Life is what happens between loading screens
Someone once claimed we wouldn’t celebrate happiness if we didn’t know what sadness was. The same way monotheistic religion needs Satan or any other form of ‘dark side‘ to justify what otherwise would be an unfair deity, we celebrate the little joys, the packaged excitement.
A loading screen is a way of disguising the preparation of a program to execute content. The user, waiting for something to happen while staring at beautiful art or sometimes a black screen. We wait for the world of excitement, or knowledge to be ready for us to use.
Video games are an essential part of our lives now, from the leaps in technology harnessed by other industries to a way of meeting and socializing people. We are the last generation who played on the streets, and the first one to use interactive technology to expand our culture.
Economically, video games are the biggest revenue generator of the entertainment industry, technology used on video games is then used by a huge range of industries and culturally, there’s content to be enjoyed by all different types of tastes. Even though the media is still portraying video games as violent kids’ toys.
But I think there’s still a pending subject on video games, Politics.
There are lots of video games portraying war, social injustice or post apocalyptic countries destroyed by Nuclear War, but it is always treated on a very easy to understand fashion (the teenage wankaton usage of ‘Political’ words that Metal Gear is doesn’t count as a serious approach to the subject)
Instead of a game where you are a gangster doing ‘gangster’ like things, why not making a game about the Bullingdon Club?
The Bullingdon Club is a socially exclusive club at Oxford University, formed by very, very rich men with a love for binge drinking and vandalism. Two members of the Conservative Party were part of it during their student years. The leader David Cameron and the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
‘Bullingdon Club, The Video Game‘ would put players in the shoes of one of its new members, after the initiation (tutorial) were the character’s room is destroyed, he will have to buy the £2.000 uniform and join them. Like a GTA type of video game, you will be assigned missions of destruction of public property through Oxford, humiliating people by tossing them money afterwards. If you go up the ranks of the club, you will end up in Politics, then as a Politician you could use all the lawyer friends you made in Oxford to make sure no Journalist will ever talk about what you are doing. Vandalism at a new level, not behind the law, above it.
You could end up by teaming up with another mafia clan -the royal family- drinking champagne. I would play that.
Or,
What about a game were instead of a soldier on a war zone, you are a refugee helping other refugees escape the area during the night. It would be a free-roaming driving game. The player would have to drive through the night avoiding army convoys, looking for the best route or even driving with almost no lights during the night.
The player will not be a heroic soldier, he would just be someone who is being attacked and the only thing left to do is escape.
And you could play different wars, you could help Jewish and Polish people during WWII, Afghans during the Russia invasion, or even make up our own brilliant wars, helping US citizens cross the border to Mexico escaping the brutal Canadian forces.
If anyone capable of making games is reading this, please consider making games with dubious morals not targeted at 15 years old.
I think I’m not the only one who would love to play a game like those.
