Nintendo Holocaust-Era Game Draws Criticism
Putting players in first-person situations is one of the most popular narrative devices in video games, and a French video game developer, working for a British distributor, has done just that with his latest digital adventure. Typically, this would not draw much fanfare but his game topic is startling to some: a first-person experience of a first-person experience of a young child in France during the Holocaust. The game, 'Imagination Is the Only Escape, 'puts players in the role of a young boy in Nazi-occupied France during the war, and follows his attempts to escape the horror of the times by pursuing a fantasy world of his own devising.
Unlike most games developed for the Nintendo DS, which typically caters to kids titles, this game portrays often brutal scenes, with startling imagery and events.
Early outcry on online message boards indicates that the game distributor, Alten8, may not export the game to stores in the United States (although that's not a certainty) but it will be available in Europe.
The 21-year-old game developer says he does not consider the topic of war to be a game, and doesn't intend to demean the concept. Another game he's developed, also distributed by Alten8, puts players into a fantasy realm where the world has been destroyed by global warming.
Tackling serious issues head on, and with a first-person experience, seems to be catching on as a popular device in France. French president Nicholas Sarkozy recently introduced a new education initiative that "pairs" all his country's fifth-graders with the story of one of the 11,000 French children who were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
Sarkozy has come under significant fire since announcing the education plan, with critics saying the learning experience will be traumatizing to the students.
The video game will not depict violence, according to the developer, and is intended to be educational, and not exploitative of the events.
From The New York Times.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dionnysus said 8:25PM on 3-10-2008
i see what the developer is trying to convey with this video game and i applaud him. it's an interesting idea, much in the same vein of that movie (Life is Beautiful?) to show how one might had dealt with the horrors and the insanity of the holocaust. whether a game like this is intended for children is left to debate, but it reasonable could appeal to young adults and up. this article doesn't really say and the title is a bit vague. still, i think i am right about the developer's true intent is to entertain while giving one something to think about, rather than to capitalize on a controversial and sad chapter in human history.
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anniekapn said 2:13PM on 3-17-2008
I am glad this game is under criticism. You know, in the 1960s it was easy for hippies to sit on lawns of Harvard or streets like Haight-Ashbury and force people to talk to them. Then they did Woodstock, which NO ONE admits to now. Why would anyone want to know how to wear down a prisoner, hostage, Human Sacrifice, Holocaust AND at an amatuer consolation prize investigstion level? If Terrorists have it too hard, let them get the Wellness Blueprint with psychiatry. Life is not made too hard with the Wellness Blueprint and there is no need for hippie negative loop around interference.
Annie
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Efholdt said 3:22PM on 3-17-2008
It would be only a tragically self-fulfilling prophecy to say video games cannot convey serious, meaningful, enriching content as can songs, movies, articles, or novels. Objection to attempts at it is retardant of valid cultural growth. What? Games as culture? Yes! The industry really needs to wage this battle of perception at a vocabulary level. They must invent a better term for this type of interactive title-- GAMES are something for fun, and wasting time.
If it turns out, this time, that the product IS a little exploitative... then so what? So was Oliver Stone's latest joint. Should one medium of expression be afforded less and fewer freedoms than another?
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cwldoc said 6:42PM on 3-17-2008
It is ironic that this game, which depicts war and violence in a negative light, confronting the user with the real consequences of military conflict, is under attack. The criticism being made of this game is that it is 'too violent.' Meanwhile, games that glorify war and violence are accepted as O.K.
The truth is that our society, beliefs, ideals and practices revolve around violence. We reject anything which forces us to see that part of ourselves. That is the true reason for the outcry against the new game.
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boredwell said 3:57PM on 3-17-2008
Traumatize kids?! These same kids who gleefully kill characters in video games, see people murdered on TV, watch bloody movies whose entire plotline revolves around murder, mayhem and deceit. The objective the young developer has is to actualize what death and the fear of being annilated might be like if you were living it. Sarkozy lost 57 members of his family in the Holacaust. That children will be traumatized by hearing the story of the children of the Holacaust in France is an idiotic excuse for keeping anyone from knowing the truth. It is a sad but poignant tribute to those who endured so much suffering beyond all human experience during the Nazi era. Antisemitism, in France is on the rise. Witness the recent kidnapping and torture of a 19 boy who being identified as Jewish meant he was rich. Or the Ilan Halimi who was murdered 2006. From the notoriety of the The Drefus Affair,to the French resistance and its intrigues during WW2 and the knowledge that France was the country that assisted the Nazi's in producing the most Jews than any other country is history. To hide from it is naive,dangerous and
immoral. Nations as well as its citizens need to face the consequences of their country's actions, own up to them, make amends and begin the long process of healing. The actualization a genocide is happening in several nations today. Liberia, Kenya, East Timor, Rwanda et al. Taking a stand vis a vis knowledge that people acquiese to murder of their neighbors should never be condoned. Both the president and the video developer should be applauded for taking steps to do actualize about that nightmare. One must walk in anothers shoes....
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Ian Jerez said 4:18PM on 3-17-2008
Let us not forget that a movie(several actually) with a similar theme has already touched on this premise recently; El Laberinto del fauno- Pan's Labyrinth (English title.) Other movies- House of Cards, Donnie Darko, Jacob's Ladder, Jake's Closet etc,etc... have tried to convey similar concepts. The manner in which the story/life lesson is being told does vary, yet the psychology is the same: dissociation.
My question is this: would people have a reaction if this game were about an adult instead of a child, would we actually devote any time on the subject? Do you really think children are not playing games designed for adults or that our children have not become so desensitized by current events that this game may well be a decent means of assisting in teaching a history lesson?
As for capitalization on a sad chapter of human atrocities- one purpose behind making a game is to allow people to imagine that they are the tragic hero succeeding in the face of imminent doom. A percentage of video games revolve around actual history which was ghoulish/barbaric/vile. Hmmn, maybe sixty-three years is not a long enough time to allow for these matters to be open for interpretation. Possibly the scars are not healed... If anything America (North & South) should have learned from its past is the longer it takes to admit to its own wrong doings, domestic that is, the harder it becomes to bridge gaps and progress as a complete unit.
I am sorry for that digression- prejudice and censorship should be carefully observed in this arena. Sensitivities to subject matters as well. Yet we all should understand one thing- this medium is not going anywhere, and more themes of controversial matters will transpire.
It appears as though we should help the gaming companies understand their role in edutainment now instead of later. Ultimately they (the gaming industry) have to work with us, the consumer, and more to the point- the parent buying the title in question for our children.
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