In light of the demonstrations that are taking place across Iran, understanding victims and oppressors is crucial in determining how to address and make sense of such complex issues. Navid Khonsari, creator of the Grand Theft Auto video games, is developing a new game for the market that he believes will help its players to understand all of the complexities of an issue. “I came to realize that there’s a number of different sides to a story,” Khonsari said, “and this aspect, if introduced in a game, could kind of revolutionize how we play games.” For Khonsari, situations are always more complex than the traditional good guy vs. bad guy dichotomy. “It’s not a matter of bad guys going after good guys or good guys going after bad guys…these are all different stories and to be able to actually convey that and let people interact as those players I thought would just open up this entire genre of gaming.”
Khonsari’s game does not just create any scenario in which players can interact. His game is “1979 – The Game.” Aside from the obvious fact that this is a controversial move to say the least, Khosari hopes that players can interact with and understand a multifaceted issue. While there are a wide range of characters and storylines to play, Khonsari is also taking huge risks in the creation of such a game.
Although his description of helping players learn to understand the greater complexities behind the “victim/oppressor” dichotomy are noble, he runs the risk that this message is lost. One can only theorize as to the effectiveness of his message, as no game-play videos or other visual and audio information exist for the game. If “1979 – The Game” is anything like Rockstar’s GTA franchise, then the game’s narrative will be grounded in violence and the storyline would advance based upon the player committing criminally violent acts. If Khonsari’s project really does follow this same model even with its multiple storylines and characters from which to select, he runs the risk of his message of exposing players to different perspectives to yet another caricature of angry, anti-American terrorists, etc. Such a stereotype is something with which Khonsari, as an Iranian-American himself, is surely intimately familiar.
I still question the wisdom of using such an event as the story and setting for a video game (intended for players over 18), but I hope that his intended message of exposing players to and helping them understand perspectives different from their own is well conveyed and received. However, until the game is actually released, I remain extremely skeptical of the effectiveness of Khonsari’s concept in doing anything other than reinforcing destructive stereotypes.
2 comments:
I think there is a great danger in doing this type of games. It really isn't any different that other war games already in the market. I think this game producer is capitalizing on the currently increasing political tension for monetary return, and has no intention of helping people understand the true nature of war, culture and people's will.
If you are anti-something you are going to play that role in a game setting too. This is modern day e-propaganda. GTA did nothing to help the youth players gain any respect for women, property, or civil discourse. You got "healthier" with greater destruction. I think he has more of a personal ax to grind than to give the gamers a more "meaningful" experience. He will be responsible for the ideas he is planting in people's heads and gaming a very crucial and vital part of our daily lives.
Shahryar
While I understand your point, there is definitely something different about a game like this allowing the player to chose which storyline to play in. Many RPG & single-shooter games have just the one character and storyline (GTA series included) which can be boring for a gamer. With having the other character options, people might not necessarily stick to whichever side that they consider themselves normally aligned to.
And unlike Rockstar's GTA franchise, the objectives of this game seem to be pretty different. GTA and similar games are not accurate to anything in real life - it's basically living out a typical action movie from the criminal's perspective but you control the character's storyline. In this game and games based off of real events (perhaps Call of Duty, although I haven't played it so wouldn't know), if you have the option of different characters, a gamer by choosing whatever character is forced to play in an entirely different view. And his or her ability to win depends on effectively understanding that viewpoint whether that was the gamer's intention or not.
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