Games are developed in a "moral vacuum" declared ITV boss Michael Grade last week in response to a comment made by EA CEO John Riccitiello at the Royal Television Society's annual convention. Grade had taken umbrage with the EA boss when he suggested that games were no more violent than television, claiming that teevee could claim the moral high ground, "because it enjoyed the 'framework of a dramatic narrative,'" reported Broadcast and MCV.
Not bridging any misunderstandings now, are we boys?
So rather than have a go at Grade for his seeming ignorance about the hoover in which our developers live, let's instead provide some evidence to the contrary. Here are a few examples of my own:
Abe's Oddyssee/Exoddus/etc This series of adventure games from the now-defunct games development company Oddworld Enterprise had all kinds of morality, including some explicit messages about worker's rights, labour exploitation and disability. The company didn't go under because of poor sales either, they were integrated into the animation studio Pixar to create even larger and more impressive content. Just not interactive, that's all.
Spore OK, it's problematic to comment on a game that's not out yet, but by all accounts, Spore is a pretty neat game which challenges the player to develop a society of creatures from the microbe to the sentient level so they can go explore space. Developer Will Wright has incorporated consequence into the process, and choices will ultimately have an effect on whether your little tribe of creatures is benevolent or Machiavellian.
Creatures What's immoral about taking care of a cute little creature? Eh? Eh?
Black & White A moral vacuum doesn't provide the option to be good or evil, like this game did. Lionhead Studios' first release from god game mastermind Peter Molyneux forced players to consider their actions towards a state of benevolence or outright violence. The most effective part of it was that consequence was represented visually, and not just via play mechanics (which was ground-breaking too).
GTA San Andreas yes, I did mean that Sure, beneath its code was a scandal waiting to boil over, but (as we've said before) this GTA game was helmed by a guy who was trying to get rid of the bad guys who were selling drugs and ruining lives. OK, so he did it using slightly psychotic, over-the-top, Chopper-style methods, but the point is that he was just trying to clean up his neighbourhood. Is that so wrong?
