When the Darkness Comes is a game about self-discovery.
Rockstar games get away with a lot. I'm not mad at em, Sam and Dan are good dudes and real video games, and Rockstar as a company has done a lot for the industry. Big facts.
Rockstar games get away with a lot because they make a lot of money for Take-two, so the publishers happy, violence in video games have been normalised so the media is happy to ignore it until a good reason comes along, and the public, well, lets just say violent video games are the least of anyone's problems these days so no foul there.
People say that the games Rockstar makes are murder simulators but I believe it is closer to a catharsis simulator.
People get to live out unexpressed impulses they have in a form of interactive media that has omitted the consequences. Well, not omitted as much as nerfed. You do crime the cops chase you, your character could go to jail or get fined or get killed, but they will be right back. They say anything that doesn't kill you is just a teachable moment. Shouts to education.
I'm not sweating the lack of consequences in games. My beef is with the lack of context. Sam and Dan are British, real good dudes with real good lives, but they make games about the American hood, about minority lives and struggles and choices.
Sam and Dan were never trying to be Allan and Albert making Menace to Society, a time capsule for a difficult transition period, made by people from that period for people in the future as a message in a bottle. A visual reminder of just how lost the lost tribe was at one time. Sam and Dan were making a rap video, an interactive celebration of the transition period. That is what Rockstar is getting away with, the celebration.
They didn't make the problem, they aren't responsible for solving the problem, and they aren't directly involved in the problem. But I guess that is the core argument, "What's the problem?" The art, the consumer, or the reality?
A long time ago Steven Milburn Anderson came to my school to show a film he directed called "South Central." In one of the scenes, a little kid got shot after boosting a radio and trying to get away over a high fence. The audience cheered and hooted. He walked up to the projector, turned the film off, and left without saying a word.
rip TC rip TB rip Tall-T. Love is cool and hate is that other thing. Get out and do great things, we believe in ya. Also Jerbz.
The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People : Petite
