15 oct 2005

15/10/05: Idea ajena para un juego

Diario de Guerra de Alejandro González, Alias "WaaghMan". Centesimovigesimosegunda anotación:

En un post anterior alababa una tira del cómic Ctrl-Alt-Del, en el que criticaba una propuesta de un abogado, crítico de los juegos violentos etc.

Hoy, navegando por la red, me he encontrado el texto original del abogado, que reproduzco aquí para que la gente lo lea si lo desea. Básicamente, "propone" e incluso "recompensa" (aunque no a los autores del juego) una idea para un videojuego en el que encarnamos a un padre cuyo hijo ha sido asesinado por otro chaval con un bate de baseball, tal y como sucede en un videojuego al que estaba enganchado. Además, el asesino "tan sólo" es condenado a cadena perpetua (Me imagino que en USA siguen teniendo penas de muerte o algo). Nuestra misión en el juego es cobrarnos venganza, matando primero a los directivos de la empresa, después a los abogados, después a vendedores de videojuegos, y por último causa una masacre en el E3 (no, a por el asesino no va).

Aquí el texto:
This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.

I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.

I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."

The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.

The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.

Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.

O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.

O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.

O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.

With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.

Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"

O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.

How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.



Tras leerlo, la verdad es que la idea no es tan mala :P. Por supuesto, en caso de hacerse, tenemos dos opciones: Seguirle la corriente al abogado y hacerlo tal y como lo pide, o cachondearnos de él. La opción A no requiere mucha explicación, aunque no tendría mucha utilidad. La opción B, por el contrario, permitiría reirnos de él un rato: Una aventura gráfica estilo Runaway, que logra ser seria en el argumento y divertida en el desarrollo de la acción. Otro ejemplo sería el hacerlo al estilo GTA 1 o 2, en 2D con perspectiva cenital, etc.

De todas maneras, seguro que en un mes más o menos sale algún minijuego "coffee break" que incluye lo que pide el abogado :).

3 comentarios:

Abe dijo...

Sacado de Penny Arcade:
You may have seen Jack’s proposal mentioned on various news sites. He’s offering 10 grand to charity if a game developer makes a game based on his insane proposal.

So I got his email address and I went ahead and sent Jack a note this morning:

10 grand is pretty weak man. Through our charity www.childsplaycharity.org gamers have given over half a million dollars in toys and cash to children’s hospitals all over the country.

I’ll let you know if he responds.

The fact is when we kick off Child’s Play 2005 on November 1st we’ll be going global. We’ll be delivering videogames and toys to children’s hospitals all over the world now. I don’t think there’s any better response to Jack’s insane ramblings than that. Maybe Jack would like to donate his 10 grand to Child’s Play, that could buy a lot of Game Boys.


My email sig had my phone number in it. Jack actually just called and screamed at me for a couple minutes. He said if I email him again I will “regret it”. What a violent man.

-Gabe out

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Por otra parte, está claro que partimos de la idea de que el niño aquel estaba desiquilibrado. Si en el GTA matas a 2 polis ya tienes 2 estrellas de búsqueda!! A quién se le ocurre!!

Sobre el otro desiquilibrado. No sé, seguro que tiene un sentido del humor demasiado fino para mí y no pillo la crítica mordaz. Quizás con un argumento más profundo...

Anónimo dijo...

¿Un chavalín no debería estar jugando al GTA? ¿no? ¿no tiene una edad mínima recomendada? ¿acaso sus padres no saben lo que hacen sus hijos?

Todavía recuerdo como mi padre me llevó a comprar el Carmageddon original. Me pregunto si sabría de qué iba... (mis hermanas estaban escandalizadas)

Abe dijo...

Este caso cada vez se pone mejor :P

Unos links interesantes:
- Desautorizan al abogado Jack Thompson
- Mails al de VG Cats
- Thompson breaks his word on $10k bounty, says he was just kidding


No hay más que leer lo de VG Cats para darse cuenta de que el tipo aparenta una edad mental de 7 años