A couple of days ago, I had the honor of being a guest on the official podcast of the unofficial “Gears of War” fansite GearHeadsOfWar.com. The site’s Nick Wangler and Tyler Bleszinski (brother of you-know-who) kindly re-dubbed the show the “Totilocast” as they brought me on to talk about E3.

But we took an unexpected turn and wound up talking about what’s good about video game violence.

Yes, what’s good about video game violence. Read more…

The debate over whether games are good for you isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon, but one recent study discovered an interesting positive.

A study filed by Cognitive Daily (via Andrew Sullivan) was investigating ways to close the gap traditionally found between the visuospatial skills (key to engineering and graphics work) of males and females; males typically perform better.

A mixed group of 20 non-gamers played “Medal of Honor: Airborne” for ten hours over a four week period and report back for testing. Another did the same for “Balance,” a 3D puzzle game. The study found that for those assigned to “Medal of Honor,” not only was the gap between males and females diminished, it was nearly erased entirely. The same result was not found with “Balance.”

“So, could encouraging girls to play action video games actually improve their math and science skills?” asked the writer of the study. “It’s certainly a possibility. It’s intriguing that not just any game will improve these skills — even a three-dimensional puzzle game didn’t help; only the serious life-and-death action game seemed to work.”

They do point out the study doesn’t necessarily prove anything, but regards it as an interesting result. “I think another step is needed before we start promoting “Halo” as the answer to all sex discrimination,” said researcher Dave Munger.

Is the Wii great for motion control? Some say yes.

Is it great for casual gaming? Sure.

Is it great for black-and-white gaming? Shigenori Nishikawa, developer of 2009’s violent “Madworld” told me last week that the Wii is perfect for that.

“The Wii is the ideal console to express white and black graphics,” he told me during the announcement of the partnership between publisher Sega and the Platinum Games studio where Nishikawa, formerly of Capcom, now works. “For consoles like the 360 and PlayStation 3 the level of high-quality graphics is so extreme. I wanted things to be simpler than that.” He said he had been told that he needed to make a Wii game. “We thought about ‘What can we do that’s new on the Wii?’ And we came out the white and black graphics.”

Since its debut last week, “Madworld” has drawn comparisons to “Sin City,” the famous graphic novel that was also rendered primarily in black-and-white. Ishikawa says the comic was just one inspiration for the game. “‘ Sin City’ is really what graphic novels and American comics represent,” he said. “So, yes, ”Sin City’ was one of the graphic novels we looked at. But the direction ‘Sin City’ goes and ‘Madworld’ goes are completely different.

One direction that is shared between comic and game is extraordinary, unusual violence. I wanted to know more about that and got some colorful answers…

Read more…

We reported yesterday that Matt Damon passed on the opportunity to be involved with the development of “The Bourne Conspiracy” because of the game’s level of violence.

That’s the impression we took away from an event held by Sierra a few weeks back.

There’s more to that story, we’re now told.

High Moon head of product research and globalization Meelad Sadat contacted MTV Multiplayer to further clarify Damon’s involvement. Sadat said High Moon didn’t meet one-on-one with Damon. While the actor never explicitly said he was passing due to the violent content, that was Sadat’s impression at the time, so that’s the impression I came away with during our earlier conversation and used to write the story that appeared on this blog yesterday.

“We got the sense that his interest in games overall was marginal, and we decided to move away from celebrity involvement and take our Bourne into an original direction,” said Sadat.

A quote from Damon in an article from The Boston Globe earlier this month further clarifies the situation. The article’s focus is on Damon’s mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, and her views on violence in the media. Damon, however, is interviewed and references his involvement with “The Bourne Conspiracy.”

“I lobbied hard [with the video producers] to not make a first-person shooter game but to make it more like Myst, which was a great interesting puzzle you tried to solve - you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory,” he told the publication. “They weren’t interested. They made the video anyway, without my likeness.”

As the article notes in brackets (a journalistic tool to add unsaid clarification), Damon didn’t explicitly say he talked to the developers of the game. The author of the story added that extra detail, which High Moon tells us is an error.

Though Damon never met with High Moon to express any sentiments, it appears the original story’s conclusion that Damon passed due to violence appears correct.

When I saw highly impressive “The Bourne Conspiracy” a few weeks back at Sierra’s spring media gathering, I came away with a lingering question: where was the star of the films, Matt Damon?

During my demo, a representative from the developer, High Moon Studios, described how the author of the Bourne books collaborated on the storyline and the game’s cinematography was modeled after the shaky cam featured in the movies.

So, where was, Bourne himself, Mr. Damon? He turned down an offer to be involved with “The Bourne Conspiracy,” High Moon director of business relations Meelad Sadat told me. Damon was in negotiations to lend his voice and likeness when development was getting off the ground, but he took issue with the game’s level of violence and pulled out.

MTV Multiplayer reached out to Damon’s publicist for comment, but our phone call was not returned.

Damon’s decision could be linked to feelings shared by his mother, Carlsson-Paige. Earlier this month, Paige participated in an online chat with newspaper The Boston Globe, where she shared strong feelings about violent games. “I am very wary of violent video games,” she said. “Research shows they desensitize kids to violence, even more because they engage kids in committing violence.”

When asked if she approves of her son’s violent films, she admitted they always agree on media issues. “Matt and I don’t share the same views about violence in adult films, but we do see eye-to-eye on the importance of protecting children,” she said. “We both support regulations to stop the marketing of violence in films to children through violent toys, products, and video games.”

In hindsight, Meelad wasn’t upset with Damon’s decision, as it allowed them to form a new Jason Bourne for players to assume the identity of. There’s no celebrity association with their version of the character, Meelad argued.

Readers, would you have preferred Damon to be involved in “The Bourne Conspiracy”? And what do you think of his reasons for not becoming involved?

We’ve seen society’s reaction when a game seemingly steps over the line (see: Hot Coffee). We’ve also watched legislation to restrict video games come and go.

Adam Thierer, First Amendment champion and director at Washington D.C. think-tank The Progress & Freedom Foundation, believes the industry should show caution when introducing games rated AO by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) into the mainstream.

But what would happen if Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo suddenly allowed Adults Only-rated games to be released? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria?

“Whether any of us care to admit it,” said Thierer in a recent blog post, “the fact that AO-rated games are currently kept off the major consoles and off the shelves at some major retailers (ex: Wal-Mart and Target) is probably the most important thing holding back a full-on legislative assault on video games.”

The aggressive legislation proposals in the wake of Hot Coffee weren’t a “full-on legislative assault on video games” in Thierer’s eyes.

And is he suggesting that game makers disregard the potential of adult content out of fear?

“I am in no way advocating that the industry hold off in terms of allowing complete creative expression,” Thierer told Multiplayer in an e-mail exchange.

Read more…

Want more sex in your games? More violence? What’s culturally acceptable here might not be kosher somewhere else. But that pendulum swings both ways.

I recently spoke with CD Projekt, the folks behind “The Witcher” about sex in their PC game.

As a follow-up, I’ve been talking to more game developers about their reasons for pushing for more extreme content or holding back.

Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford proved the most outspoken of the bunch, and suggested a bigger issue was at play: territorial differences in their reactions to sex, violence and language.

This presents an interesting challenge to developers interested in having their games appreciated on a world stage, and one not very different from the obstacles CD Projekt faced in bringing their adult-targeted RPG to the United States.

“My experience has been that different audiences and territories seem to have very different tolerances for content that tests their standards of decency,” Pitchford told me in an e-mail exchange covering everything from sex and violence to “Samba De Amigo” and monks playing “Counter-Strike.”

Pitchford’s company has been best known for the “Brothers in Arms” series of World War II-based shooters. While they don’t feature much sexual content, there’s violence and colorful language abound. That may fly in the US, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world necessarily comes running with open arms.

Every country has its own idea of what’s acceptable, said Pitchford.

Read more…

“We have a powerful medium, and we can do more. We should do more, and we may be able to do more than only entertain.”
–Rusel DeMaria, Author/Analyst at GDC 2008

It’s not uncommon for GDC attendees to start scratching off end-of-day sessions after sitting in panels for hours on end. Unfortunately, anyone who decided to passed on DeMaria’s panel as day one of GDC closed missed out.

The ambitious panel asked whether games were capable of achieving more than sheer entertainment, and while everyone there had something interesting to say, it was Gas Powered Games‘ Chris Taylor and 2K Boston’s Ken Levine that found themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet on surprisingly common ground in regard to what designers bring to their games.

Taylor kicked things off with an untold tidbit about his breakthrough RTS game, “Total Annihilation”: he purposely removed blood from its art direction. In his eyes, war wasn’t meant to be cool, and even though his passion was to develop war games, real war involved young soldiers dying and never coming back. He kept this part of the design a secret. “I don’t think anybody cared. I was on my own little thing,” he said.

Later in the panel, Levine would come to defend the use of blood in games from an artistic standpoint. “For the healthy mind, for the thinking mind, the advantage of blood, the advantage of gore, the advantage of keeping it on a level that makes it true is powerful. [In "BioShock"] if you didn’t have that level of pain and realism and nastiness, people wouldn’t think about it.”

Both designers are 41-years old. A key difference between the two, however, is that Taylor is the father of four boys. “As a father, there’s this genetic sort of trigger that [tells me] I have four boys, and when I make games and I come home every night, I want my boys to see my work. It would really suck if they couldn’t see what I did every day. That’s probably got more to do with [my beliefs] than I care to admit,” confessed Taylor.

One of Taylor’s favorite shows growing up was “The Brady Bunch,” but he found himself annoyed with the preachy tone of some episodes. As an adult, he understands why the writers took that route: they were “slipping medicine” to kids in an attempt to give back to society through their creative work. “Here I am, 41, I’m kind of slippin’ a little medicine into my games and I’m hoping that kids will play the stuff that I create and they become better kids.”

On the other hand, there’s Levine. “I’m not the guy you want to look towards for a teaching moment,” he said. Read on to find out why that is.

Read more…

Last week I asked, “What’s the best age for someone to start playing video games?”

Some say seven is the right age, while others don’t think kids should play video games at all. Recently I interviewed two mothers about video games and their children; they each had different opinions. One mom didn’t allow consoles in her house, the other said games had a positive impact on her family.

This week, I spoke with two fathers on the subject. See why a gamer dad is uncomfortable with letting his kids see the pain inflicted in “Pain” and how “World of Warcraft” finally made another father put his foot down…

Carlo, 30 year-old creative director at an ad agency from Edison, NJ
Children: Two sons, ages 3 and 5
Systems Owned: VTech, Leapfrog Leapster, PC, DS, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3
Age OK for Kids to Play Games: Let kids play VTech at ages 2 and 4
Games Allowed to Play: E-rated games
Time Allowed: Up to 3 hours per weekday; more on weekends
Would Never Let Kids Play: “Shooting games with guns, explosions, limbs, blood;” “cartoony” violence

Read more…

Why can’t “Halo” make me feel what “Passage” made me feel? It’s clearly not a question of budget. It’s either unwillingness to do it or inability to do it. And I’m not saying that the guys who make “Halo” couldn’t do that if they tried. The point is they didn’t try — to me they didn’t try.

-- Clint Hocking To MTV Multiplayer, January 15, 2008

After talking to “Far Cry 2” creative director Clint Hocking about explosive barrels, and fears of slumping PC first-person-shooter sales, there was only one more big topic for me to tackle with him: not selling out creatively.

Hey, I know how it is. I work for a big company. I know what expectations people have when you get involved with a big-budget enterprise. Folks begin to doubt that any interest you have in anything that’s indie or alternative has no chance of showing up in your work.

So I challenged Hocking on this. He loves indie games, or so I’d heard. How does that square with making a big-budget first-person-shooter. He took me up on it and we wound up talking about emotion and death, and how “Halo,” “Gears of War” come up short in a particular way that he says “Far Cry 2″ won’t.

(NOTE: I strongly suggest you play the five-minute indie game “Passage” before reading on, unless you don’t mind Hocking spoiling it for you.)

Read more…

What’s the best age for someone to start playing video games? That’s a question that’s been asked quite a bit lately.

Is it seven? According to educational psychologist Jane Healy, who spoke at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, children should be kept away from video games until the age of seven to “allow their brains to develop normally.”

The paperback edition of “How Computer Games Help Children Learn” by David Williamson Shaffer hit stores this week, basically explaining how video games can be good for children. We’ve also heard firsthand accounts from people — video game legends, even — who began playing games at an early age, and they seemed to turn out pretty normal (or in some cases, brilliant).

In light of all this, I wondered what actual parents thought. We know what a lot of children’s specialists, media watchdog groups and industry researchers think. I decided to ask some parents I knew (and parents that friends and co-workers knew) about their opinions on the subject.

First up, I spoke with two mothers with very different answers.

Who: Alisa, 38 year-old business owner from Boston, MA
Children: Two daughters, ages 6 and 9
Systems Owned: LeapFrog, Mac computer
Age OK for Kids to Play Games: Let her daughter play LeapFrog at age 4, but only web games since
Games Allowed to Play: Pre-approved web games only
Time Allowed: 30 minutes, several times a week
Would Never Let Kids Play: Any violent games or games that let you “beat up or say crude things to a woman”

Read more…

It’s 2008, but I’ve still got 2007 on the brain.

Back in mid-November last year I received a copy of “Soldier of Fortune: Payback” from Activision.

I had never actually picked up the previous two games in the series, which are based on the military-focused magazine of the same name. After finding “Soldier of Fortune: Payback” among my stack of games that were released around that time, I noticed something interesting advertised on the box … specifically, a “low-violence” option. The white text, outlined in a red border read:

WARNING!!! Violent Subject Matter. Low-Violence Option Included

Since the “Soldier of Fortune” games have been known for their excessive violence, I was curious as to why they would advertise the low violence option (was it to appease parents or entice gamers?). I e-mailed Activision to see what it was all about, and I got a response from Producer Dan Gniady of Slovak Republic-based developer Cauldron HQ during the holiday break. Here’s what he had to say…
Read more…