Bullets, beasts and bleeding hearts

Bulletstorm, a new shoot-em-up videogame, has fuelled a furore over its depiction of violence – but its makers claim critics are attacking an artform rooted in slapstick while ignoring real-life violence, writes JOE GRIFFIN

THE TAGLINE FOR Bulletstorm,an 18-cert shooter, is "kill with skill". The game asks players to lasso enemies, kick them into cacti or devise their own creative deaths for their enemies. The violence has garnered some strong reactions from the media: Fox News ran an item on their website recently with the provocative headline, "Is Bulletstormthe worst game in the world?" "Parents better beware," it warned, "A Bulletstormis on the horizon."

The article was built on the belief that all games are aimed at children, as it frequently warns of the effect a violent game will have on “young kids”, including a suggestion that playing videogames makes you more likely to commit acts of sexual violence. Later, Carole Lieberman, the psychiatrist and author who made that link, claimed (in an interview with the site Game Politics) that sexual assault statistics are “known to be variable and unreliable” and admitted that she hadn’t played Bulletstorm, a game which, it turns out, has no sexual content beyond swearing.

The development team behind Bulletstorm, which includes EA, Epicand People can Fly, say that they went for an irreverent tone. (This interview took place before the Fox News report was published.) To this gamer it looked like the slapstick of Road Runnermixed with the black, bloody comedy you'd find in some of Tarantino's work.

There's more than enough blood, but it's far from reality. Just like Warner Brothers cartoons, for example, in some moments characters suspend briefly over a precipice before they fall. "Those are the exact examples we've been using," says Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games. "Tarantino and Road Runnerwere exactly what PCF were going for. When you see the kind of kills in the game, people are being dismembered and are flying off cliffs and such, and the way that we depict it, you can't help but laugh. It's hilarious stuff, as opposed to some horrible video you'd see online or the Sawand Hostel-type games, and I think it ties into the fun and tone and what it's all about."

Adrian Chimielarz, creative director at People can Fly, agrees with Blezinski's point: "It's not a snuff game. I really don't believe that anybody can confuse Bulletstormwith a murder simulator. I think it's the kind of Tarantino violence where you think 'oh my God', but at the same time immediately you'll follow it with a laugh. You'll laugh at this and we strive to do a photorealistic version of Road Runnerwith Bulletstorm."

In contrast to gleefully provocative titles such as Postaland Grand Theft Auto, the developers of Bulletstormclaim that it was difficult to get the tone right, to portray cartoonish slapstick that will amuse instead of horrify. "Yeah it was hard," says Chimielarz. "It was a lot of work. We've been working on this for almost four years. But we've been using a very simple test: We've been showing this to [employees at] Epic and some of our guys. Was there laughter and disbelief? If so, then yes, score! Move on! Do you want intestines? No we don't, blood is enough! It's a little bit of cartoon blood to make sure that nobody confuses it with a snuff film. So yes, it was a lot of work and a lot of interaction."

Videogames do attract significant negative attention compared to some other art forms. Five years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger passed a law in California prohibiting the sale of videogames to minors – a move condemned as unconstitutional by some within the industry in an attempt to overturn it. The US Supreme Court recently heard arguments for and against California’s anti-gaming legislation. The court’s decision will have an impact not only on how games are sold in America, but also on how they’re perceived in general.

Dr Greg Zeschuk is vice-president at BioWare, award-winning developers of the Mass Effectand Dragon Agegames. His issue with game legislation is the lack of familiarity that lawmakers have with the medium. "Folks who criticise games in a judiciary process like legislature make the mistake that games are for kids," he says. "They don't appreciate that it's like anything else – there's kids' shows and adults' shows, there's kids' movies and adult movies and there's kids' games and adult games. The word 'game' probably gives them the wrong impression. Generally they don't play them, and what's interesting is the Supreme Court has been going on and on about Postal 2[a controversial game released six years ago], which rings hollow for someone who's aware of what's going on. They are not familiarising themselves with what they're criticising. If you only know hearsay, how can you form an opinion?"

Dr Ray Muzyka, the chief executive of Bioware, believes that controversy is par for the course for a young art form: “All great art has gone through this period; movies, books, classical music, rock’n’roll, jazz. As time passes they become less an object to be challenged and more an established art form. And videogames are an art form. It’s unfortunate that all great art has to go through this challenge, but there’s a huge spectrum, just like in movies and music. Imagine the lunacy of categorising all movies based on the most extreme examples of pornography or hyper-violence. People would say that’s crazy, but the same thing applies directly to videogames. We make games with a high amount of story, choice and characters, and mature consequences to your actions.

“A larger issue is the question of the real cause of violence and abuse. Where does the responsibility lie for that? Games are an easy target. It used to be TV. Turn on a TV now and there’s more violence than in most videogames. It’s harder to confront issues like poverty, loss of hope, parental neglect. Why aren’t we dealing with those with the volume of rigour with which we’re attacking an art-form that’s completely diverse? I would argue it’s more worthwhile to look at root causes for violence in society, like poverty and lack of education.”

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Violence (slapstick or otherwise) has been a thorny issue in games for some time now. The Grand Theft Auto series earns its 18 cert and plays much of its aggression for laughs.

The game has its share of jokes (cheap and otherwise), but the prostitute-bludgeoning moments are a bridge too far for many.

More recently, the horrific and harrowing Dead Space 2(also over-18s) boasted in its ad campaign that mothers will dislike the game. They're probably right; unless your typical suburban mum likes entrails, dismemberments and nightmares. In fairness, though, the horror isn't played for chuckles.

Though it might not seem that way, most videogame slapstick would hardly qualify as violence at all – from the colliding foul and pork in Angry Birds, to the bloodless shattering of the characters in the popular Lego games and the pratfalls of Pokémon(still a huge-selling game character).

Indeed, of the world's 30 top-selling games of 2010, most are family-friendly, with only three adult-oriented games in the top 10.