GTA Grand Theft Auto - Maddox discusses mod

[Darren Dirt]

Always good for an egocentric laff...

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ticket_to_hell





...and don't get Maddox started on the ubiquitousness of blogs...

[Mr. Analog]

I voted for "Totally!" only because there was no option for "Arr!"

[Darren Dirt]

So it's officially civil lawsuit time -- but in this case I think the cause of action is valid, basically by not disclosing the full contents of a product for sale (within reason) this is, to me, a case of fraud or similar.





"Businesses have an obligation to truthfully disclose the content of their products ? whether in the food we eat or the entertainment we consume... Delgadillo is seeking civil penalties from Rockstar Games Take-Two Interactive. He also is requesting that Take-Two and Rockstar take action to ensure full disclosure to consumers about the content of their video games."



http://wham.canoe.ca/news/2006/01/27/1414445-ap.html (reported 27Jan2006)

[Darren Dirt]

Thread resurrection time!


Warren Spector, well-respected game designer and all around cool guy, was apparently misquoted re. GTA -- and here is his detailed and fascinating response...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6139443.html

Sadly--and this is part of the point I was trying to make in the interview last week--most people won?t take the time to look past the surface, the fiction, the context. They don't see the fun and the freedom the game provides. They see carjackings and gun battles and hookers. You can talk about game design genius 'til you're blue in the face. The people who want to regulate games, and the mainstream audience we want to reach, will ignore you. And then they'll drop the hammer on our medium. Hard.

Wouldn't it be nice if people as talented as the folks who made GTA would devote those talents to something that wasn't so easily misinterpreted and so easily vilified by politicians, moralists and other cultural gatekeepers?

Wouldn't it be nice if game developers--especially developers as talented at the folks who created GTA--would devote their energies to simulating a wider variety of fictional worlds?

You don't think the GTA team could rock hard on something that didn't involve criminal behavior? Wouldn't you love to see them try? That's what I was saying. Well, that and the fact that it's worth our while to examine what our content says about us--as a medium and as contributors to our culture. But that's a longer discussion for another time...

Look, as an individual and as a player, I'm tired of so-called 'violent video games'--not because I think they cause real-world violence (I don't believe that for one second), but because the 'edgy,' 'violent' routine is getting so dull...

I'm tired of urban crime, alien invasion, war stories and orc-killing. I'm tired of most every game having to be the equivalent of a summer blockbuster movie. I'm tired of always having to solve game problems with a gun or a spear or a fireball (and not having to deal with the consequences of such a solution). I don't mind that we make games like that--I mind that the mainstream of console and PC games (apologies to Will Wright and the entire Nintendo DS lineup!) consists of almost nothing but that.

Where's our Lost? Our CSI? Our Law & Order? Our West Wing? Our Seinfeld? Our musical Buffy episode? Okay, maybe those last two are a bit beyond our capabilities. But the others are within our grasp if we would only try, and if we could find someone to fund and truly support the not-insubstantial effort involved.

The key thing to remember is that there is, and should be, a huge gulf between personal opinion and public policy. The fact that I'm bored, and even in some cases offended, by the range of content options available in games these days (and not just Rockstar's stuff--not even primarily Rockstar's stuff!) is not a reason to use legislation or the courts to impose limits on game content.

Talk about a call to "raise the bar"! WTG, Warren! Designers are, indeed, capable of producing more creative "context wrappers" for the brilliant technical achievements that are now taken for granted... Perhaps the Wii will help make that happen...