When Quantic Dream revealed a striptease sequence contained in Heavy Rain never seen before to an audience at E3 09, some were uncomfortable with what they saw. There were many who thought it was not necessary to go that far, and questioned the developer's decision.
Well according to founder of Quantic Dream David Cage, that's exactly the response they were hoping for. He relayed his sentiment best in an interview with EGTV, when asked about the reaction.
EGTV: What did you make of the reaction to the striptease sequence revealed at E3?
"We had a couple of people who felt uncomfortable watching the scene which is perfect because this is exactly what we wanted," he said.
"I mean you can't pretend to trigger different type of emotions and just focus on adrenaline and fight and competition and frustration. You need to go through different emotions and showing this scene in particular was for us a test to see if we could make people feel like Madison, having to get Naked to do a striptease in front of this ugly guy, and obviously it worked because people felt very uncomfortable," cage added.
"It depends, if you want to do toys for kids with video games then you certainly shouldn't do that, but if you pretend to do an adult experience for a major audience, then there's nothing you can't do and you certainly shouldn't count on me to censor myself and say, oh, I can't do this I don't want to do that because it's too sensitive it's too controversial or whatever. I'll do what ever it takes to tell my story," he concluded.
What do you think? Was it an overreaction from the audience, or should there be real concern about the path certain games are taking? Get the full vibe here.
10/15/09 Ernice Gilbert
I think Heavy Rain is an exceptional game in the making, and if there could be emotions of sex displayed in movies, then I say, why not games?
ReplyDeleteIf a game can run the gamut of emotions, I will be quite satisfied. As with all forms of art and entertainment, it is the emotion that pulls us in and keeps us interested. If a player doesn't want to face something potentially uncomfortable, they are free to choose a different type of game. I am hoping that Heavy Rain will help open the door for more types of games that push the emotional envelope. More types of games to play means more entertainment for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest reacting was excitement. I think the people who were uncomfortable weren't uncomfortable because she had to strip to an ugly guy, but rather it's the type of people who feel uncomfortable when they see boobs in movies or magazines or in anything.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who got offended by this scene is obviously a gigantic homosexual who would probably rather have seen Kratos do a striptease - in which case their reactions don't matter anyway.
ReplyDeleteDavid Cage has exactly the right idea - if the scene fits, then do it. Obviously nudity for the sake of nudity would be unneccesary but this ties in perfectly with the tone of the game.
The exact same thing happened about 2 years ago with the sex scene in "Mass Effect", a lot of people said it was inappropriate. If a developer feels putting theese things in the game is good for the overall experience then i don't see the problem. As long as the game turns out good i'm happy.
I always figured it was part of certification to ensure that games went to regulatory boards prepared for mature ratings. You can't find games that get that far with the kinds of experiences adults have come to expect from movies, partly since the ESRB and MPAA, for now, don't agree on how to rate content. Also as Quantic Dream are trying and few other games have managed, you can't make games for adults on consoles. There isn't a market for it. The game either gets rated off the shelves OR people don't take it seriously, and why should they? Few games can take on any given movie in terms of grabbing a mainstream audiences focus for 2+ hours (including non-gamers).
ReplyDeleteHeavy Rain will continue to be impressive if the game can actually live up to the standard of contemporary movies. After playing it will you think, wow, that was as good as watching a movie, or better. Or as with most other games that try and fail, will the reaction be more of a it should have been a movie instead, what a waste of time and money. If it can cinematically, and through atmosphere, pace, etc achieve that same influence of a good 2 hour hollywood movie (in multiple sittings to validate the price).
That said, having that one strip scene is a check mark on contemporary movies. They can add a shower scene too... They have to ensure that the game runs the full gamut of experiences you can find in any good movie. Most games fail by not including children, animals, plants.. the worlds feel empty. Will Heavy Rain just be more of the same?
Good observation alxian, we'll just have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteuncomfortable? I was like =D~~~~~~~~~
ReplyDeleteOh shit, I guess I'm the ugly guy then... X.X
thank you david, thank you so much.
ReplyDeletei only wished developers had the balls like this guy.
im sick of games being treated as a entertainment for kids.
i cant wait till this comes out, and hopefully this will give the devs the encouragement they need to bring more games of this type in.
im sick of FPS and TPS just because there the norm.
devs are to scared to tread away from the normal because it may not sell well, its about time a developer had the guts to stray away and try to defrentiate himself from other games.
we are now a lot of adult gamer not like before where only children play.
ReplyDeleteGame has to evolve with the age of the gamer their is still young gamer and they their game to.
nice David Cage ^^