Intelligent Artifice

Game censorship in China May 31, 2004

Slashdot Games reports on Hearts of Iron, a World War 2 strategy game getting in trouble with Chinese authorities for (among other things):

“Manchuria”, “West Xinjiang”, and “Tibet” appeared as independent sovereign countries in the maps of the game. In addition, it even included China’s Taiwan province as the territory of Japan at the beginning of the game.

Hmmm…. according to this site Tibet was an independent sovereign country until 1950. But what really caught my eye was the fact that the Chinese Ministry of Culture has a Game Products Censorship Committee.

The committee regulates that online games with content violating basic principles of the Constitution, threatening China’s national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity will be banned from importing.

Update: Massimo Curatella wrote in more detail about this over at Angelmax.com, linking to Xeni Jardin’s BoingBoing post which links to her Wired News article.

Share This

Trouble at Ion Storm May 28, 2004

From Shacknews:

“Multiple sources tell us that all is not well at Deus Ex & Thief 3 developer ION Storm. Apparently some 20 - 25 people have been laid off at the Eidos owned Austin based developer. That’s not all though as Warren Spector is said to be leaving the company as well. If we receive any more details we’ll be sure to post them.”

Update: Slashdot Games links to many more mentions and sides of this story.

Share This

Update May 27, 2004

Yes, I have not updated in a while. No, writing this does not count as an update. I am, in fact, alive. In related news: I am changing my internet provider, which also involves moving my site to another web server. This may lead to outages. I apologise in advance.

Update: No, wait. This site is fully hosted by TypePad. Changing internet provider does not affect it one little bit. Also, my other site was effortlessly transferred in about one minute.

Share This

Reinventing the camera May 10, 2004

I just read this interview with Guy Maddin and Isabella Rossellini on indieWIRE. Guy Maddin is a director whose movies have been on my Amazon wishlist for a long time - they sound fascinating. And Isabella Rossellini… I’ve always had a major weak spot for her. But that’s not why I’m mentioning this interview here.

Here is an interesting quote from Ms. Rossellini:

One of the things that fascinated me is that cinema still is looked at as a technology. It was presented 100 years ago in magic shows, like a trick, and they’re still waiting for the new technologies. It’s still promoted that way, the new cinemascope or the new special effect or the digital camera. It’s always the new technology and what artists can do with the new technology, and all the technologies impose a certain storytelling that is forgotten as the technologies progressed.

The reason why this is interesting is that a relatively common argument in the interactive entertainment industry is that we are reinventing the camera for every new work we make, and that this is Bad.

Analogies can be great ways to make a point, but they can also be misinterpreted and lead to mental traps. It always feels strange to me to criticise an opinion without having a concrete instance of it. Nevertheless I’m going to launch an attack, Don Quixote-style, on a point of view that nobody may actually have.
(more…)

Share This

Sex in games May 6, 2004

Chi Kong Lui has written an article over at Gamecritics.com on sex in games. That is, actual intercourse, not just mere sexiness or what not. He excludes non-mainstream games, although the boundary is vague. Of course I immediately thought of some titles not mentioned, and they are all games Rockstar Vienna was involved in somehow - a coincidence, I swear. I think the sex in GTA3 and especially GTA: Vice City is graphic and overt enough to merit inclusion, and if I’m not mistaken there is some sex in Max Payne 1, although I still haven’t played that myself.

Anyway, given that this article is volume 1, there will probably be a volume 2. I hope there will be some analysis - what is the conclusion drawn from this list of games, and what does it mean about the medium or the industry? Love, sex, romance, etc. are a popular topic among game designers, only slightly less so than “when will games make people cry?” Case in point: the GDC session on romance in games (with Eric Zimmerman, Warren Spector and Will Wright) was apparently one of the better ones. (Sadly, I missed it.) It remains a fascinating topic, worthy of a deeper blog entry.

Share This

Update May 2, 2004

I am, in fact, still alive, although very busy. Many interesting things are going on without being commented by me. And yet… life goes on.

Personal note: I bought a new iBook G4 to replace my iBook G3. It looks identical, but is faster. Such is geekdom.

Share This