Can Games Get Serious?

Konami's announcement of Six Days in Fallujah, the first major studio game to cop to being set in the never-ending Iraq war, will likely garner the usual stupid attention from the usual stupid people. It's a murder simulator, disrespectful to the real people and events on which it's based, further proof that the video game industry will be the death of Western civilization. It's also a chance for the games industry to prove its detractors wrong in a very public way. Surely we can expect a company with Konami's resources to treat the subject with the seriousness and ingenuity it deserves, right? Konami vice president Anthony Crouts talked to the Wall Street Journal to set the record straight:

"We're not trying to make social commentary. We're not pro-war. We're not trying to make people feel uncomfortable. We just want to bring a compelling entertainment experience. At the end of the day, it's just a game."

Oops, never mind.

The Resident Evil 5 controversy should have exposed the inanity of the just-a-game fallacy, in which people try to excuse stupid and insensitive choices on the part of game designers, developers and publishers by, essentially, asserting that anything which is a game is thereby immune to any sort of moral rebuke. "I don't understand all the fuss about my new game, Child Rape Simulator 2009--I mean, it's just a game." Sadly, it seems that, instead of going away, the fallacy has just moved up the ladder, being adopted by spineless corporate types like Crouts.

What I find so frustrating about this is that Six Days in Fallujah shouldn't be just a game. I'm not opposed to games based on current events, just as I'm not opposed to films or photographs or any other works of art based on current events. But such projects require a degree of sensitivity and grace. One is not obligated to make sure that nobody is offended; this is impossible. But for the work to be respectable, it must show that it is more than just an attempt to further careers or turn a profit on the backs of people whose real lives have been profoundly or adversely affected. Exploitation is not art, nor does it have any value as social commentary. And if Six Days in Fallujah is nothing more than a "compelling entertainment experience", Konami has already failed. They've failed aesthetically, they've failed morally, and they've even failed their industry. There is no reason for Six Days in Fallujah not to push the boundaries of what a game can be. But if, as the above quote suggests, it's just another military shooter, it will not do that. It probably won't even push the boundaries of its genre.

The issue is discussed on last Friday's Listen Up! podcast, and while the panel there concluded that a game which treated the subject matter with the respect it deserves would be anything but fun, that, to me, is no reason that such a game should not be made. While I certainly think that some games should exist simply to be fun, I see no reason why all games must exist for that purpose. Not all music is fun, not all movies are fun, not all books are fun, and on and on. Games can be more, and the fact that a serious Iraq war game would not be fun is no reason that it should not exist. Games have an unprecedented ability to put their audience in new situations. Call of Duty 4 showed glimmers of this. In its most intense moments, with the player surrounded by noise and dust and bullets, the game gave the faintest hint of the stress and fear real soldiers in real battles encounter, and while the game certainly does not treat the subject of war with the utmost respect, it at least seemed determined to give the player an occasional bit of unsettling realism.

But developers can do better; maybe not in the areas of game mechanics or graphics, but creatively and philosophically. No, it would not be fun to be in the shoes of a virtual soldier, faced with the dangers and moral dilemmas of real soldiers, but such an experience would, I think, have real value. It could make some small step in fostering understanding by those who risk their lives in the armed forces, and those who never will. Making such a game would be risky and uncomfortable. It would be extremely difficult, because it would require top notch work from researchers, writers, actors and programmers. And chances are, it would not be very financially rewarding. But it could also be incredibly important, and represent a tremendous advance in the art of video games.

As long as developers see subjects as serious as war as one of many skins to put on a set of game mechanics, this will never happen. But the time is right for developers and publishers to push the envelope, making a game that deserves its M rating for something other than meaningless violence and sex.