Op-Ed: E3 games exploit real fears in a tumultuous worldCyber terrorism, sexual assault, and torture headline upcoming titles.by Andrew Groen - June 17 2012, 3:00pm SAWST Console Gaming Game Development46As if you don't have enough to worry about, Black Ops 2 wants you to worry about unmanned military drones turning against us.Treyarch / ActivisionThere's a new kind of fear that seems to be creeping in to the storylines of the next round of AAA blockbuster video games. These aren't the usual, fantastical fears of zombies or alien attacks in the classic vein of countless dumb action games, but rather fears of very real social and political problems that have been distorted to seem even more terrifying. From cyber terrorism and economic instability to torture and sexual assault, the games of this year's E3 seemed more than willing to twist real-world concerns and anxieties into all-too-convenient plot points.The dumb action games have found their new straw man.Drones are the new NazisCall of Duty: Black Ops 2 is leading the charge, with the game's director boasting that this would be the most provocative and controversial CoD game yet (which is saying something, as 2009 Modern Warfare 2 has players leading the interactive slaughter of dozens of innocents.) This time they're stoking fears of a terrorist cyber-attack on the United States' unmanned military drones, which are turned against us at home and abroad.Not only does the game itself drive home the fear of this kind of unprecedented attack, but Activision also hired the controversial Iran-Contra figure (and now military analyst) Oliver North to participate in a faux documentary which outlines how terrifying the world secretly is. "I don't think the average American grasps how violent war is about to become," North says with well-rehearsed delivery in the faux documentary. "There's going to come a time when this technology is going to catch up with us. I have a nightmare scenario that a hacker breaks into our system that controls satellites, UAVs, even the launch of missiles." He later continues, "There is no defined battlespace. The enemy could be anywhere, and it could be anyone. I don't worry about a guy that wants to hijack a plane. I worry about the guy who wants to hijack all the planes."Black Ops 2 was shown extensively at Microsoft's E3 press conference, which focused on the moments after the drones are hijacked. The Los Angeles skyline is blown apart and the President of the United States is attacked. The first words in the trailer whimper from a bloodied mouth, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"Yes, it's a work of fiction, but the implication is that this kind of attack is actually something we should be worried about. This despite the fact that the developers offer no real evidence that our military systems are vulnerable, or that we'd be unprepared if such an attack did happen. The game's plot and marketing amounts to little more than context-free, Stuxnet-and-Anonymous-era nightmares masquerading as a documentary.No HonorMedal of Honor: Warfighter features American super-marines going into Somalia to hunt down that nation's notorious pirates. In a demonstration of this so-called realistic shooter at EA's press conference, the main character is shot over twenty times as he marches through a pirate stronghold, indiscriminately killing dozens. The game doesn't seem that concerned with the real world story of Somali fishermen turning to piracy as a last resort after their waters were overfished by opportunistic foreigners, who took advantage of the collapse of the Somali government in 1991. That doesn't fit with the cleaner, more popular narrative about filthy, inherently evil pirates who want to kill and steal from innocent sailors. In video gaming we love a good, guilt-free kill.The oversimplification doesn't stop with military shooters. Ubisoft's Watch Dogs showcased a gunslinging hacker who can shut down parts of our world by hacking into any piece of electronics through a smartphone. The idea of our vulnerability is driven home when the protagonist causes a massive pile up at an intersection by shutting down the traffic lights, then fights a gun battle hiding among the civilians, gruesomely witnessing one woman hit in the head by a stray bullet as her husband weeps. As in Black Ops 2, the idea seems to be that we should fear an enemy's ability to co-opt our modern technology, rather than appreciate its usual reliable convenience.And then there's the litany of games that seemed to revel in extreme levels of sadistic violence at this year's show. Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs showed off a new trailer in which the protagonist is brutally tortured, enduring a scalpel through the chest and a power drill to the knee before going on to kill his torturers, along with a small village worth of people. Far Cry 3 also featured an escape from the island of a torturous madman, while the Last of Us' incredibly brutal trailer showed the main character nearly being choked to death before turning the tables on his aggressor and putting a shotgun shell through his pleading face. This last scene was met with whoops and raucous applause from the audience at Sony's E3 press conference.But the most obvious participant in the industry's obsession with new types of fear was Tomb Raider. The new direction for the series casts famed protagonist Lara Croft as a worn and beaten survivor who endures countless horrors and pains. This year, a new trailer shows that Lara —and, by extension, the player—will be threatened with sexual assault, taking the usual video game violence to a darker place (through the developers have tried to downplay the importance of this scene in the days since the E3 reveal.)Boogeyman tacticsTaken together, these games send a depressing message about the coming year in big-budget, AAA games. Rather than delivering heightened drama and storytelling by exploring new types of gameplay or the subtlety of human life, these titles seem content to use boogeyman tactics to create cheap thrills through feelings of patriotism and self-preservation. In tomorrow's big budget action game the goal is mind-numbingly simple: the terrorists, hackers, pirates, torturers, rogue nations, and rapists are coming for you, and you've got to kill them first. Whatever thick coat of aesthetic veneer the developers might put on top of that experience, the core is no more intricate than Space Invaders.Taken individually, none of these games are too objectionable, and of course creators should feel free to focus on whatever themes they want. But as a whole, I worry that they show a trend towards lessened creativity in the game industry. This year's crop of AAA games don't seem to be able to drive an exciting plot without preying on our most basic insecurities. Fear of war. Fear of foreigners. Fear of modernity. Fear for our bodies.It's no wonder tiny iPhone games are carving out a growing share of the industry. With stories only slightly less complex, they're able to deliver hours of fun entertainment while hardcore gaming sticks with high prices, diminishing accessibility, and its latest offering: anxiety.
