On a Pale Horse

In response to “A Murderer Has Your Email Address” from The Escapist Forum: I’ve never heard about this game, nor this genre before, but it is definitely intriguing. I don’t know whether I would have the stomach for it though, despite knowing full well that I am in no danger whatsoever. I can’t really grasp whether that is a good thing or not – maybe it is a good sign because I can restrain myself from becoming too attached to technology. Maybe its not such a good sign because it shows how such technology could affect me. Maybe I’m just a coward.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to see this kind of work going on – even though this sort of game will probably never see mass appeal (beyond the internet/esoteric gaming community that is), it is definitely a good sign for the industry considering the difficulty both past and contemporary games have in transmitting a story-line.

– patbox

In response to “A Wii Bit of Violence” from The Escapist Forum: If the current ratings are enforced (an optimistic view), then impressionable younger players won’t be playing M-rated games and there is little need for further restriction. It seems unlikely that a psychologically healthy 18-year-old would be heavily influenced by the input method.

If the ratings are not enforced and the violence in Wii games has a greater psychological impact, assigning such games an AO rating would be over-inclusive. Most retailers won’t carry games with that rating, and adults would be denied access. Developers of M-rated games wouldn’t port them to Wii to avoid the danger of such a market blackout.

It would be an interesting reversal of fortunes if Nintendo were to go from using a kid-friendly marketing slant to effectively having a coerced kid-friendly policy because of a corresponding violence penalty imposed by the ratings board.

– MaxVest

In response to “A Wii Bit of Violence” from The Escapist Forum: I’m having a hard time differentiating between pointing a remote game controller at an onscreen enemy and using my finger as a pretend gun when I was little. For that matter, our pretend light sabre fights using wrapping paper rolls were “tangibly violent” as well.

Are we underestimating the grasp of fantasy vs. reality possessed by most people, children included? Violent play is fairly prevalent. I don’t think the Wii controller is introducing an increased level of danger to anyone.

– gcason

In response to “Resident Evil’s Second Sex” from The Escapist Forum: An interesting angle to me is that the men in video games tend to be men *other* men find attractive, in the ‘he could kick my ass so I better let him get first pick of the ladies’ kinda way. When really, the most lusted after heroes in recent film have been Legolas, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from _Titanic_. Even when men are held to a standard of ‘handsomeness’ in a video game, it’s a butch male one, one that’s way different from what seems to get women buying movie ticket after movie ticket.

If game designers were trying to appeal to women – especially 18-24 year old women – with handsome men, the funny thing is they’d make the heroes look more like Link then Felix.

– Cheeze_Pavilion

In response to “Resident Evil’s Second Sex” from The Escapist Forum: [Last] week’s first letter to the editor has finally inspired me to stop lurking and post a contribution:

I know, as web trolls go this one is small fry, but it hurts to read. That quote equals wrong like two plus two equals maths. “Controversial” stories about issues aside from “cool stuff that’s actually happening in the industry” is what makes the Escapist the only must-read gaming publication. Leave the other 12 million identical gaming websites their industry gossip! This is the only site or magazine I know of that has articles which always, always make you think.

Lara’s piece was brilliant. Encore!

– Fraser.J.A