Taking Risks in the Gaming Industry

A few years back, developer Quantic Dream brought us Heavy Rain, a modified point and click adventure that puts you in the shoes of a handful of characters thrown into a classic murder-mystery case.  This Playstation 3 exclusive crossed the finish line as a success and though the genre isn't for everyone, Quantic Dream is continuing their trend (like Fahrenheit and Indigo Prophecy before it) with a new IP slated for this fall; Beyond Two Souls.  Even though Heavy Rain received its fair share of criticism, those who understand Quantic Dream's mixed style of cinematic gameplay got a memorable experience from the game and heralded its undeniable pushing of the boundaries acceptable in video games.

So why exactly am I bringing this up now?  Because it has recently come to light that Microsoft turned down Heavy Rain because the story was centered around child kidnapping.  Apparently, in fear of how it'd be received by the media, they told Quantic Dream that the content was a problem and that they wanted it changed.  I applaud Quantic Dream for taking their IP and walking instead of bowing to the demands of a publisher whose familiarity is more prominent in business and sales than in artistic integrity.  I'm not trying to focus on Microsoft here; I'm sure Sony and Nintendo have turned down their fair share of risky proposals.  But the pressing fact here is less about Heavy Rain being turned down, and instead the reason it was turned down.

Refusing to take on Heavy Rain because the story contained a child kidnapping was a decision that could have been very harmful to our medium, had Sony not stepped up to support the project.  Instead of trying to understand the presentation of the content, Microsoft was only focused on the content itself, and from the start considered the blow back of ignorant, letter-writing soccer moms to be more pressing than the evolution of gaming as an art form and a unique style of story telling.  Just imagine if Reservoir Dogs was asked to change its script to remove its highly memorable, character defining torture scene.  What if Children of Men was forced to edit out its visceral, dark violence?  What is left is nothing but a shadow of what the art piece was meant to be.

And isn't there at least a hint of hypocrisy contained in the other games Microsoft have brought to us?  Gears of War has no problem letting you saw someone completely down the middle with a chainsaw bayonet.  Blood, gore, and brutal violence are stacked upon each other without a second thought, and all for the sake of gushy entertainment and shock-factor, but the second a story contains a sex scene or a child kidnapping, its gone too far?  Allowing games to explore morally difficulty themes is how we grow as a medium and evolve as an art form, and without pushing the envelope, video games will never escape the image of immature teenage entertainment.

Film critics can watch a movie and appreciate the fact that every bit of violence, every sex scene, and every other sequence of rape, murder, torture, kidnapping, or war is every bit as important to the story as dialogue between characters.  They understand that if rape takes place in a movie, the film isn't saying "We condone rape;" they are expressing a bigger narrative beyond what's on the screen and weaving it into overall picture.  Why can't games be treated the same way?

Well, the primary factor still holding gaming back is the publicity that gets highlighted by the media.  Grand Theft Auto being blamed for poorly parented teenagers with greater underlying medical issues toting around guns or Mass Effect exploding into the view of parents because it contains a four second, fully censored sex scene; these are just the forefront example of how major news outlets view video games.  But the battle isn't won by kneeling before their wishes and promising to remove all adult content from our medium.  You don't get anywhere by playing it safe and even when you do everything you can to stay off their radar, they'll still dig for a reason to propagate a witch hunt.  "Video games are why kids are overweight."  "Gaming is why test scores are so low."  No matter what, if a new issue comes to light concerning kids, video games will be the primary target.

So how do we deal with the problems the media poses for this art form?  Short answer; we don't.  Rockstar has continued doing what they do best and making solid Grand Theft Auto games, quite successfully, in fact, without any hindrance posed from their past tangos with media spotlights.  Games being successful or praised is not affected one bit by how news casters portray them.  In fact, that's something very positive I can say about gamers in general; our opinions are not swayed by the negatives we read in the paper or see on TV, because we already expect games to be criticized and hated.  Truth is, games have been misunderstood since their creation, with parents and teachers whining and screaming about how their kids will be affected.  We already know full well that we are generally looked down upon by media outlets, and its nothing new when Nameless TV Anchor #406 presses a new story on why playing your 3DS will cause blindness or how holding a controller will develop arthritis.

In the past decade, we have come a long way.  Games are beginning to really blur the line between cinematic experience and fun pass time.  Motion capture and real actors are being used to bridge the gap into reality and renown composers are seeing video games as a dynamic, exciting new form with which to deliver music.  Instead of a room of lone programmers, development teams now have writers dedicated to creating the story, and crafting character personalities.  Environments are created, not to just exist as a plane for your avatar to walk on, but as a delivery method for atmosphere and narrative.  We are constantly maturing and are finally being taken seriously as an art form and we didn't achieve this by listening to the demands of ignorant parents and doomsday prophets who would still complain about the game anyways.  We ignore them, we keep creating, and we continue to expand.