Idle Thumbs is a gaming site written by people who are “…not cynical burnt-out industry veterans, or self righteous Japanese import snobs who want to show off how hardcore they are. We don’t believe replacing perfectly fine English words with French italicized ones is indicative of a higher intelligence. We’re also not “like The Onion, but for games”. Please. Our articles are real.”

Basically they are worth reading. Especially since they are running a cool Bad Day LA interview:

Idle Thumbs: American McGee’s Interview
Satire in games is nothing new. Just take Grand Theft Auto, with all its outrageous talk radio, Ammu-Nation outlets and pop culture parodies. Yet social commentary in games is usually in the details, not fused into their central premise. Bad Day LA’s satire isn’t merely decorative, it’s what the game is all about. – An Interview by Marek Bronstring

“Touch the poop to pick it up.”

Is this government serious? It seems that the US is doomed to fight un-winnable wars. First the war on drugs, then the war on terror, now the war on porn.

FBI forms anti-porn squad

Last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a
new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo from FBI
headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the
top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and, by extension, of “the
Director,” Robert Mueller.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support
staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography
— not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is
marketed to, consenting adults.

“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one exasperated FBI
agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is
not regarded as career-enhancing. “We must not need any more resources for
espionage.”

This is typical of an administration fueled by supposed “Christian Values”, whose base of power is made up of the “righteous right”. A recent article in Harper’s illustrated the hypocricy of that notion:

Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

Where are the wars on poverty, AIDs, illiteracy, or hunger? According to the United Nations Development Program, the cost of providing the most basic needs that go unmet around the world–for food, shelter, clean water, primary education, basic medical care–would be $80 billion a year. The U.S. military will spend five times more than this sum next year alone.

Does the world really need anti-porn squads or government representatives who spend their days trying to put illegal sales controls on video games? This all falls into the same catagory to me: Political WMD. Worthless Media Distraction.

You know, a Declaration of Revocation is what the US needs.

Last week I flew back to the US in order to undertake a Bad Day LA preview press tour. I’d had intentions to write a daily update of the tour but just couldn’t find the time or energy. Anyway… better late than never.

Behind the scenes the tour actually began several weeks before my flight out of Hong Kong. The development team worked furiously to make lots of last minute fixes to critical areas of the game. Emails flew back and forth on topics such as scheduling and strategy. Essentially there is a great mess of noise and confusion, a sense of urgency, a rush to deliver, and then… a simple calendar and a disc with the game and some assets.

I packed my bags…

This is how you bring WMDs into the US from China. Nail clippers. Deadliest of destructive forces. Note the florescent pink packaging, a certain indicator of the awful forces contained within.

So to the airport. On the way there, a quick aside. I think it is important to point out how *easy* it is to enter and exit Hong Kong, and for that matter China. Hong Kong features an awesome express train that travels from the heart of the Central district straight to the airport. You check your bags *before* you’re even within 50 miles of the airport. They vanish, not to be seen again until they tumble off the baggage-go-round at your destination. Same feeling with you, the passenger. Taxi->train->plane. That simple. That is UNLESS you happen to be going to the land of the free, the home of the paranoid. In that case, do NOT effortlessly check bags, do NOT go straight to your departure gate. Instead, lug said bags to the airport, stand in a half-hour x-ray line, then standing in another half-hour ticket line, THEN go to your gate. Whatever, I still brought deadly nail clippers. I blame these guys:

Back to the PR tour.
So the basic idea of a press tour like this is to introduce the press to your product in the hopes that they will say nice things about it and, if you are lucky, write special features to help promote it. These days exposure = success. As I’ve said before, you could have the best video game in the world, but without awareness you’ve got a certain failure. Hence the press tour.

The last press tour I went on was to promote Scrapland. At that time I made some quip about some of the magazine editors in San Francisco being a little sleepy. One response I read said to expect that if showing a “boring” game. Touché. And viva la difference when showing Bad Day LA. Not only did people not seem sleepy, they were genuinely interested, freaked out, and even offended!

Here you see what a press tour looks like, basically. Offices where guys and girls who write video game magazines spend their days uh, writing video game magazines.

The basic drill goes something like this: Arrive in random city, hoping it contains a decent number of video game media outlets. San Francisco and Los Angeles are likely targets. (Don’t forget Minneapolis. In addition to housing the largest indoor mall in the US they also happen to be home to GI. Note Game Informer has some of the coolest offices in the business. They also happen to have a mind numbingly large collection of previously reviewed video games.) Then go from office to office pimping your game. Pray that people don’t fall asleep. Say the same thing over and over in every meeting, trying to act spontaneous and funny, as if you didn’t just say the exact same thing in the previous meeting. Sigh. Then move to the next appointment. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The tough thing about a PR tour (aside from jetlag and the general malaise of travelling) is being “on”. This is what that “sigh” in the previous paragraph is about. The truth is that even if you’re honestly excited about the product that you’re pitching and the people that you’re meeting with you end up saying the same thing over and over again. You tell the same jokes, you make the same references. After a while it becomes a bit automatic, although it is always adjusted a little for each audience. At the end of the day this is the whole *point* of the PR tour, to sell people on the concept of your game as quickly and effectively as possible.

In all, with the help of my trusty PR guide Kyle, I was able to hit 14 outlets in 5 days. The response across the board was the same: surprise, amazement, and serious interest. Everyone we showed the game to *loved it*. To be honest, I was a little surprised. My biggest fears were that people either would not get the humor or that the gameplay would seem overly simple. On both of these points I was wrong. The humor had every person in every meeting laughing constantly (Ok, except one guy, but we suspect he’s a republican. Sorry D.) The gameplay was met with the sorts of comments that I had hoped for, that games these days are “too hard”, “too frustrating”, and generally “not fun”. The simple gameplay in BDLA is meant to alleviate that, harkening back to simpler times. We’ll see if the response holds once these editors get a chance to play hands-on.

Outcome: The Bad Day LA PR tour was a success. I got to see lots of people that I like to see, make them laugh, and give them terrorist weapons.

Sunrise over Victoria Harbour. One good thing about jetlag is that you get to watch the sunrise while the rest of the city sleeps.

If you are interested you can check out full sized images here.

Writer Paul Rice recently wrote an article for the Spare Change News discussing the response that Bad Day LA is garnering from some homeless advocates and coalitions. Seems there is some confusion over stereotypes vs. reality, satirical social commentary vs. uninformed disparagement. Remarks from both sides in the article below…

Video Game Divides Activists
By Paul Rice
Spare Change News

A forthcoming video game has some anti-homelessness activists up in arms over its portrayal of a homeless black man caught in an apocalyptic day in Los Angeles.

“Bad Day L.A.,” currently in development, puts the player in the well-worn shoes of Anthony Williams, a former Hollywood agent who voluntarily rejects the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown to live on the streets and ignore a society he despises.

During the story, the worst possible disasters that could happen to a megalopolis like Los Angeles all occur in a 12-hour period: the release of a bio-weapon that turns people into zombies, meteor showers raining down on skyscrapers, plane crashes and a tsunami, as well as numerous riots induced by such events.

Through all this tribulation, Williams inadvertently finds himself fighting for the lives of people about whom he could care less – people who would normally avoid him at every turn.

Homelessness in the game, however, seems to be more than just a character trait. The first video game to feature a homeless main character, “Bad Day L.A.” is drawing a lot of interest from a variety of communities.

“Do we really want our children to see homeless people as gun-toting, African-American ‘wackos’ and ‘bums,’ despite the failed attempt at some veiled redeeming moral theme?” asks Bob Erlenbusch, head of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness in a letter to city and state officials. The letter calls for Enlight Software, the game’s distributor, to cease production immediately.

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., agrees.

“This is really bad,” he said. “It’s a bad product probably thought up by some people who have stereotypical attitudes and beliefs about low-income and homeless people. We will do all we can to fight it.”

American McGee, the game’s designer, responds by saying that “being homeless is what gives [Anthony] his strength – it is his superpower.”

There are advocates for the homeless who would agree, like Tim Harris, executive director of Real Change News in Seattle. “Alienated homeless guy saves city and reluctantly defends people who normally wouldn’t give him the time of day,” he said. “What’s not to like?”

James Shearer, a formerly homeless person who is a co-founder of and columnist for Spare Change News, shared Harris’ sentiments.

“I’m an activist, but I’m also a realist,” he said. “And there are times when I wish these agencies would just shut up. Bob Erlenbusch is the same type of homeless activist who didn’t want to see Spare Change News survive.”

American McGee is a legendary figure in the gaming community, known for creating unusual, narrative-based gaming. His largest success to date is a game called “Alice,” which let players take on the role of Lewis Carroll’s famous fledgling as she fights her way through a twisted looking glass.

In an interview with SCN, McGee explained his decision to create a homeless main character:

“The choice came out of my initial thoughts about what sort of person would really be able to survive, alone, on the most apocalyptic day this side of Armageddon,” he said. “And when you think about it, the homeless are the closest thing you’ve got to urban survivalists.”

Questioned further on Anthony Williams’ choice to embrace homelessness rather than a rich lifestyle, McGee said: “The concept of ‘homeless by choice’ is something that is alien to Americans who aren’t familiar with homelessness beyond throwing a quarter into a cup from time to time.”

“This game is saying, ‘if you aren’t happy, you have other options. Even options that sound as insane as giving up on everything you’ve ever been told is right. Go and find your own solution.’”

Finding solutions is the only way to progress through a video game. Although “Bad Day L.A.” won’t offer a solution to homelessness, perhaps it will “start a conversation,” as McGee put it. And for some homeless advocates, that’s more than they could ask for.

Leaving Hong Kong this morning for the US. Will be taking Bad Day LA to a variety of game magazines for preview coverage.

Over the past two weeks the development team working on the project has been busting ass to get the demo levels ready. The game I’m leaving with today looks great, plays well, and is a lot of fun. Great work guys!

While on the road I’ll try to do some ‘coverage of the coverage’. It will be interesting to see the first reaction to the game from the press… especially during such a disaster focused time.

First hurdle: Getting a few dozen BDLA 9000 nail clippers past customs in Los Angeles.