Ellie Gibson
11:57 (BST)
13/06/2007
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Games can deal with sophisticated subjects, says Smith
Blacksite dev speaks out following Resistance controversy
Following complaints by the Church over Resistance: Fall of Man, Midway Austin's Harvey Smith has said believes games will one day be dealing with complex subject matter as effectively as other forms of media.
As an example, he cited Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, which tells stories of life in Poland before and during the Second World War.
Speaking in the context of the Church of England's demand for an apology from Sony over the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance, Smith told GamesIndustry.biz that the belief games are "trivialising [difficult] subject matter because inherently they are not capable of sophisticated expression" is comparable to what people "believed about comic books" prior to Maus' publication in the 1970s.
"I'm not saying that we're Maus," he clarified. "Film has done much more subversive stuff than what we're doing, for instance. But at the same time, I do think that videogames are going there.
"America's Army is the most political game anyone's ever made. It is a complete commercial for the right wing. So, if that's a super-political game, what's wrong with making a game that questions the role of the US military in the world and the role of the military-industrial complex?
"I don't think we're any more political than America's Army - we're just on the other side of the split."
Smith was referring to his current project Blacksite: Area 51, which is due out later this year on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. It's a sequel to Area 51 but will move away from the comedic action of the first game, and will deal with issues such as insurgencies on US soil and the impact of US foreign policy. However, Smith admitted, Blacksite is "a pure shooter" at heart.
The game is still in development but Smith is already looking ahead, speculating that the next game to bear the Blacksite name could have a broader scope for world-exploration.
The full interview with Harvey Smith will be published on GamesIndustry.biz soon.
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