Keeping up with the Dead Island theme for this week, I wanted to just shoot out a quick blurb concerning some of the buzz around the first trailer. Yes, I know this debuted some time ago, but I'm just seeing some of the stories now so bear with me. NPR commentators believe that the trailer went too far with the death of the little girl, but you should check it out yourself. I agree that the trailer is shocking and disturbing, but it's nothing that the world hasn't seen before.
The most recent Dawn of the Dead began with a little girl turned zombie. This one wasn't killed, mind you, but it evokes some of the same raw horror. As it turns out this same piece of trailer is very, very interesting to some Hollywood parties. A Dead Island movie would have a great audience as long as it stayed true to the heart of the game. Like the Resident Evil franchise, though, you also have to be careful about recreating characters that gamers know and love because it can easily backfire.
My real quandary with people who have issues with graphic violence in video games is that it's all been done before on TV or in movies and when it hit there, there was little to no regard to it's horribleness. Only when it hits a console does the attention of the Jack Thompsons of the world get captured. I agree that interactivity with violent acts may be more harmful to the psyche of a young child than that of a cartoon, but that's why there are ratings. It's up to the parents to keep content like Dead Island out of the hands of their seven year old children, and don't give me that "the ratings are confusing" bullshit because they couldn't be any clearer. All in all, the ratings system and parents should work together to ensure that the appropriate content for all ages reaches it's intended audience. As for Dead Island, yes it's horrible, but it's a survival-horror game and tries to bring the experience of a zombie movie to your console. To do that it needs to shock and awe with an audience that's rightly aged for it's violence; one that has a separation of reality and fantasy. As for Jack Thompson, well, he can just go shove it.
The most recent Dawn of the Dead began with a little girl turned zombie. This one wasn't killed, mind you, but it evokes some of the same raw horror. As it turns out this same piece of trailer is very, very interesting to some Hollywood parties. A Dead Island movie would have a great audience as long as it stayed true to the heart of the game. Like the Resident Evil franchise, though, you also have to be careful about recreating characters that gamers know and love because it can easily backfire.
My real quandary with people who have issues with graphic violence in video games is that it's all been done before on TV or in movies and when it hit there, there was little to no regard to it's horribleness. Only when it hits a console does the attention of the Jack Thompsons of the world get captured. I agree that interactivity with violent acts may be more harmful to the psyche of a young child than that of a cartoon, but that's why there are ratings. It's up to the parents to keep content like Dead Island out of the hands of their seven year old children, and don't give me that "the ratings are confusing" bullshit because they couldn't be any clearer. All in all, the ratings system and parents should work together to ensure that the appropriate content for all ages reaches it's intended audience. As for Dead Island, yes it's horrible, but it's a survival-horror game and tries to bring the experience of a zombie movie to your console. To do that it needs to shock and awe with an audience that's rightly aged for it's violence; one that has a separation of reality and fantasy. As for Jack Thompson, well, he can just go shove it.
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