Venom on NPR re: Call of Juarez - The Cartel

I've recently found myself decrying the Republican slashing of NPR's budget, defending our nation's publically-funded liberal media outlet as a pillar of journalistic excellence and integrity in a landscape otherwise corrupted by pandering and money-chasing.

Then they go and make me look bad by running a story like this: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/23/133966367/critics-condemn-violent-video-game-set-in-juarez#commentBlock

This is shameful sensationalism, not journalism.  The piece reflects a complete lack of any attempt at veracity -- to wit:


"...a video game that glorifies murder and mayhem..."
It's pretty stupid to assume that artwork automatically glorifies its subject matter, especially if you haven't read/seen/played it.  Which I know you haven't, since nobody has, since the game is still months away from completion.

"...critics on the border are already condemning its bad taste."
Again, how could anyone outside of the publisher/dev team be in any position to judge whether or not this particular work is in bad taste?

"A screen shot of the game pictures an outlaw in a flak jacket and cowboy hat..."
Dead wrong.  He is the opposite of an outlaw.  He is a law enforcement officer.

"...people see it as really the ultimate dehumanization of people of Juarez..."
Even though this statement about what "people see" is technically true, doesn't a reporter have a responsibility to distinguish between misconceptions and facts?  Al Franken describes a technique employed by Fox News, the "Echo Chamber," whereby a speculative, baseless quote or sound bite is repeated so often that it loses the context of subjectivity and is perceived as true.

"Critics say the video game dehumanizes the people who have been killed in the Juarez drug wars."
Critics say a lot of things.  I'm a critic.  I claim that playing this game will make seven beautiful, naked virgins magically appear in your living room.  Why doesn't NPR run a story on that?

"...for people to mock them and make light of them is very, very insulting," Campbell says. "I mean, more than 8,000 people have been killed in the last four years; and it's not something to joke about." 
This guy is either misinformed, misquoted, or a total jumping-to-conclusions jackass.  Back in 2000, the movie "Traffic" won widespread praise for its depiction of the terrible situation at the Mexican border (as well as four academy awards). Nobody accused the filmmakers of trying to cash in on human misery. Nobody leveled charges that the film was "dehumanizing" or "mocking" or "making light of the situation" or "joking about" it.  And certainly nobody would have made such comments on the sole basis of looking at screenshots before the film's trailer had even been released. And CERTAINLY certainly no respectable journalist would report on such wildly inaccurate, unfounded speculation as matters of fact.

Obviously, video games still have plenty of new-medium stigma to overcome.  Venom on you, NPR, for helping to make our fight that much harder.  And here I thought you were the good guys.

Miel a "Redención Rojo Muerto"

As a nod to all my Spanish-speaking readers, I present my bilingual analysis of Red Dead Redemption, Spanish first.

El mejor videojuego nuevo del año pasado es, en mi opinión, Red Dead Redemption.  Con este no lineal de disparos en tercera persona, Rockstar ha logrado trasladar el formulario de Grand Theft Auto al Viejo Oeste de una manera inmersiva que nunca se ha visto antes.

RDR -- siguiente a Red Dead Revolver (2004) pero sin tener mucho que ver con él -- relata la historia de John Marsden, bandido que quiere dejar de vivir así y se encarga de buscar y matar a su ex-compañero.  El jugador se mete en la frontera entre Tejas y México en el año 1911, al principio de la revolución Mexicana y al cabo del Viejo Oeste, lo que va modernizando rápidamente con la llegada de electricidad y el ferrocarril.

Se encuentre la mayoría de los mecánicos familiares de GTA.  Marsden puede cumplir misiones a su gusto para progresar o hacer colectas al lado para ganar dinero que gastar en armas y otras cosas.  En vez de manejar autos, monta a caballo (o por diligencia) tras el yermo.

Lo más disfrutable del juego no es solo perseguir el cuento bien escrito y lleno de personajes interesantes, pero además pasar tiempo en el mundo detallado y realístico que ha construido Rockstar. La gente de los pueblos (hablando el inglés y el español, donde sea apropiado) vive por los ciclos de día y noche tal como los aves y animales salvajes de la tierra poco poblada.  Los efectos del tiempo, cielos hermosas y paisaje rico son de una calidad muy alta, todo acompañada por música linda, y cualquier imagen del juego merece colgar en la pared como pintura.  ¡No sería difícil imaginar que el mundo persiste aunque se ha apagado el Xbox!

Red Dead Redemption entretiene los jugadores bien familiarizados con el género y ambos los que no jueguen y tienen la curiosidad de ver lo fascinante que se puede fabricar los desarrolladores con la tecnología del actual.

Last year’s best game, in my opinion, is Red Dead Redemption.  With this open-world third-person shooter, Rockstar has succeeded in bringing the Grand Theft Auto formula to the Old West for an immersive, altogether unprecedented experience.

RDR -- technically the sequel to Red Dead Revolver (2004), though barely related -- tells the tale of one John Marsden, an outlaw who must hunt down and kill his former partner in order to leave his past behind.  The game is set near the Texas/Mexico border in 1911, on the eve of the Mexican revolution and at the twilight of an American West now facing modern encroachment, electricity, and railroads.

Most of GTA’s familiar mechanics are present.  Marsden may complete missions at his leisure to advance the story or perform side quests to earn money for guns and other items.  Instead of racing around by car, he traverses the wilderness via horseback and stagecoach.

As fun as it is following the game’s well-crafted story full of interesting characters, the real joy lies in the detailed and realistic world Rockstar has constructed.  Townspeople (speaking both English and Spanish, depending on their location) lead busy day-night cycle lives, as do the birds and wild animals of the open range.  The high quality weather effects, beautiful skies, and epic landscapes are accompanied by a masterful soundtrack, and any given screenshot is worth framing and hanging on the wall.  It’s not hard to imagine this world persisting even after the Xbox has been switched off.

Red Dead Redemption is sure to satisfy both hardcore fans of the genre and non-gamers interested in seeing the best of what developers, armed with modern technology, are capable of.

More On Adventure Games

Robert Bryant, one of my design teachers, often asserts that "the essence of fun is surprise."  During the late '80s and early '90s, adventure game developers pushed this idea as far as they could -- and adventure games eventually became so surprising as to be nonsensical (Gobliins 2 stands out in my mind as a prime example).

Developers simultaneously discovered that such designs boosted demand for game guides, and so a new pre-internet business was born.  The guides had higher profit margins than the games themselves, and it was only a matter of time before adventure games were specifically designed to sell guides.  This mild form of cheating eventually became the only possible way to get through the games, and it was common practice for pirated copies of the games to be distributed along with .txt walkthroughs or even barely-legible photocopied game guides.

Alternatively, you could ask one of your friends who had played through the game for advice on how to get past a certain sticking point -- a rudimentary precursor to the internet forum system we all leech off of today.

Perhaps the format of all media is determined by the constraints of its funding, presentation, and consumption.  Is adventure gaming a valid storytelling mechanism, or merely a peculiar technological oddity that arose with and was only appropriate for a simpler age?  An age of limited hardware, when there were few PC gaming options and adventure gaming was really the only show in town?  When there was no internet to subvert companies who earned their keep by peddling the secret keys to their elaborate digital puzzles?  When fan devotion to the pluck and humor of the folks at Sierra generated enough surplus of goodwill to offset all the are-you-f#@%ing-kidding-mes they put us through?

It is my fervent hope that torch-bearers like Telltale Games can continue to adapt and innovate this formerly beloved genre of mine.  Otherwise, should adventure gaming go extinct within the next 15 years... you heard it here first, folks.