PERSPECTIVE
Unreliable Narrator
Exploring stories in games and the art of telling tales
SAM BARLOW
T he silver lining of lockdown is that I have gone a whole 12 months without having to answer innocently phrased questions about my thoughts on “violent videogames”. These conversations are most difficult because I’m never quite sure what I actually think. Easy enough for me as Mr Indie Story Games to dump on Call Of Duty and take the moral high ground. But do I want to? With other media I’m the first to leap to the defence of violence, artistic or otherwise; I’ll quote David Cronenberg talking about A History Of Violence and how he needs to mediate his relationship to the violence that exists in much of the world. But are games different? In the absence of dinner-party chat to hash it out, this topic has been on my mind. I’ve just started work on a new game and it’s one that will let players fight and kill. It’s been a minute since I’ve had to wrestle with these ideas, and my mind is a jumble.