I’ll show you violence…

Four.

That’s the number of times I’ve been asked today about violence in games. It really feels like this whole Manhunt thing a few weeks ago is on everyone’s minds, right in the middle of E3. Coincidence? I think not. The pity is that whether this game is good or not, it’ll probably sell just because of the hoopla surrounding it now. Best PR money can’t buy…

Seriously, what’s with this fixation some of the media and mainly politicians have with violence when it comes to the game industry? I honestly would have no problem addressing this in a constructive discussion, except for all the hypocrisy surrounding this issue. I’m working on a game based on Greek Mythology. How can you stay true to that without incorporating the violence that was inherent to the time period (and to all time periods for that fact)? It’s all about context but that seems to go out the door when it comes to this subject. You want to have a discussion about violence in games? Let’s have one about violence in all forms of art.

I had an interesting conversation today with Jason Allen, an editor at Gametap, about this and many other subjects. He mentioned that they were adding a new section to their site and asked whether I could write an editorial for him. So I took him up on it. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to do that while working on the game…