Machinima For Social Change?

November 30, 2006

Normally when one thinks of games being involved in social change, the so-called "Serious Games" movement comes to mind. However, when games become the medium for filming the message, it's serious machinima.

Gamasutra reports on a "Machinima with Issues," a panel discussion held at the recent 2006 Machinima Festival. Panel speakers focused on machinima creations dealing with issues from politics to historical events.

Serving on the panel were Eddo Stern (Shiek Attack), Chris Burke (This Spartan Life), and Alex Chan (The French Democracy).

Stern expressed concerned about wargame desensitization. His film, Sheik Attack, illustrates how modern wargames are nothing like real war. In the film, Stern interposes stategy game footage with shocking real-life video of death and mayhem, in an attempt to "re-sensitize" the viewer to the horrors of combat.

Chris Burke, from This Spartan Life (TSL), runs a talk show using the Halo 2 engine. From net neutrality to gun control, TSL sparks wide ranging discussions, and Chris is glad that he has managed to introduce world-wide and non-gaming issues to gamers.

Alex Chan became a first-time filmmaker via the tools contained in Peter Molyneax's 2005 release The Movies. The game allowed him to correct what he believed were gross media distortions of last year's French riots. His film The French Democracy told the story of several immigrants, following their growth in frustration as they are both targetted and shunned due to their ethnicity, culminating in a powder keg situation. The end of the film illustrates the reaction to the riots, as the views of a white suburban family are shaped by media reports and political rhetoric.

When asked about the future of machinima, Eddo Stern commented that the medium is at a crossroads. Going forward it could become entrenched in gamer culture, or it might be co-opted by corporations and used as a style gimmick.

Reporting from Canada, GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes

Posted in Games & Culture People

Comments

Submitted by hayabusa75 (not verified) on Thu, 11/30/2006 - 08:25.

Good, good, good. The more video games are used as a medium to address real-world issues, the bigger a bite we take out of the credibility problem we have with the cave dwellers. Of course, it works both ways; this kind of stuff can be a valuable educational tool for tunnel-vision gamers like me.

Submitted by Grahamr (not verified) on Thu, 11/30/2006 - 11:57.

Nice!.....wow...shreik attack sounds shocking.

Submitted by ZippyDSMlee (not verified) on Thu, 11/30/2006 - 15:57.

THis is great and all...but my thinking is war games are still games if you add the extra bits of reality from death to dismemberment and make it so realistic it loses its fun it becomes not a game,I don't think the problem is so much "desensitization" as forgetting reality....

Submitted by V-22 Osprey (not verified) on Thu, 11/30/2006 - 19:32.

And at the risk of sounding like a smart-aleck, I think most people don't think that infantry are trained under a minute at the barracks and they all sound and look exactly the same, can destroy a tank with an M-16, single-handedly rush an enemy base et cetera et cetera...

Submitted by Brokenscope (not verified) on Fri, 12/01/2006 - 02:08.

War games are not de-sensitizing us to war. Take even the most hardcore war gamer and put him in combat he will still be scared shitless. Just like your average person.

The fact is most people cannot begin to understand war or the real horrors of it.

Shout box

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

DorthLous: The title says 30, but in the article, the developer says it's like a 20% net tax http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/09/developers-call-facebook-currency-transaction-fee-thirty-percent-tax02/09/2012 - 2:43pm

All shouts

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