If you were wondering why it suddenly got so quiet around here… Bad Day LA production is in “crunch mode”. We’re trying to get things finished up soon, then spend some time on polishing and tuning. Progress is good, but crunching is never any fun.

On top of that I’m trying to put the finishing touches on the Oz film story. Work on the film project has been going well. Looks like I might be starting on the actual script writing soon. Wish I could give more details, but then I’d have to kill you. Speaking of, you know the bit in the original story where Dorothy enters Oz and lands on a witch? We borrowed it for BDLA, so now there’s a little bit of Oz in the game!

(Crunched Pimpmobile – Bad Day LA concept art)

I’ve often marvelled at the myopic attention that lawmakers give to violence stemming from the consumption of video games. There are examples a’plenty of other sport and entertainment related acts of violence. Here’s a good one:

CNN.com – Brooklyn girl, 9, admits killing playmate – Oct 8, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) — A 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter Friday, admitting she fatally stabbed her 11-year-old playmate after a tug-of-war over a rubber ball went sour.

Quick! Someone tell Jack Thompson to stop chasing that ambulance and get started on a bill to limit the sales of rubber balls to minors!

I’ve learned through sources that this rubber ball was the “ultra-bouncy” sort, the kind that the marines often use to train for battle. Essentially a murder trainer. The constant up-down motion of the ball combined with its angry red color has been shown to stimulate the violence centers of the brain, vestiges of when humans more closely resembled dogs. These things are a ticking time-bomb, right up there with iPods and hand-held gaming devices. Satan’s own toys.

Seriously, has anyone ever bothered to do a study to compare actual incidents of video games being linked to real-world violence in comparison to other entertainment products (rubber balls included!) causing same such violence? I’d imagine that statistically video games are safer than golf. I say that because, in 15+ years of playing and being around video games I’ve seen *zero* instances of violence as a cause of games. In my less than 5 years of playing golf I’ve seen a half-dozen or more fights or near-fights. Anyone watch soccer lately?

I just read an infuriating take on the recent violent video game law passed in California:

Wired News: The Tortured Language of the Law
Interestingly, the one moment of genuine clarity in the California law is when it frets about games where you can “torture” someone. The legislators define torture as when you intentionally cause someone else suffering — “mental as well as physical” — that is quite apart from the cut-and-thrust of battle. The language is suddenly much crisper here, and I wondered why.

Then it hit me: Because this is the one area of law where our governments have deep, recent experience. Three years ago, the federal government was painstakingly crafting legal memos about torture — not so they could ban it, but so they could perform it. Who could forget White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ intricately crafted prose, saying that torture “must cause pain equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death”?

Consider that your final irony: Politicians work hard to ban virtual torture — while working just as hard to allow it in real life.

This goes to earlier cynical observations that I made about politicians like Hillary Clinton demonizing video games while in the same breath demanding that more kids be sent to fight the war in Iraq.

Seriously, what it is about these people and their inability to separate real world violence from video game violence? They claim their fear is that kids will become more violent in the real world as a result of video games, and yet… they support policies that actively put kids in harm’s way. Isn’t this the pot acting like the kettle?

More and more I think that video gamers need the equivalent of MoveOn.org – A place where gamers can rally around non-partisan issues that impact their culture and primary form of entertainment. Something like… GamerVoter.com The whole enterprise could be financed through donations and sales of merchandise like “I’m a gamer and I vote” bumper stickers or “You don’t (image of classic game controller) me.” t-shirts.

Isn’t it about time gamers stood together against the increasingly nonsensical and biased hatred that is being directed at them by a clueless and vindictive elder class of politicians? This is still a democracy right?

Btw, I think it is interesting to note that under this law a game like The Sims would be banned for sale to minors. Within the “dollhouse” confines of its world the player can perform actions that actively “torture” the Sim characters, ultimately leading to them urinating on themselves, going insane, and starving to death. Take note casual gamers, this law isn’t just about “murder simulators” aka first-person-shooters.

Ever read an “interjú” before? Well, this is your big chance. The guys over at HC Gamer, a gaming site from the country of .hu, have posted one…

HC.Gamer: You started your career as a level designer at id Software. How did the decision come to leave them and found your own company, to make your own games?

American Mcgee: I did not leave id, I was fired.

Yeah, I just go straight for the jugular there. It always strikes me as odd how people dance around the subject of my “departure” from id. You would think by now that everyone out there who has followed any of the goings-on at id would realize that very few people have ever left that company voluntarily. I’m not embarassed of the fact that I was fired. Hell, when it happened, after an initial period of reasonable shock, I was quite *happy*.

I recently read an article which made mention of the “retirement” of Adrian Carmack from id. To be honest, I had no idea that he’d left in the first place. The article stated that the public version was that he’d taken a voluntary retirement. Makes sense. I mean, how many demon skulls can a guy draw? As it turns out the truth behind his exit was a lot messier. Seems that the vicious internal politics at id finally caught up with him and the other owners “squeezed him out.” Part of their effort to remove him apparently included tracking the hours he worked and eliminating profit dividends (quarterly employee bonuses based on internal review).

Sounds familiar. Same thing happened to Romero. Same thing happened to just about everyone who was let go from id. I wonder if any of the remaining owners see a pattern emerging. I wonder if they care.

The truth is that every firing has had some merit. Everyone that was let go was suffering some form of burnout. I imagine Adrian’s case is no different (although I could be wrong). My problem was that, even though I knew I was burned out, I couldn’t fathom the idea of walking away from such a secure position. So I stayed on, limping along, suffering various abuses, until the owners mercifully ended it.

Funny thing about all this… Adrian *really* hated me. The entire time I worked at id he projected this grudge towards me that to this day is still a mystery. When I was fired I waited until after receiving my final check to ask him, “What did you have against me?” He responded that there wasn’t enough time in the world to explain it. Oh well.

Hey Adrian, the good news is that there is life after id. You might have to learn how to draw something other than demon skulls though.

Read the full Bad Day LA interview here.

Alex Petraglia over at Primotechnology.com has posted a lengthy and informative interview that covers topics from my past, such as Oz and Alice, my present project, Bad Day LA, and a range of other subjects. Worth a read. A truly impressive Bad Day LA concept art/screenshot gallery goes along with it.

McGee’s most current and prolific venture is a title called Bad Day LA. The game, scheduled for release this year, is currently being developed by McGee at Enlight’s studios in Hong Kong. Ever wonder what happens when the most self-indulgent city in the United States gets hit by every natural (and unnatural) disaster ever conceived? McGee banked heavily on the nation’s fear obsession, a condition we have both the government and media to thank for.

In other news, McGee has hinted at a possible movie tie-in for Alice since the game was released in 2000. Those plans are finally officially confirmed. The movie will be directed by Marcus Nispel (the 2003 rendition of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and star Sarah Michelle Gellar as the title character. If all goes according to plan, the movie is on track for a 2006 wide release.

We caught up with the man and myth himself to answer some questions about his past, BDLA, and the future of the industry. Read on.

Continuing this morning’s BDLA posts… John Keefer over at GameSpy has posted his preview thoughts…

GameSpy: Bad Day L.A. Preview
American McGee likes to go against the grain. From his Alice game in 2000 featuring a wonderland on crack to his unfulfilled vision of Oz gone bad, his contrarian views on culture and conventional perceptions definitely cut across the comfort zone of the average person. None of that seems to bother McGee, as he continues to play in the dark, much the way Tim Burton has done in his movies.

John’s understated preview belies the somewhat rambunctious discussion that inspired it. I felt a little uneasy after showing John the game. He didn’t laugh out loud during the preview and didn’t make any immediate comments afterwards. Instead, when I was done, he ushered Sibel (our PR person) and myself out of his office and to some chairs in the GameSpy reception area. Suddenly I felt like I had done something wrong.

I flashed back to when I was in elementary school. I sat outside my house on the front steps with a friend of mine. We were cursing. I can’t remember what we were cursing about; we had only recently discovered these “bad” words and were having a great time playing with them. Suddenly my mother was standing behind us. She startled us badly. We turned to her and she smiled. “Uh-oh”, I thought. I could see “Uh-oh” written on my friend’s face as well. “I have a present for you American”, she said sweetly. Fear was replaced by happy expectation. My friend asked, “Do you have one for me too?” My mother grinned even wider, “Sure. If you want one.” She then asked me to close my eyes and open my mouth. I obliged. Next thing I knew liquid dish soap was being squirted into my mouth. The last I saw of my friend he was flying across my front yard screaming. He wanted none of this “present”. My dirty mouth had been washed with soap. I spat and burped bubbles for an hour.

Over lunch John and I discussed the game, its inspirations, content, and my hopes for its impact on people. John made several interest points about the concept and was generally positive in his views of it. But there was one issue where he took clear exception: foul language. See, every other word out of our main character’s mouth is either four lettered or four lettered with an “ass” attached to it. John’s strong opinion was that this content does nothing to help the game’s message and it doesn’t do much to help the comedy. If anything it could be seen as a comedic crutch and could seriously limit the mass-market appeal.

So now we’re playing with the idea of bleeping the offending dialog. John and my mom will be happy. Will you?