Friday, February 11, 2011

Games Going Too Far?

Once again video games are in the center of a very heated debate. Ubisoft's new game "Call of Juarez, The Cartel" is now under the microscope and under fire for basing the game on a current, very sensitive subject. The game is described by the game's website as a "bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez, Mexico."  It is important to keep in mind that this game will not hit stores until the summer of 2011 and very little is known about this game at this point.All that is really known is that the game will be based off of the ongoing drug battle between Los Angeles and Mexico.
 
In a story released by Fox News Latino the game is under heavy fire. Dr. Kathleen Staudt is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso and was interviewed in this story. Dr. Staudt is a researcher on topics including violence, immigration and the border. Here are a few quotes from Dr. Stuadt in the story for Fox News Latino:
“I think this should be taken very seriously considering the large scale demonization of Mexico and the Mexican people.” and also, “People who don’t understand the border and don’t know the border are now going to view it in a caricature game.” “The whole picture of the border is one in which people are suffering tragedies but also it’s about the resilience of the people.”

In response to Dr. Struadt's comments an Ubisoft spokesmen responded by saying,
“While 'Call of Juarez: The Cartel' touches on subjects relevant to current events in Juarez it does so in a fictional manner that makes the gaming experience feel more like being immersed in an action movie than in a real life situation.”

Screenshot from "Call of Juarez, The Cartel".
If the current trends in gaming continue, people will be constantly demanding new and more realistic plots. Even though "Call of Juarez, The Cartel" is third game in this series, I had never heard of any of the games until I wrote this post. As I researched "Call of Juarez," I found that the other two games are based in Western times which show that companies realize most people want to play games based in new settings.

Here is a link to a video that confirms the switch from Western to Modern!

To answer the question of are games going too far, I would say no. I answer no because I think that in order for companies to make money on gaming they will need to keep up with current events just live the movie industry does. I think that people just need to remember that video games are for entertainment and are not real.






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1 comment:

  1. cmbjornsonFebruary 24, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    First off, great topic for a post. It seems as though every day, the media is blaming video games for some kind of problem in the world or what they're doing to younger kids playing controversial games. I think the graphic you posted right away at the beginning of the entry sums it all up. The exposure to such "extremes" that we see on the news is just translated in video game form where you can control such plots.

    Since there was so little known about the game when you blogged about it, I'm glad you incorporated the two quotes you did showing how even though it's still relatively unknown, the game is still getting a lot of attention and you posted both sides of the story, for and against. Personally, I think it sounds like it would be a game that I would like to play.

    Quick idea for an amendment to this post or another post would be other controversial games that go too far (so they say). I remember Grand Theft Auto getting a lot of media attention because of the nature of the game and what happens so maybe you could post some previous controversial games and how they are viewed now as to what happened when they were first released. Food for thought!

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