"Games won't get the same respect as movies by selling more copies"

December 2nd, 2012, 00:53 Posted By: wraggster

Let us explain. Late last year, Hirshberg deflected Call Of Duty's role in glorifying violence by focusing on the 'free pass' given to movies. "There's a sense that games are more exploitive in a way that The Hurt Locker isn't," says Hirshberg. "The producers didn't create The Hurt Locker as a public service; they did it to tell a story that they thought needed to be told. And, yet, that's not viewed as exploiting current events."In short, games don't get the same respect as movies, Hirshberg argues. It's a fair observation, but the worrying part, is how he thinks games will become more accepted. Rather than try to contextualise violence, or say something more important (or indeed, anything), Hirshberg suggests games will gain respect by... selling more copies.
"I don't know if there is a way for us to accelerate that process [gaining mainstream acceptance] through content," Hirshberg says. "There's a way to accelerate it through continued success, through continued engagement and commitment to quality, by making great games that people want to play. The more people play, the more mainstream and accepted games will become."
So, let's get this straight: games shouldn't try to earn respect - but wait until they're ubiquitous and no one's left to complain? Sorry Eric, but that's where Mr Willis was ahead of the curve. Respect, as any middle class street hoodlum will tell you, isn't given, but earned.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 620px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: none; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image- article-image-620"></figure>However you slice up any of Modern Warfare 3's many, many noisy levels, its most astonishing insight is 'war is bad' or - and prepare to have the very nature of your existence questioned - 'war is confusing'. You could play the levels in any order and the plot wouldn't make a lot less sense, and an hour after finishing it, all you remember are the explosions and the Eiffel tower, as opposed to that bit with explosions in that street, or in the tunnel...No, wait, was that MW2? Even the 'shocking' bits are legacy inclusions from the genuinely provocative Call Of Duty 4 - its devs reduced to ticking the 'controversy' box like sad industrial robots riveting imaginary doors years after the factory's closure.
Wait. Tell a lie. There's one bit of Modern Warfare 3 that we do remember. The bit at the end where you wear the heavy-duty bomb disposal suit that was made famous in... The Hurt Locker. Oh.
There's a place for dumb, noisy, games, but it's not their place to complain if they're not taken seriously. Movies are often 'excused' of their violence, as part of a wider message or context, but one recent example suggests the same could be true for games. 2K's daring, Spec Ops: The Line - with its scenes of torture and killing innocents - passed through the notoriously strict German censors uncut, who described the game as 'anti-war'. 2K's game makes players confront their role, not as soldiers, but killers, and the true impacts of their actions.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...g-more-copies/

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