The whole cancellation of Six Days in Fallujah has got me immensely pissed off and made me want to rant my head off about how games should be more then just random shooting and should really try to approach real life issues and stories. However, when I rant it sort of goes on a little long and the current opus is still under development. Thankfully, CEO of Atomic Games, developer of Six Days, Peter Tamte is far more succinct and has summed up my feelings on the subject very well in a recent article where he discussed the game’s cancellation.
“Are we really just high-tech toymakers, or are we media companies capable of producing content that is as relevant as movies, music and television,” he asked after noting that almost every medium except gaming has grown through confronting current events and being topical. Of course that statement raises plenty of questions about interactivity and what it means to take on the roll of real people, but I am forcing myself to digress.
Tamte also claims that it is the Marines that Atomic Games grew to know by designing serious games for the US Marine Corp that inspired the game. “This is what brought us close to many of the Marines who fought in Fallujah,” Tamte said. “After they got back from Fallujah, these Marines asked us to tell their story. They asked us to tell their story through the most relevant medium of the day — a medium they use the most — and that is the video game.”
You’ve got to wonder if this is what the Marines wanted why Konami chickened out. I guess they just like making me really annoyed by the current state of games. Damn you Konami!
