Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino used his keynote speech at CEDEC game conference to offer some insight on what he believes is contributing to the “death of the planet”.

“I think that video games are evil,” says Tomino. “[Gaming] is not a type of activity that provides any support to our daily lives, and all these consoles are just consuming electricity! Let’s say we have about three billion people on this planet wasting their time, bringing no productivity at all. Add 10 billion more people, and what would happen to our planet? Video games are assisting the death of our planet!”

On the surface it appears to be simple baiting, but provocative statements aside, he urges game designers, “to create a game that does not negatively affect our daily lives and is something that is considered more productive.” He goes further stating the over-reliance on technology to produce games has separated us from the core idea: what we are trying to accomplish.

As a non-gamer, one may point to stories of game addiction, virtual violence played out in the real world, or a bevy of other neuroses felt by gamers as the “evil” games cause ; but as a gamer it is clear games are not evil, and the varying shades of grey are only understood by a gaming subculture.  The problem is no one listens to the people who understand the details, rather those that make the most noise.

[Gamasutra]

Last month we had a good discussion revolving around the politics of Six Days in Fallujah. I had mentioned I believe there is a reasonably amount of hypocrisy when it comes to war placed in the context of games. If there were a game where you battle Somali pirates on the high seas would there be public outcry? Today Kuma Games released Somali Showdown as a free download with apparently no public backlash.

“During a simulated hijacking, crew members will attempt to fend off the pirates and regain control of the ship’s operations room. Players joining the game as pirates will try to take over the operations room and sail the ship into Somali waters. –Gamasutra

[KumaGame via Gamasutra]

All of us are affected by war. Whether it be directly in the service, through a family member, indirectly by actions taken by our governments’, or what we interpret from news agencies; it is reasonably safe to say, most of us will feel the effects of war.

At the beginning of April, a firestorm spread around the videogame/documentary “Six Days in Fallujah”(SDiF). Developed by Atomic Games and slated to be released by Konami, SDiF was to portray the real world conflict as accurately as possible, while still remaining fun to play. Atomic Games interviewed soldiers from Fallujah, reviewed satellite imagery to remain faithful to the actual location and anticipated using material to further develop a training simulation for the military.

However, “at the end of the day, it’s just a game,” tells Anthony Crouts, vice-president of marketing for Konami. “We’re not trying to make social commentary. We’re not pro-war. We’re not trying to make people feel uncomfortable. We just want to bring a compelling entertainment experience.”

“Compelling entertainment experience” struck a chord with military veterans and the general public. A lot of time and attention was paid to making this design accurate. Atomic Games even interviewed Iraqi civilians and insurgents to get their perspective on the conflict.

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