't believe that, then try and find the last
*true-story* movie with a shock title like this, that won awards from a
respected organization. Oh what do you say? There aren't any? What a
surprise. Was Natural Born Killers a true story? I don't think so.

 

It's because of this that I have absolutely no sympathy with the project or
its plight, and find it bewildering that anyone else would.

 

No doubt I'll hear the cheer ;) but I won't be replying to any more on the
subject (no matter how much I might want to!), as we obviously disagree and
the consensus on here says I'm off target, so I'm just going away now ;)

 

JeffM.

 

 

 

 

 

  _____  

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Allen Varney
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:22 PM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: Re: [casual_games] slamdance competition

 

Jeff Murray wrote:
   (((Nope, to me it doesn't say anything other than 'hey, all us haxxors
can get together and protest against it after I finish doing chores for my
mum'.
   ((('I don't like that others can trivialize my chosen craft so easily.' -
Is that what this is really about? Basement-dwellers feeling like 'the man'
is keeping them down?))) 

   Inasmuch as Jeff Murray evidently thinks only the opinions of the
propertied class matter, I should first mention I own my own large home.

   (((Don't be silly. If enough people won't give up their $19.95, it's not
because of 'the man' it's because of the 'the game'.))) [sic] 

   Slamdance started its Guerrilla Games Festival specifically and
explicitly to highlight ambitious designs that challenge society's
definitions of a "game." Commercial sales have nothing to do with the issue,
though I imagine some may have trouble parsing that idea. 

   (((Games vs movies? I don't remember the last award winning true-story
film about how much fun massacring school kids can be ... perhaps you can
remind me? What a ridiculous argument / detour.)))

   Uh, that would be Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers." 

   (((The idea of 'playing out' a real high school massacre can't be healthy
on any level.)))

   Evidence?

  (((As for 'the jury wanted it in, then decided not to' ... good! I'd much
rather they did *that* than give this kind of crap any awards / undeserved
publicity.))) 
   (((I totally agree with Slamdance, their sponsors, or whoever made the
decision to dump it. Let the 'kiddies out to shock their parents' protest
against it and hope that people out 'there' know that not all indie games
are produced by sociopaths with no conscience.))) 
   (((What I don't understand at all is why this guy is getting support for
his cause. He's made a sick, tasteless statement in the indie game world and
for some stupid reason people are trying to make out that slamdance are
somehow oppressing the dude or that they are some evil empire out to destroy
the fabric of independent gaming - he's the underdog? Call me traditional,
but I like to support causes that deserve ... not some kid's idea of getting
some publicity at the cost of other peoples suffering.))) 

   Murray's snidely expressed assumption is that games are pure recreation,
like a sport, and inherently have no purpose as art or social commentary.
The idea of comparing them to film in that respect is "ridiculous." This in
itself shows the necessity for Slamdance -- or, now that it has been
discredited, some eventual successor -- in the effort to broaden the
permissible range of expression and also broaden parochial viewpoints.
Assuming that's possible. 

  (((Let's face it, art can be pretty much any old crap you have lying
around just as long as you can justify it with an intellectual reasoning -
and it's usually the bad artists that get the most publicity by using dead
things cut in half to pass off as something 'thought provoking' to the other
pseudo intellectuals.))) 

   Drat, I wrote the responses above before I got down to this reply in the
thread. Up to this point I thought I was listening to a rational, educated
person. Five minutes of my life, gone.

-- 
-- Allen Varney
    www.allenvarney.com

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