Posted: Fri Jun 6 01:45:15 2008
Roman Relic: "So you're saying capitalism is like war?"
Nikko Belic: "Pretty much."
Okay, I've been playing this for quite a few hours now. First of all, the hype about it being violent are pure bullshit. It's not nearly as violent as most of your games coming out lately. I didn't so much as punch a guy until three hours into it, and I got my first gun seven hours into it.
And when you do shoot or beat up someone, there's a point to it in the drama. Really, the bulk of the game is devoted to building relationships and proving your reliability as you learn more about the world around you. Obviously values we don't want to be teaching our children.
I think the criticism is about the reality of the game. It's too real. It has no illusions about the real nature of capitalism, that it's just a gang war on a larger scale, or about how people fit into it. And it's all done with a searing sarcasm that burns oh so deep. It's not a kid's toy, it's classic literature in an interactive format.
Writers take heed - if you want to write something worth reading, take off on the plot of this video game and turn it into a book or screenplay. I wouldn't even be playing this game if it weren't for its literary nature.