The best Game of Thrones game

 

Last time I wrote an article talking about the very worst of the worst of Game of Thrones games that languishes across our industry- and it wasn't all that hard of an article to write given the fact that pretty much none of them are good. That's kind of a lay-up when you think about it. Despite the wealth of potential clearly present in the source material, few have risen to the challenge of doing it justice and even in the places where they did for a time, no one could quite keep it up until those last few precious moments. But what if I told you that the only reason I brought up the worst was in order to sally forth my personal pick for what is actually an excellent Game of Thrones game for anyone why wants a bit of Westeros in their life and isn't exactly picky about where they get it. (Hmm. I sound like a back-alley drug dealer selling special cuts of K he labels 'Jon Snow'.)

But then, why did I not bring up such a game during my article on all the Game of Thrones games out there? Why was it not listed as a counterbalance against all the licenced Game of Thrones titles that litter this polluted earth? Well, that might be because the game in question is not, explicitly, a licenced title from the HBO series. In fact, I don't think HBO would ever have even considered a style of game like this one, despite it's aptness, because in the cold vacuum of a board members brain critical thinking and deduction is of no use. Theirs is a breed that see's big number and wants big number to work for them, which is how we get several dozen high budget AAA games dedicate themselves to the same genre year after year and then wonder why diminishing returns ensue. (The snake loves chomping down on it's own tail!)

Never in a thousand years would such a creature ever think that the perfect genre for Game of Thrones would be anything as niche as a tactical game. Even though when it comes to the machinations of large nations moving battlelines across the course of world changing geo politics, 4x Tactics games are kind of the go-to. Based heavily around the War of the Roses, Game of Thrones hardly ever shies away from the wars that wage up and down Westeros in the back and foreground of major series events, and although it seems the very ethos of the story was designed to undercut the significance of it all in that final act- which the show totally bugled to a legendary degree- there's still a large sector of people out there who would simply love to just push those big armies across a virtual board to their heart's content. 

Whilst I'm quite sure of any 4X style Game of Thrones experiences, although I'm sure one sits out there- for my money the best tactical offering is 'Realm of Thrones'- the total conversion mod for 'Mount and Blade: Warband' which brings every bit of the complex geopolitical machinations to the Mount and Blade engine for all your bizarre fan fiction desires. Do you want to rush the Frey's in order to prevent the Red Wedding? Go for it! Is the Stark domination of the north rubbing you the wrong way? Hunt them down like the rapid wolves they are! Does Dani's prolonged faffing about on the otherside of the world for the first 5 years rub on your last nerve? Become her vassal and stoke fires of war on her behalf- I'm sure the Dragon Queen won't mind!

Mount and Blade: Warband is already a fantastic tactical RPG medieval simulator with plenty of flexibility on your rags-to-riches journey through society. Starting a mercenary group, regularly sacrificing your mercenaries on a mad dash to acquire as much reputation as possible, and then breaking the game economy when you figure out how workshops work. The only problem with the game is that it's various factions feel a bit... samey. When you interact with nations mostly my invading them over and over in a never ending war, the only way they stand out is the way in which they fight and in a medieval game- there's not a lot of room for 'individual expression', so to speak. And the solution to that problem? Borrow all of George RR Martin's!

As a supplicant of the Lannister's I of course busied myself hopping about the lands of the south filling out that mental map of Westeros the series intro imbued in my head with all those inbetween locations that usually get brushed over- because now they were places of significance in my conquest! Of course, it was all in  preparation for the time when the Starks would become our enemy, and we'd battle in the frigid northern snows. It's that kind of arcade-style but true to heart franchise experience you get out of games like Star Wars Battlefront. A small hit of the essence of that world injected directly into the veins. Maybe it's not true to the book, or to the show, but does that really matter?

And who doesn't love carving their own path through the familiar? I went through hell and high water to lead a dangerous expedition into the north the moment I learned Arya Stark led her company out into the wilderness for a bit- and though I was being chased by armies literally twice my size all the way back- I returned with a captive Starkling- in doing so preventing the worst twist ending ever conceived by man! No ending the long night early this time around! Can't wait to see what happens when the leaders of the Lannister house start getting picked off, considering my character is currently married to Myrcella and thus has a convoluted path to the Iron throne if things bend the right direction! That's what I'm talking about- the headcannoning is the heart of experiences like these!

Now is it perfect? Not quite. Pretty sure Twin Lannister somehow survived past the events of Season 4 which is... slightly scuppering my marital plans. Kind of hoping he dies of old age at this point, Mount and Blade doesn't really feature any 'covert assassination' mechanics that I know of. I also haven't had the pleasure of encountering the dragons I know this mod has, which could either be very cool or a mistake. We'll see when they get here. But otherwise with the attention to detail in creating the land, the modelling of the various amours and units and dedication to creating a fully immersive Game of Thrones world to play within, unlike literally every other official game before it, Realm of Thrones rises head and shoulders above all other pretenders. Play it, seriously. 

Where are the good Games of Thrones?

 

It is genuinely galling how after all these years we've never received an officially licenced game based on what was the biggest fantasy franchise in the world some time ago. Game of Thrones was a monolith amidst giants, surpassing even the respect that Lord of the Ring maintained at it's absolute best- before trailing itself off a cliff and yadda yadda. You'd have thought that at some point over the years some opportunistic studio head would just smell the profitability on the air and go studio hunting, but rather disappointingly all we can do is stitch together existing experiences to try and get the feel that show elicited. At the time I flocked to Skyrim to get the look of the grand fantastical North we saw often during the early seasons, and The Witcher 2 for the feel of the mature, political consequential, plots popping around the landscape. (Of course, this was before 'The Wild Hunt' released and toned down the political ramifications somewhat.)

But, of course I hear you shout, there were officially licenced Game of Thrones games- ya big dunderhead! And whilst yes, in technicality that may be true- I consider such... efforts, about as 'true to heart' as the 'Pooh Blood and Honey' evokes the spirit of The Hundred Acre Woods. How can one consider these official in any meaningful way when both seem cobbled together by absolute disgraces to the entire artistry of games development as it stands? I'd endorse a great game, accept an average game, but a smear on the genre and franchise? Nah, that's got to get tucked under the rug. In fact, despite their timing, I'll call these adaptations of purely late season Game of Thrones and thus lament we never got an adapatation of the franchise at it's height.

2012's Game of Thrones, published by (I actually held my mouth in shock when I saw this-) ATLUS, is an actually god-awful single player RPG set during the events of the first series in an actually original story to the show- which is worth some small credit on it's own. (Someone tried somewhere.) It follows two members of the Night's Watch that no one cares about, (they exist in the show but you don't remember them and neither do I) sort of shambling about an ugly 'Two Worlds' reminiscent attempt at something like a 'Witcher' guided role playing game. There's nothing to boast of in the way of interesting gameplay ideas, I'm told the story is pretty rote but I'm not foolish enough to endure it myself to check and the fact that literally no one remembers it is evidence enough that the game had very little in the way of impact- which to be fair fits the somewhat low-key status of the show during it's first season so I guess they nailed that aspect, for what it's worth.

Then we have the Telltale Game of Thrones game which brough the classic narrative-based storybook style of the Telltale brand to Westeros in what might have been on of their least interesting titles to date. I don't know if the terms of the contract precluded experimentation or if by the point of that game the company was so firmly stuck on it's development cycle death-spiral that ended up killing the company stone dead- but there was such a waste of potential for what this entry could have achieved. The family they threw in to the main story were just discount Starks, most of the episodes were spinning wheels until black and white choices at the cliffhangers and the whole adventure felt ultimately worthless on the other side. I would go so far as to consider this one a 'game', at least; but nothing was brought to the table that wasn't also copied for a dozen other narrative games of the generation. The game disappointed me. 

By actual second pick for a Game of Thrones game that doesn't deserve to be even considered an actual game would have to go to the grand 'Official Browser Based Game': Winter is Coming. To this day I do not believe they actual got the licence for the brand like they claim. They insist too much for that to be valid, like- Marvel games don't flaunt the fact that they're 'officially licenced' in their title and advertising- why should this game? Either because they're not licenced and are trying to make believe for the audience, or they genuinely cannot believe any idiot at HBO gave them the go-ahead to publish this and rake in money for the least possible amount of effort any human being could put behind an 'original game'.

If you didn't know, I actually made a blog covering that train wreck a few years ago- and the scars still haunt the edges of my psyche, pulling me under at my weakest and secreting away wisps of myself that I will never get back. It was a city builder, but somehow even lazier than your typical archetypal city builder that is cobbled together using an online blueprint I once tracked down for a blog on the matter. It featured lore inconsistencies out the ass, such as featuring a Weirwood Tree in the Red Keep and offered a string of utterly coma-induced 'tactical missions' which auto-battelled for you whilst you spent time uninstalling it. The 'game' was a pathetic time-hungry grift of a 'product' that sullied the brand's name to even exist. And it's what most people think of when they hear the words 'Game of Thrones' and 'Video game'. Which is just tragic.

Especially given that Game of Thrones Beyond the Wall came out shortly after the series wrapped and whilst it wasn't exactly what I would call a great game, it certainly packed a lot more quality in it's systems than 'Winter is Coming' could muster. Slapped together by the same team who put together Fallout Shelter, and who later put together a Westworld clone of Fallout Shelter that Bethesda sued, Behaviour Interactive put out a basic hero collector that kills time as good as anything else out there. I mean, does it capture the incredibly rich and engrossing heart of Game of Thrones which made that franchise special? No. But then, as we've established, it seems that absolutely no game does! It could have been a fine enough addendum to the franchise to keep the spirit of the series alive. And I suppose it was all the way up until House of the Dragon swooped onto the scene making such space fillers redundant. It shuttered last year.

Of all the attempts across the years it feels like no one really has given their all behind turning this franchise into a worthwhile interactive endeavour worth sticking your hat on. And I'm not generalising asking for an Open World RPG the style of which we typically ask for out of franchises like these, in fact I seriously question what an Open World RPG could even bring to a franchise like this aside from shirking down the scope of the world in order to 'fit' the constraints of a game world. I don't need another Skyrim with a Game of Thrones reskin. But maybe there's a solid prequel narrative that could be told in a Witcher 2 style focused action adventure, or maybe even a CRPG style RPG! We need something that evokes the elements of the franchise that make Game of Thrones a grounded fantasy story unlike any other.

But I suppose that moment is gone to the wind, isn't it? Despite the success of House of the Dragon, there is nowhere near the same level of goodwill afforded to this franchise to attract the sort of the investor hubbub needed to fund a game of that kind of necessary scale. And in the times when that would have really worked, HBO instead put all their eggs into the show's basket only to watch helplessly as their golden child showrunner punted that basket into a river and shot all of the eggs. In situations like these it falls to the fans to keep the show's spirit alive- and I may just have a contender for a fan project that does just that in an upcoming blog.

The Art Worldbuilding: Names

 That's not my name

Welcome to Odarath, North of Ettinmere and just outside of Allestar, all locations within the larger region of Dalentarth. What I just read out to you wasn't a random selection of gibberish, but the actual name of early game locations in the cult role playing game Kingdoms of Amalur. It was whilst playing that very game, and trying to get to grips with why it never hit it off the ground within the role playing community, that I first came up with this topic. (Albeit, a decent while before I ever even tackled topics with a blog to begin with.) Because, you see, the gameplay was very decent in Amalur, the encounters decently cinematic,  the storyline... well it existed. All in all I found the game to just be a more evolved version of Fable, without all of the toothless 'interact with the citizens' garbage which has never once lived up to the promise that those games seem to think it does. And those Fable games were a massive hit so why not Amalur? Well, I'm sure there's a plethora of reasons flying this way and that, with luck being the most prevailing factor (or lack thereof in this game's case) but for me it came down to those names and the concept of immersion.

Immersion is a tricky concept to juggle when it comes to telling a story, through any medium, as it almost becomes this intangible value that everyone can identify once achieved but no one can point it out from a lineup. I suppose the best analogy would be in equating immersion with the storyteller's ability to trick the audience into believing the world, but that makes for a clumsy metaphor when in many ways becoming 'immersed' is like an agreement to give oneself over to the fiction, rather than an unwitting dupe. Thus I can't say I know all the ingredients to the pie, but I do know that it's an important dish to the feast of storytelling and one which I think becomes ever more essential the more fantastical the story in question becomes. When we're talking high fantasy, it's do or die; you either persist long enough to believe and care for this fictional world or come out the otherside unconvinced and utterly uninterested in everything that happens therein. And I think the first step to achieving this all-important immersion is in names.

What is in a name? When you think about it, what we choose to name things, specifically locations, is both incredibly arbitrary and hugely important. Think of the planet on which we exist, Earth, a literal descriptor of the substance which covers the ground, and a whole-sale term for the home of all humanity. It's such a simple name, but a strong and evocative one that has a literally intangible, yet effortlessly imaginable, etymology written upon it's face. When it comes to storytelling I find myself coming back a lot to the name 'Earth', and what it means, it's significance, and have eventually come to the conclusion that it's probably the best name for our planet we can hope to think of. If incessantly narcissistic, but such narcissism drove astrological studies long before we mapped the solar system, so I find it fitting. Simple perfection like that is most likely impossible to replicate in fiction, as fiction requires the active creation of a world and such names are designed to be so obvious they almost defy critical thought, and yet I think the best fictional names at least lean towards that perfection.

Coming back to Amalur for a bit, can you remember any of those names that I listed at the top without scrolling up to look at them? I played the game and I couldn't remember a single one, I had to look it up and then follow up several wiki pages just to remember which place was which. (I don't have Amalur installed and I can't be bothered.) It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that's so forgettable about them, they aren't too unpronounceable, they sound real enough, they even have a naming convention to them (With your 'mere' and your 'arth' borrowing from real geography) and yet they totally lack staying power. But if you ask me to name the first town in Skyrim; Riverwood. What about Morrowind? Sedya Neen. (That's something you wouldn't pull up so quickly unless you were a Morrowind die hard) You can see the difference, can't you? But let me try to define it.

A lot of names are actually very mechanical when we go to their roots, deriving meaning from literally describing either what can be found in a location or who can be found there. From there names can evolve and take on new forms that might have entirely new meanings to them or might even morph into something else entirely that sounds like a name. One of my favourite examples of a city from the real world like this is Istanbul. One of the earliest names of that place being Byzantium, seat of the Byzantine empire, through the many years and many changes of rule that title would shift wildly. At one point it was known as Constantinople, in honour of it's patron. At another point in history it was called Islambol, in reverence of the prevailing religion which was so important to it's ethos. Taking that principle to fictional locations, you can see how well it serves in some of the most iconic fantasy names we take for granted. Riverwood sits along a prominent river through the land of Skyrim, King's Landing is the sea-adjacent seat of the king of Westeros, Baldur's Gate is a city with a big gate that was probably founded by some dude named Baldur. (It's actually a little more complicated then that, but you don't need to know that to remember the name.) These are functional names and that makes them comprehensive and easily understandable, allowing your psyche to make note of them, remember them, and then make them believable.

That doesn't mean, of course, that there's no place for exotic names in our Fantasy games. (For what a demandable state of affairs would we be in were that the case?) Just look at the Dwarves from The Elder Scrolls and their naming convention. (Mzinchaleft springs to mind here.) Just try saying that in your head, it's sounds like you're going through a mild seizure. (In fact, the team over at Zenimax have a guy on the lore team who specialises in just pronouncing these things) By all accounts these names are convoluted, abrasive to the tongue, meaningless and should be impossible to remember, and a lot of them absolutely are. The Elder Scrolls manages to make some of these names so ridiculous and adverse to what our brains normally expect to see that we remember the spectacle of the name if not the name itself; but at that point we're almost looking at a parody of a name. It's a name that fits a society like the Elder Scrolls Dwarves, specifically designed to be a mystery that's never resolved, because the moment you make them tangible and have to come to grips with a people who willingly named their grand cities as though they were picking through a bowl alphabetti spaghetti, the fiction starts to unnravel.

I think it's really hard to make a fantasy world that is dependant on these non-conventional names and which people can still latch onto easily, because the very premise of fantasy is already asking a large leap of faith for the audience to begin with. Even as a fan of fantasy, when you present to me a world similar to the one that  Kingdoms of Amalur did, with nothing but names just that hair's breadth outside of convention, I  end up being disengaged. It's a bizarre and lamentable little quirk of immersion, but I justify it by thinking 'why should I take the time to believe in this place that doesn't exist?'. Giving me that reason to care is the entire point of telling a story, and the veil of fiction can be a tough one to pierce if you don't approach it correctly. Of course, it's possible to put so much effort into creating a new culture and way of forming names that even exotic names become believable, but that takes such dedication to world building that it almost becomes unworth the time. I call Lord of the Rings and it's names that range from very strong simple names (Mordor) to whimsical and flighty ones, (Minas Tirith) but through the strength of the world built manages to convince all the same. (Although the books can be pretty dense to pierce through on first read.)

Worldbuilding is an incredible manifestation of effort in storytelling and a tremendous exercise of indulgence and restraint, as, I suppose, are most forms of art. To think that something as simple as a name could serve as that little extra bit of adhesive keeping the edifice standing seems silly, and yet how many times have you looked at some 6 syllable fantasy gibberish word and thought "I'm not awake enough for this crap"? Creating the most approachable and engrossing worldspace is all about meeting the audience halfway, and the best foot forward is in that very first name that they see. So what is the equation? Mechanical names with an instantly identifiable etymology work best, but if want to get a bit more fancy it's helpful to do so in moderation and to always create with that ever present perspective of "If I come to this concept or place as a complete stranger, do I find this engaging and interesting or do I feel turned away at the door?" 

Skyros: The Game of Thrones game we never got

 You either win or you die

So Game of Thrones was a show from approximately four or five lifetimes ago. Remember that? The breakout fantasy epic which wove unpredictable intense storytelling, an unrelenting attention to detail, dozens of great characters, oodles of technical talent, more budget then anybody knew what to do with and Kit Harington to frankly dizzying success? We're talking about an epic fantasy story which was popular in the mainstream; can you comprehend how insane of a prospect that is? People haven't cared about a fantasy world that much since the days of the Lord of the Rings movies, and after the way Game of Thrones treated them they likely never will again. Game of Thrones was such a triumph over pop culture, that even went it very clearly veered off the rails into abject mediocrity, people still stood around for it a little bit, convinced to some degree that what they had sat through wasn't total trash, like it obviously was, because it couldn't be: it was Game of Thrones and Game of Thrones meant quality. There's some special level of black magic over the entertainment world required to pull those sorts of tricks off, and at this point I can only really think of Marvel being in the same position. But my point is, bemoan the series all you want for how it ran away with itself and vomited a pathetic final season up, for a time this series was the biggest thing in the world for several legitimate reasons.

One such reason, and in my opinion a very important one, was the raw look of the show; because good lord have we never seen a fantasy realised to such dizzying vivacity. Sets, costumes, shots, editing; everything from a production stand point in the series just soared into this overdrive state where the bar of possibility kept being pushed forward every year by this series. The result was a show that looked better then any other out there and a world which many still have ingrained in their hearts despite how all of it ended. Even for me, though I've managed to purge all the important names, dates, locations, and anything of value related to this now-tainted series; I still can close my eyes and remember the iconic cityscapes, those sweeping battlefields, those beloved character moments, that music, the feeling of actually being excited about something; in many ways I miss Game of Thrones. That's Game of Thrones as it used to be within my memory, don't think I could ever actually bring myself to watch the damn thing again. No way. But all that is to explain why, despite myself, I find myself interested in the Skyros Total Conversion mod for Skyrim.

I remember when Game of Thrones first started to take off, and hearing again and again people say "Huh, that Skyrim game really looks like Game of Thrones." Even at the time that would be a comparison which would have me pinching the bridge of my nose like any insufferable socially-awkward nerd out there trying to hold back from a burst of "Just because both series' deal with 'Northener' stereotypes doesn't make them comparative. The Witcher would be a much better comparison." But this was several years before Wild Hunt so nobody wanted to hear about the mature fantasy series they were sleeping on and just preferred to make surface level comparisons between the two screens with snow in it. (Because snow makes everything exactly the same) Yet I still had to concede, yes I suppose that visually there's an undeniable similarity. In that respect, I guess that if anyone wanted to make the digital rendering for Game of Thrones that HBO was too damn stupid to commission themselves, Skyrim would make the perfect engine on which to do so.

And so we turn to the world of modding, where the feast of games become fuel in the forge of the curiosity driven. 'Total conversion' is the name of the game here, and it's used to denote a mod project which seeks to change so much about the base game that it's basically features a whole new gameplay loop. Some total conversions even go one step further and are basically just whole new games complied with the original game's engine. Someone could feasibly, with enough time and effort, sit down and make the Game of Thrones videogame that HBO should have commissioned off of Bethesda years ago. (I'm not saying that would have saved the series, but it would have softened the blow) And it looks like fans already have. Several, in fact. I've seen a few projects to transport Skyrim into the lands of Westeros now, but most just fade away as soon as it becomes apparent how much work that would really be, or they simply just lost interest after the show lost interest in itself. Skyros, however... is another project. I have no reason to believe it won't go the same way as the others. It's literally inherited from two abandoned projects. (bad omen or nowhere to go but up?)

Skyros is a prototypical case of a project where the folk have looked up at the moon and said "I can get there, just need to build a ladder". That is to say, these guys think they can just sit down and create a full blown Game of Thrones videogame and I'm over here just stewing in doubt; but I love an underdog story, thus I remain interested. As of right now the team, whoever they are, haven't shared a great many of details about what exactly it is that they're working on, but they have let one person compile a handy video for them going over an overview of what they're working on basically just reading out their mission statement. The whole 'list of features' does sort of read like a death row inmate naming the many wild and impossible dreams they'd love to achieve before the end, but you gotta shoot for the moon to hit the stars, or however the expression goes.

Creating the landmass of Westeros is only one step of this project, you see, yet even that is a grand one. The team have admitted that the limitations of current hardware (and of the aging Skyrim Creation engine, no doubt) have forced them to take creative liberties with the size of the nations they are creating, but even then you can see that they're trying to match at least the grandeur displayed from the HBO series. (Though they refer back to the book at times, it's clear that the love for this project and the conceptual eye was inspired by the series.) What's more, these madmen (and madwomen) want to create a whole narrative storyline with branching quests that cover the events of at least the war of the five kings, if not the entire book series! They've already started using racemenu and other external tools and a lot of patience to create a handful of NPCs that resemble the actors of the show to a frightening degree, all in preparation of making them voiced players in a DLC-sized quest mod that defies sensible logic.

They've already started creating individual models for the various points of interest throughout Westeros, such as the Red Keep, and the Weirwood; as well as models of every weapon that would fit within this universe, and it all looks impressive, but insane. I mean, I know I keep harping on about this but I don't really think a project of this size can exist in the modding scene like it is. I've seen mods from all across the Bethesda landscape, even dabbled a bit in them before, and this idea rivals even the most ambitious among them. Now granted, the team are looking to expand and with a property as popular as Game of Thrones guiding the project there is a decent chance of interest coming their way, but that's also the biggest weakness I can see right now. Because, and I don't mean to seem totally oblivious, but we have no idea how litigious HBO can get. I mean we know they don't understand games, given that they commissioned a browser game from some sketchy nobodies in favour of a proper RPG that could have made them hundreds of millions in royalties, so that doesn't really bode well for a fan project like this. Say it takes off, more people come to it and it starts gaining attention, and then a HBO executive takes a gander at how models are being based off of a show they own, and NPC likenesses resemble their characters. I'm just saying this is a grand and inspiring idea that already seems to have real talented people behind it, yet I can't help but think it's also a naïve idea borne for a much more innocent world.

But we've looked at a similar indie team promising grandeur far beyond what seems sensible recently, and I seemed a lot more confident in their chances, no? Well that's because 'Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game' is an expansion upon something the team have already proven they can do, and whilst Skyros has a handful of supremely high-quality assets to hand, actually building that landmass, coding and writing quests for a game, especially branching questlines, atop of treading a legal tightwalk is a whole other question entirely. (Trust me at least on the branching quest writing stuff. That's literally what I'm doing for my side project right now and it's soul crushing.) And yet I applaud the passion. I applaud the effort already gone into this project and, most of all, I applaud the fact that even after nearly 10 years, the Skyrim community can turn around and blow me away with the level of their belief in the game and what they can shape out of it. If that isn't emblematic of the very spirit of modding, I don't know what is.

Catching the Censorship bug.

Somethings gonna give.

Censorship. Something of a contentious topic in the wider world, especially when applied to creative endeavours. People always like to postulate on the necessity of censorship and the reaches it will go to if left unchecked. As a result, some interesting hypotheticals get bought up on the issue. Does the artists intent come into play when something is censored? Is anything worthy of full censorship or just partial censorship? And at what point does censorship start to impede the fundamental values of freedom of speech? I'm not here to talk about any of those larger examples of censorship you may have heard about in the world however, wouldn't fit my MO. I want to talk to you about censorship as it exists within video games today, mostly between the covering of naughty parts and violence.

For my part I'm an advocate of reduced levels of censorship and regulation. I think that artists should have the right to express themselves in whatever way that they-so choose and bring their work to light even if it does touch on darker topics. It allows for a greater range of discussion and discourse when a narrative is allowed to plump into the darker depths of human capabilities. This is the sort of thing that can really push a story into a realm where it can actually effect the audience in ways they had never thought possible. Who remembers back when Game of Thrones was still good and we were subjected to the scene that has come to be known as the red wedding? Do you remember how you felt? For me, watching it alone in the dark, I remember sitting there in shock until the next show came on. (Which, incidentally, was a making-of for GoT.) After I could bear to get up again, I remember going to by room and sitting down thinking 'I'd love to play a game to calm down but I don't think I can stand to see the colour red right now'. That scene was so brutal and vivid that it displayed the horrific reality of violence in a way that no other 'hyper violent' show or movie had ever done for me before. To this day I've never felt that way after watching a particularly gruesome scene in anything and I think it's a shame.

The reason I bought up that GoT Scene was because I don't think that would have been aired 10 years prior. Of course, it helped that Game of Thrones was still incredibly popular when that scene aired, I doubt that 'Arrow' could have gotten away with a similar scene. But we have come such a long way when it comes to regulating fictional violence that the 'The red wedding' is now a possibility. If we hadn't of made strides to break down the wall of censorship that had been established, we might have never been graced with one of the most powerful and memorable moments of TV. When we come to the topic of the way that censorship has been utilized when it comes to Video Games we find that different walls have been setup that have yet to be challenged, yet alone overcome.

But first lets start at the beginning. You're likely already aware of the origins of Video Game censorship but I love to hear the sound of my own typing so bear with me. In 1976 a little game called 'Death Race' hit the arcades. (No apparent relation to the Stallone movie.) In the game the player was tasked with running over gremlins in a little pixel car. The height of carnage, obviously. This caused a whole slew of controversy as people decried the game whilst claiming the usual: the game would lead to rampant hit-and-cases all over the country! Since then there were several scattered controversies over the years. 1982's Clusters Revenge (Aka sexual assault simulator), 1987's Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (Which didn't even feature anything sexual, it was just a crappy point and click game.) and, of course, 1992's Mortal Kombat. Midway's Mortal Kombat utilized animation developed from real life pictures to simulate it's fighters, and then worked on blood and gore effects on top. The result was the most horrifying and realistic violence ever seen by man! In the early 1990's! The ensuing chaos is well documented. Everyone and their mother wanted Video Games banned for their violent influence, because video games were most certainly the cause of all evil in the world. Things got so bad that in 1994 the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was established in order to get ahead of things before government regulation started up.

Since then, Violence has become a huge sticking point for people who dislike gaming. Just look at disbarred attorney Jack Thomspon. (Who's Wikipedia page rather generously lists as 'activist' rather than 'explotation artist'.) Jack made a name for himself by launching a campaign on all things pixellated for years. Okay, that's not entirely true. Back in the day he spoke out against rap music too, but he really hit a stride with all the Video Game stuff. Jack seemed to position himself as an arch nemesis to unstoppable video game titan: Rockstar. The attacks he made against the violence and sexual themes of GTA are legendary. He filed lawsuits against them, funded campaigns and went all out to destroy Take Two through the legal courts. Then he got disbarred.

But before he slipped into obscurity, Jack Thomson opened the floodgates for the cries of censorship that would befall the gaming landscape. Droves of NRA members would accuse games of causing violence, rather ironically. Talks show hosts would film segments on GTA, lamenting the way the game encouraged hedonism and murder (completely oblivious to it's satirical leanings), and then there was that one time when Watch_dogs got in the headlines. I understand that people are afraid of 'hacking' even though most of those people have no idea what hacking actually is, but accusing Watch_Dogs of teaching children how to hack is positively laughable.

Censorship isn't just an issue of the past either. Just recently there was a huge controversy over the censorship spearheaded by an unlikely source: From Sony itself! (Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.) A spokesperson had made a statement indicating that the company was making moves to cut down on the stretch of sexual themes in their games, namely the Japanese Anime-focused ones. Personally, I have rather strong views on this particular branch of censorship but I'll likely write more on that at a later date. At the time it didn't worry a lot of people because, for the general public, their games-of-choice weren't in the crosshairs. That was, at least, until Devil May Cry 5.

Devil May Cry marked it's triumph return to it's series roots by reintroducing the classic versions of popular series characters: Dante and Lady. One scene did raise the hackles of Sony, however, when Lady was swallowed by a demon and had to be rescued by Dante. After she was freed there was a scene wherein she was expelled from the beast naked and defeated. Dante then picks her up and takes her to safety. It should be noted that this was done through a cut scene and the nudity was handled tastefully. Lady was obscured from view and nothing racy was shown. (Oh, wait. There was an inch of but crack in one shot? My bad, call the censors, we need to lock this down!) Sony made the move to add a light flare in one scene showing a glimpse Lady's behind, making a whole slew of gamers raise an eyebrow and say "Really?!"

It's less the act and more the audacity that Sony believed themselves fully within their rights to edit someone else's artwork in order for them to be comfortable with it. The change was small, but the precedent set is incredibly unsettling. Even Nintendo reflected similar remarks (Nintendo!) saying that it isn't their place to decide on the content of third party games. If you don't think it would fit with your policies than don't sell the thing, but acknowledge that you'll be missing out on a stream of revenue by doing so. When the question of censorship arrives, just like with South Park's manatees it is an all or nothing scenario.

The topic of content regulation and censorship stretches to a whole slew of areas that really require their own blog to dive into. I just wanted to establish a baseline to expand from and show you how things are playing out in today's world. In the coming years I think that this topic will become increasingly important as these outdated values start to seriously impact the earned media that the Internet has fostered in recent years. (Which I elaborated more on in my: 'Youtube vs gaming' blog.) From the looks of it, things are going to get worse before they get better as fear mongering starts to lead the direction of the industry. Maybe I'm being a tad hyperbolic but it can be enlightening to imagine the extremes in formative times like these, because we may just reach those extreme sooner than one might think.