The whole cancellation of Six Days in Fallujah has got me immensely pissed off and made me want to rant my head off about how games should be more then just random shooting and should really try to approach real life issues and stories. However, when I rant it sort of goes on a little long and the current opus is still under development. Thankfully, CEO of Atomic Games, developer of Six Days, Peter Tamte is far more succinct and has summed up my feelings on the subject very well in a recent article where he discussed the game's cancellation.
"Are we really just high-tech toymakers, or are we media companies capable of producing content that is as relevant as movies, music and television," he asked after noting that almost every medium except gaming has grown through confronting current events and being topical. Of course that statement raises plenty of questions about interactivity and what it means to take on the roll of real people, but I am forcing myself to digress.
Tamte also claims that it is the Marines that Atomic Games grew to know by designing serious games for the US Marine Corp that inspired the game. "This is what brought us close to many of the Marines who fought in Fallujah," Tamte said. "After they got back from Fallujah, these Marines asked us to tell their story. They asked us to tell their story through the most relevant medium of the day -- a medium they use the most -- and that is the video game."
You've got to wonder if this is what the Marines wanted why Konami chickened out. I guess they just like making me really annoyed by the current state of games. Damn you Konami!
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 05.02.2009
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Sensitive topics my arse. There's has been made silly comedy films about topics like terrorism and Iraq War. So this is all bullshit.
However, right now we need someone to have the balls to release a war game that could actually be intellectually worthwhile.
The problem is that we live in the era of everyone becoming offended by the slightest thing, the other problem is that games are not recognized as anything more than a child's toy by the majority of the public, games are still looked as a child's pastime, there's tons of people out there that don't understand that games have evolved beyond stomping on goombas.
The other problem is the companies relent, I mean look at Rockstar, they received a bit of controversy over Manhunt 2 and the game was censored to hell and back, GTA 4 didn't even have planes so people wouldn't crash them into buildings and such, hell Shinobi of all games had an intro where the Hotsuma slid down a building with his sword, the following scene was to show the building crumbling, that scene was removed because of 9/11.
I'm not saying go out of your way to offensive or hell don't be offensive but the fact still remains that developers or even publishing companies don't take chances and cater to the demands of an ignorant public.
Till these things changes, games will never be recognized beyond a simple pastime.
After Bioshock, I know that games are capable of being fun, delivering thoughtful subject matter, without being false or patronising. The ideas and politics of Bioshock still have me thinking about them, whenever I walk away from the game. I'd like more of this kind of stuff from my games, instead of the post gaming void of emptiness many games give us. Games will only ever be toy if we let fear mongers get their way.
Even news media can tackle sensitive subjects, which they weren't once able to, but technically, news is stlll a form of entertainment. Overall, while games are still a young medium, technology is here, now and always evolving. All developers and publishers need is the balls, heart, passion and creativity, to want to tell a compelling, yet sensitive tale laced in a game.
My advice for Peter and Atomic, is to push forward to get this game made and in the hands of gamers. Don't worry about the short sightedness of Konami, just make them regret it. Some other publisher will be brave enough to help Atomic. And if that fails, there's always Steam.
Perhaps then, games will start tackling more sensitive subjects, that gamers might otherwise not care about.
I think many people, myself included, looked at the game as mediocre at best, a rip-off at worst, because it didn't even bother to make it a realistic situation. Third person, regenerating health, directly taking Gears of War's combat 'style,' and so on, all lead to a feeling of arcadey shooter, not realistic depiction of combat in Iraq.
If they'd done something closer to the original rainbow Six games, and had a real terror of being killed by, you know, BEING SHOT, it would have had that much more to it.
Assuming they are this could be a horrible business decision for them, continued involvement would only serve to lower their share prices while attracting negative attention from the public at large and evaluating the game with the meager knowledge I do have I don't think being based on a real life campaign is a strong enough Unique Selling Point to elevate the game above the seemingly endless crowd of FPS's cluttering shelves today.
Personally I don't really want to see another game based in the Middle East (Modern Warfare 2 notwithstanding) that doesn't expose the crushing oppressions and poverties of the region, that being said I think Six Days in Fallujah deserves to exist just as much as Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down or the Kingdom.
No, everyone should know that the Left's view that all Military Personell are Evil Evil People who kill Civilians every day for sport.
-.-
God I hate Publishers listening to the morons who a) weren't there and have no idea what the Soliders really went through and b) stick their head in the sand and refuse to consider anything that contradicts their belief's...because they're always right.
But hey, you slap Call of Duty 7 on it and every publisher would want to pick it up