So, as a gamer and sometimes-player of WoW (Word of Warcraft – I went from widow, to occasional player to utterly sick of being bugged for money in Azeroth and back to a widow of the game when work and studies kicked back in), I like to keep an eye on new developments from companies like Blizzard. Especially sequels to Starcraft…. which leads me to ponder about what’s up next. Also – why do we feel free to censor games and yet allow supposedly real ‘ghosts’ in mainstream media?
Starcraft: Ghost. I waited a long time for this – and you may recall the first hint of release back in 2002! The problem appeared to be the challenge of convincing that a real-time strategy-based game could turn into a first-person shooter. Although World of Warcraft is more like a third-person, ‘Diablo style’ sort of game, it is its own game as opposed to what would be a rather different interpretation of the Starcraft world.
Sorry, but I liked being able to move my Zergs merrily across the planet in one destructively-chirping clump. The game is now listed amongst a list of ‘Most Delayed Games Ever‘ and it’s not surprising. What Would Kerrigan Do? 
Originally planned for PS2, Xbox and GameCube time soon ran out on the game and in 2006 Blizzard officially gave it the kibosh by announcing it was on ‘indefinite hold’. Two words that always guarantee the kiss of death.
I now wonder if they released it and got complaints about violent content, would it have helped? It’s something Wired Magazine reflects upon after an article published in the New York Times:
It is clear by now that violence in video games is thought more pernicious than comparable violence in more traditional media. Just look at coverage of Halo, the top-selling science-fiction series that is akin to ?Star Wars? in its level of made-up mayhem. In the mainstream media Halo is often described as a ?violent space epic? or a ?violent shoot-?em-up game.? But when was the last time ?Star Wars? was described as George Lucas?s ?violent space movie?? For that matter, when was the last time anyone referred to ?The Sopranos? as a ?shoot-?em-up television show,? which at some level it was?… The answer to both questions is basically never, and that is because American culture has become so inured to violence in linear media that even the most heinous depictions of brutality go almost without comment.
Which raises another question in my mind. Although we’re more than willing to recognise the fictional elements (indeed, science fiction and fantasy) that make Starcraft and World of Warcraft popular… why do we have hardly any complaints about the potentially hysteria-making shows like ‘Ghost Hunter’? They propose to be fact, don’t they?
They may not have Jim Raynor despairing over the destruction of worlds but they certainly have real people despairing in vain as John Edward smirks through some cold-reading sessions. Something I hope to study in the future – the influence of popular media on beliefs via both online, television and gaming mediums.
Sometimes I think we should just combine the lot and see how John Edward’s disclaimer at the end of his show would benefit with an additional ” … if you believe any of this, then you’re probably thinking Starcraft: Ghost is a good idea too…”.
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