Thought/Process: Runaway Hit
Can an explosive topic in the real world serve as a catalyst for a compelling game?
9/24/2008 6:36 PM | 6 Comments | Page 4 of 4
Sure,
Runaway's just a thought experiment at this point, and color me cynical, but most game publishers would probably balk at the suggestion of making it into an actual playable title. Still, the goal of the
Runaway idea isn't to start controversy, but rather to try and find an interactive storytelling experience through a subject that lots of people don't want to broach in real life. Slavery (and parts of its continuing legacy) may be a painful period in American history that many may want to forget. But there are moments of triumph and tragedy in that period that can still offer powerful lessons for the 21st century. As Dave put it when we revisited the
Runaway idea, "It's one thing to watch
'Roots' and see how hard it was for Kunta Kinte. It's another thing to
be Kunta Kinte and have to figure out how to deal with a world arrayed against you."
Exploring murky areas that we as a society would rather ignore is something that games could potentially do better than any other media. Such a shift could also point the way forward to games being taken more seriously as a storytelling medium, and as a teaching medium, too. Where else but a virtual world can we revisit past or even present-day crises and experience them safely from multiple angles? No one game can fully encapsulate narratives of human rights abuses, economic hardship or natural disasters, but neither can any one textbook or movie. Dave says again, "I walk away from a game like
Call of Duty 4, and I don't think I'm an expert on combat, or even knowledgeable on combat, but I know more about combat than I did at the start of the game, you know what I mean? Things like cover and flanking, which I understand on an intellectual level -- all that starts to make immediate sense to me on a practical level."
So much of modern-day videogames' appeal hinges on the promise of fresh, visceral experiences. If the industry and audience dare to be brave enough, those experiences can be found in the very world we live in.
