I still remember sitting on my little brother’s bed when we were kids and playing the old Nintendo version of “Rampage.” The game gave two players the chance to work together to destroy a city….or the temptation to destroy each other. Each time we sat down to play, we would vow to each other that THIS time would be the time when we would work together to destroy the city. And each time we would descend into a pit of base human rage, ultimately culminating in a physical altercation that could only be ended by adult intervention.

Commercial video games have only been around for about 30 years, but their impact on our society is indisputable. And they don’t just tell a story…they put you IN the story. And like novels and films and theatre and television shows, video games offer the opportunity to escape from the tedium and occasional agony of daily life. But does that make them art? In a recent article in the New Statesman, Tom Chatfield argues that video games are indeed a form of artistic expression, and a unique one at that. But there is one major, inherent limitation that prevents video games from joining the ranks of other storytelling mediums: their lack of inevitability.

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An influential Islamic group successfully protested against the video game Faith Fighter, pictured above and also after the jump, claiming that it was offensive to Muslims, Christians, and just about all of humankind. The game, made by Italian design company Molleindustria, features such religious figures as Jesus, Mohammad, and Ganesh duking it out martial-arts style. I think the Globe and Mail describes the game best:

In the game Faith Fighter, caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings. God attacks with bolts of lighting and pillars of fire while the turbaned Muhammad can summon a burning black meteorite.

Which is hilarious, just because the whole thing sounds so dumb. Molleindustria claims that the game was meant to “push the gamers to reflect on how the religious and sacred representations are often instrumentally used to fuel or justify conflicts between nations and people.” But the game’s website declares, “Give vent to your intolerance! Religious hate has never been so much fun!” Uh, OK.

Whatever. The point is, some Italian company made an offensive and silly game, religious groups understandably got pissed, and the game had to be revised to be not so offensive (now there’s a big black dot over Mohammad’s head, you see). So while Molleindustria has gone on to make Faith Fighter 2, I’m left here with a nagging question: how far is too far in storytelling? Read more »

Well, it’s safe to say video games have done well for themselves. No longer are they considered the “junk food” of entertainment. Nope, now slaying the dragon and saving the princess (or whatever you’re into) might be considered a literary genre.

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Computer game designer Chris Crawford’s Balance of Power, which took the gaming world by storm in 1985, has been reimagined for today’s geopolitical landscape in Balance of Power: 21st Century. Crawford’s new release is built on the fundamentals of “storyplay,” a unique brand of interactive storytelling that presents players with nearly unlimited opportunities to influence the narrative. Crawford’s company Storytron also provides a system for creating and publishing your own storyworlds. Read more »

Just in time for Ada Lovelace Day, CNN has published an interesting profile on up-and-coming video game developer Kellee Santiago. She creates and distributes “soft and gentle” video games, an alternative for gamers who aren’t interested in all the “spray-and-slay” video games dominating the market. Santiago’s games include such titles as “Flow,” “Cloud,” and “Flower,” the latter of which Santiago describes as “the video game version of a poem.” Pretty. Read more »