Kotaku

I've got an idea for a game about global warming: buy something, and the world explodes. It'll be called "An Inconvenient Game Scenario," and the first level is also the last level. It all starts when the main character goes out to buy some toilet paper, then Al Gore kicks his ass for being such a wasteful jerk.

Also, the game is not an actual physical product... it's just a 900MB download.

I have to email them and find out if a game of social satire fits their submission requirements. The game I've been working on for two years pokes fun at several of the items in their issue list, especially sexism. Mmmmmm, sexism!

@Musenik: Is this the kind of "making fun of sexism" that only frat boys and 14 year olds would find funny? Y'know, the kind that's actually sexist?

By the way, I nominate Devil May Cry 4 for it's incredibly progressive stance of having an all-homosexual cast of characters.

@Pope John Peeps II: Wow, just wow.

This sounds pretty interesting. Games should make some sort of minor world changing impacts. This will finally get us out of the rut of gaming=evil reputation.

I nominate Metal Gear Series (especially 3) on a diverse sexual cast of characters.

@ミスター X: WHATS WRONG SNAKE, YOU DON'T LIKE GIRLS!?

I wanted to post near the beginning of a non-game article (like Ban Monday or something), but a question:

Are we ever going to have a second Kotaku Game Club?

i think metal gear 2 and 4 are the gayest, technically, not something to brag about though.

@PlayerX: I think we are closer to do this than you think. If we put the dedicated creative gamer together with a group on climate change modellers and other Earth scientists, I believe we can create a pretty cool and "responsible" game - with Al Gore and all if we like :-)
Actually I've started to play with these kind of thoughts already her [www.lilja.no] - SimCity vs Real World

It's about time we start communicating better between the gaming world and the real world...

Awesome! Thanks Kotaku! this site sounds right up my alley. I'm a sociology major trying to get into the games business and it looks like there are some people who care about looking at games from such a perspective, woo!

So can't big developers just enter a game, and wipe the floor with all the indie flash stuff? They may have the soul of a corporate machine, or whatever, but it seems like an unbeatable force. Just stick, I don't know, Jet Set Radio in some 'Graffiti as art versus Graffiti as crime' section and it'd easy win. To be honest, while I think the conpetition is a good idea, there's already plenty of this in games now. I mean, Manhunt has had enough controvesy to last several competetions out. But I guess big corporations don't really care about a few iPhones.

Hmmm...so if I wanted to create a game that address's the issue of violent video games...but is in itself a violent game....

THE PARADOX!

@Pope John Peeps II: Is this the kind of "making fun of sexism" that only frat boys and 14 year olds would find funny?

Nope. It's the kind of 'making fun of sexism' that reverses the situation. In Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble, boyfriends are treated as objects to be used. In the worst interpretation, they exist in the game to protect the girls from harm and bolster their powers.

In our user testing, frat boys started to tear out their hair after a few minutes of play, because they can't tell the girls what to do. They can only choose which girl will take action.

They don't 'get' that sharing power is an effective strategy. They can only focus on their own impotence.

@Stellare: I agree... Sim City is starting to do this, anyway, isn't it? Like, one of the vital statistics of cities have long been smog reports, but now they're going as far as modelling the impact of clean energy more directly.

[kotaku.com]

Grand Theft Auto has probably had more social impact than any game. Incredibly ironic considering the game environment...

@Musenik: ...Freud would have a field day.

I don't get frat boys. I personally would have no problem with cowering behind a desk and letting my magical girlfriend kill all the horribly cliched evil things.

Once I've realised hitting them repeatedly with a crowbar doesn't work anyway.

@Sabre_Justice: I don't get frat boys...

If you want to get one, flirt with College Boy. He shows up in Act 2.

@Sabre_Justice: Once I've realised hitting them repeatedly with a crowbar doesn't work anyway.

Who were you hitting, the cliche evil things or the magical girlfriend? :-)

@Musenik: This sounds interesting! I'd love to see the tapes of the frat boy testers tearing their hair out!

Somewhere out there, there is a frat that doesn't act this way OR play Halo, crying themselves to sleep over being so misrepresented.

Tom Brokaw : videogames :: Kotakuites : frats?