Thinky stuff: Words are best!

Games aren't always about moving pictures and coordinated fingers. It's sometimes about words! WORDS I TELL YE! If it isn't, then Uncle Rocko is my dog.

Lots of interesting WORDS about games below, none written by me cause I've written loads of words on games already. So this is me taking a break, let other people do the talking. Worth reading all the same.

---

First, some war-related stuff. First blog looks at games in history, particularly board games in Nazi Germany and what that has to say about the time period. This extract gets heavy with games though...

None of this is to say videogames in particular are, or should be, overtly political. Games do not have to be "about" something. Yes, you can enjoy a game without discussing race, class, gender or religion. But that too is insignificant. Games will be "about" race, class, gender, and religion anyway. It's only natural... To completely avoid the medium's history, its potential, and the fact we imbue objects with meaning both intentionally and unintentionally, is self-administered ignorance.

Second blog post is an opinion piece on EA's upcoming Medal of Honor reboot. We all know modern warfare is the new fad thanks to the now-defunct Infinity Ward, but this guy believes it's bad. World War 2 is done and dusted so it's alright to make video games about that, but the war in the Middle East is far from over, so he thinks the new MoH is seriously an insensitive PR fail.

EA claim they “aren’t getting involved in politics”, but given that Goodrich proudly made boasts about their deep involvement with the US military (and even admits to cutting certain aspects of the game based on their say-so) that contention seems faintly ridiculous. Whether EA know it or not, this is a political exercise, with the possible aim of rehabilitating the US military (Goodrich repeatedly focused on the game’s attempts to accurately portray the ‘honour’ of the troops.) And when asked why EA chose this most contentious of locales for setting the game, Goodrich replied that the decision was taken simply because that was where the ‘bad guys are’.

Indeed, that particular comment had echoes of the good versus evil discourse so dominant in George W Bush’s America seems to be in full force here, the binary worldview that may have worked when fighting the Nazis but fails to convince this time around.

Final blog post is an interview with the guy who made the famed freaky, wack Sim City city (see it here). He spent four years pouring over equations and graph paper whilst playing the game in order to build the most epic and game-breaking city ever. Too-serious gaming much? And I thought formulating Modern Warfare 2 tactics in my head were epic.

Best bit of the interview...

Technically, no one is leaving or coming into the [game] city. Population growth is stagnant. Sims don’t need to travel long distances, because their workplace is just within walking distance. In fact they do not even need to leave their own block. Wherever they go it’s like going to the same place.

There are a lot of other problems in the city hidden under the illusion of order and greatness: Suffocating air pollution, high unemployment, no fire stations, schools, or hospitals, a regimented lifestyle - this is the price that these sims pay for living in the city with the highest population. It’s a sick and twisted goal to strive towards. The ironic thing about it is the sims in Magnasanti tolerate it. They don’t rebel, or cause revolutions and social chaos. No one considers challenging the system by physical means since a hyper-efficient police state keeps them in line. They have all been successfully dumbed down, sickened with poor health, enslaved and mind-controlled just enough to keep this system going for thousands of years. 50,000 years to be exact. They are all imprisoned in space and time.

That's all with the heavy stuff for now, folks! To reward you, here's a video of a fat cat standing up LOLOLOL.