Rampancy

About five years ago, I wondered that the introduction of a PC-like console, plus a network service like Xbox Live, might lead to consoles and console games that were just as buggy as their PC counterparts, and that would require constant post-purchase updating to fix the many glitches.

That day is now here.

[image:9359 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] This issue has been stewing for quite awhile; and for a long time, I left it completely alone, hoping that it would just go away.

Except it didn't.

In the past two weeks, Wideload Games' debut offering, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, has garnered more press attention for its inclusion in a controversial list of games produced by NIMF, the National Institution on Media and the Family, than it did for being released as an interesting and entertaining Halo-engine game with an innovative theme, and that's just wrong.

The list purports to bring attention to games that parents should watch out for. The twelve "games to avoid" on this year's list included Far Cry, F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Resident Evil 4, Conker: Live and Reloaded, and at number four (with a bullet) our pal Stubbs the Zombie.

What's a zombie got to do for a little respect?

Supporters of the game industry were quick to point out that every single game on that list is rated M for Mature and not intended for children.

NIMF President David Walsh, asserts that the ESRB rating system is "broken beyond repair". How a voluntary rating system that correctly identified all of their 12 "games to avoid" as Mature is broken, I can't really fathom. If I was the NIMF, I'd be seriously worried that people would interpret this list to mean that all the other M-rated games aren't really that bad, and thus would be okay for children. Or that they'd be worried that the industry would respond that their games rated M aren't as bad as these on the list, and should perhaps be rated T instead.

[image:8446 right hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] At the end of the day, the ESRB ratings, just like the MPAA ratings, are not enforceable as laws; individual retailers have to enforce them. And just like the MPAA ratings, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. If they don't and consumer watch groups want them to, why they don't lobby the retailers instead of the ESRB or the developers, I've no idea. The idea solely seems to be to pick on the weakest child. The retailers are more interested in making money than pushing NIMF's agenda, and so are the console makers and game developers. The ESRB, as a nonprofit, is clearly the easier target. NIMF and others criticize them for failing to achieve something that isn't even part of their activities-- the enforcement of the ratings by retailers-- so they can muscle the ESRB out of the way and replace it with their own nonprofit group with its own ratings system that would most assuredly by ignored with just as much enthusiasm as that promoted by the ESRB.

Like most of the games on that list (with the possible exception of Conker) Stubbs is clearly intended for an adult audience. It's got adult themes, an adult sense of humor, and it's set in a time period that today's teenagers have only ever seen on Nick at Night.

None of this even touches on the most ridiculous part of NIMF's justification for including Stubbs on the list: that's right, cannibalism. I could waste my breath on how silly that sounds. Luckily, you don't have to. Wideload was also quiet about the list until last week; and while it may be true that all publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name right, Wideload did respond to the allegations of cannibalism leveled at Stubbs, in a posting that bears the clear fingerprints of lead writer Matt Soell:

Stubbs is a zombie. Thus the title "Stubbs the Zombie." Zombies eat brains. That's what they do. Stubbs cannot just saunter into the cafeteria and order a plate of Freedom Fries. He has to fight for his meals. In fact, actual cannibals only make it harder for Stubbs to eat, which is why this "cannibalism" story is insulting as well as injurious.

It's no surprise that the all-human media cartel resorts to distortions and name-calling; their anti-zombie bias has been evident for decades, and Stubbs is just the newest target.

Of course, some might call Wideload biased in this respect. After all, they did make the game.

Columnist Dean Takahashi also took special exception to Stubbs' inclusion on the list:

But by putting this game on the list, along with "Far Cry" and "Fear," the institute also does a kind of dis-service. There's a stigma to getting on that list, as if the makers of the games were really producing reprehensible stuff with no redeeming social value. It is on the same list, for instance, as "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" for the PlayStation Portable and "True Crime: New York." The institute noted that the cannibalism scenes in Stubbs and Fear are more examples of the industry sinking to new lows. But in Stubbs, I don't know if you can call it cannibalism. The zombies eat the brains of live humans in a fairly comic manner, with gushers of blood coming as they do so and the humans screaming "oh you ate my brains" in the process. But they're zombies eating humans, not humans eating humans.

I don't consider cannibalism, in any case, to be an artistic and legitimate form of expression. Yet this game isn't the equivalent of "Night of the Living Dead." Stubbs the Zombie is a satire. It makes fun of the sterile environment of the city and the dumb people who populate it.

[image:9705 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] "It's just the worst kind of message to kids," said Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman of Stubbs' brain-eating proclivities.

Be careful out there, gamers. Looks like the dumb people have escaped from Punchbowl and are overrunning Congress.

[image:9927 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] Two more tidbits from the Halo script today. One features the Master Chief doing what he does best (killing Covenant) while the other features Cortana doing what she does best.

Talking, of course.

In the initial moments of Halo 1, between the Cryo bay and the Bridge, the Chief is unarmed and essentially cannot be harmed by Covenant units, all of which are separated from him by invisible walls except one. This portion of the game was essentially designed as a bit of a tutorial, as the game shows you how to do things like jump and crouch to make your way around obstacles.

The film, of course, has no such need for doing that; so before the Chief ever makes it to the bridge, he's picked up a couple of weapons and already started taking his toll on Covenant boarding forces.

That first Elite you see when you play Halo 1 the first time, that surprises you from behind a door and then quickly disappears down the corridor? Well, in the film script, the Chief comes up from behind him, takes out his shields with a melee strike from the assault rifle, and then finishes the job with half a clip (30 rounds). Even the number of rounds mentioned in the script here is correct.

Of course, in the game it wouldn't have been necessary to fire a shot had the melee strike come from behind. And on any difficulty other than easy, a single melee shot from the front would not have taken out the shields entirely.

Within the game, the silent melee kill mechanic works well-- it's about the only stealth option available in a game that is most decidedly not about stealth. However, perhaps it was worried that such an easy takedown wouldn't be believable on the big screen; so the Chief pumps the Elite full of lead just to make sure. Makes sense.

[image:9928 right hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]After leaving the Bridge with Cortana onboard, there's a new exchange between the two that is not in the game, seemingly to establish for the audience the fact that most of the time, Cortana is a disembodied voice that only the Chief can hear. (There is a stage direction later in the script that reinforces the same concept.) The author even manages to make a humorous little scene out of it, a Taxi Driver moment where the Chief gets to ask, "Are you talking to me?"

This, and other touches throughout the script, seem to indicate that the film is being prepared for a wide audience, not just fans of the game who don't need this concept explained for them. While that seems like a good idea, it's also a road that just about every terrible, failed videogame adaptation-- I'm looking at you, Doom-- has tried to go down.

If there's a saving grace for the project here, it will be the involvment of Peter Jackson. He was able to produce a trilogy of movies that did a remarkably good job at pleasing hardcore fans of Tolkien's works as well as attracting a broad audience. It seems clear that Microsoft would want the Halo movie to do the same; they would want to expand the audience for the film to include nongamers without unnecessarily alienating the franchise's core fans. A nice little scene like this I think is a step in the right direction; it's short, unobtrusive, doesn't conflict with any known facts in the Halo story, gives a touch of humor and a helping hand to those not that familiar with the story.

What do you think? Post a comment below!