Most of you following the news on Dtoid today have seen the complaints made by UNICO, a group defending people of Italian origin, against Mafia II, an upcoming third-person shooter developed by 2K Czech. UNICO claims that Mafia II is purporting a negative stereotype of Italian-American immigrants on the young generation.

Despite the fact that Mafia II's story is totally based in fact, and many immigrants lived in such severe poverty that they turned to organized crime in order to survive, an act which while not "good" per se, is understandable for someone unable to provide for themselves in any other fashion, UNICO states that this is tearing apart the dignity and respectability of hard-working Italian immigrants.

What I find interesting about this is UNICO's apparent disregard for other forms of media, at least in the statement they made today. Italian based organized crime has been documented in popular literature and film for half a century, and sometimes in more demeaning way then (to my understanding) 2K Czech's Mafia II.

So why the hate?





Some of you who follow games in development must also know of an interesting little title called "Six Days in Fallujah", a game about soliders in Iraq, more specifically the Second Battle of Fallujah or "Operation Phantom Fury".

When the game was announced, it was done so with a hesitant applause from some gamers, who feared touching on a modern day subject, and a touchy one at that, would cause unwanted hatred to be directed at our favourite hobby. I on the other hand was ecstatic. A game such as "Six Days" would establish gaming as both a form of artistic expression and as a legitimate form of media.

But of course, the nay-sayers said took their shots.

Reg Keys, the father of a slain Iraq War veteran, had this to say:

"Considering the enormous loss of life in the Iraq War, glorifying it in a video game demonstrates very poor judgement and bad taste... These horrific events should be confined to the annals of history, not trivialized and rendered for thrill-seekers to play out.

It's entirely possible that Muslim families will buy the game, and for them it may prove particularly harrowing. Even worse, it could end up in the hands of a fanatical young Muslim and incite him to consider some form of retaliation or retribution."

Two key points must be made here. One, by making a statement such as this one, Mr. Keys is writing off the enormous loss of life in the Second World War. According to Mr. Keys, at least by reading this statement, he cares not for 80,000,000+ people who lost their lives in World War II, either because he only truly cares for the life of his son, or because time has taken it's toll, and has desensitized us to the horrors that took place in Europe 60 years ago.

Two, Mr. Keys is ignoring films such as Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker", a movie that is solely based on the events of Iraq War.





This is where my point is to be made.

As an avid gamer, I am sick and tired of the Jack Thompson's of the world ripping on MY favourite form of media. I truly believe that video games are just as legitimate of a platform for storytelling as film or literature, and I think that pressuring or otherwise forcing a company to shut down production of a game just to avoid a PR meltdown is censorship, and violates every human being's right to free speech.

It enrages me that people have this bias towards games for whatever reason, with most of them never having picked up a controller for more then five minutes. It's completely unfair that pornography is legal and allowed to exist in almost all forms, and is accepted by most as just a facet of society, but video games depicting a real life event in an artistic manner are thrown to the dogs.

These people need to know that their biases are unfairly representing games, and are condemning an art form and a platform for storytelling. If you think this way, pick up a controller, try to see things our way. Don't play a game like Gears of War, play a game like Flower, or Limbo, or if it ever sees the light of day, Six Days in Fallujah, and tell me there's no way it could be art.

Shove your bias up your ass. If you don't like gamers, ignore us, like we ignore crappy overrated films like The Hurt Locker, and leave us alone.

Oh, and Mr. Ebert?...