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开发商Owlchemy Labs谈政治争议游戏《偷渡卡车》

发布时间:2011-02-18 12:38:22 Tags:,,,,

时下最具争议性的手机游戏《偷渡卡车》(Smuggle Truck)的故事描述是:“……游戏灵感来自于几个朋友移民美国的失败经历。大多数主流媒介都避开了这个敏感话题,电子游戏行业尤其如此,但我们认为批评这一现象的最好方式就是开发一个相关的讽刺作品。”

玩家在《偷渡卡车》中的任务是驾驶卡车穿越颠簸的地带,尽可能护送移民者穿越“虚拟的边境”。但这款游戏却招遇了纽约移民联盟(New York Immigration Coalition)代表以及不少Facebook用户的口诛笔伐。

实际上,许多对此不满的组织成员之前也都是移民,他们认为这款游戏的娱乐元素,淡化了移民者的艰难处境。

Smuggle Truck

Smuggle Truck

麻萨诸塞州移民和难民权益联盟(Massachusetts Immigrants & Refugee Advocacy Coalition)成员Eva Millona 表示,“去年,有170名人在试图越境时死亡……利用这一悲剧赚钱的开发商,很可耻,游戏轻视了这个严重的问题。”

据游戏邦了解,《偷渡卡车》的原型是2010年8月诞生的波斯顿堵塞游戏“Immigration Jam”,Owlchemy并未仅仅停留在堵塞现象的层面。该团队目前正和许多麻萨诸塞州的移民改革组织进行沟通,想就这话题达成一个富有建设性的结果。

此外,Owlchemy表示他们正努力让学生移民运动这种支持移民的团体参与其中,并与麻萨诸塞州移民改革联盟(Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform)的主任Steve Kropper进行探讨,Kropper表示,“如果《偷渡卡车》可以让更多人关注这一问题,那么民主人士就会开始探讨解决问题的办法。”

据游戏邦了解,团队并未就这一负面新闻接受任何采访,但已发表了一个公开声明:“我们希望开发一个好玩的游戏,但同时希望游戏能够激发人们讨论如何改善美国不够健全的移民系统。”

不过,该公司创始人亚历克斯·施瓦茨(Alex Schwartz)最近终于接受了Gamasutra的采访,他就项目进展情况及游戏产生的影响发表了自己的观点。

Smuggle Truck

Smuggle Truck

你们的游戏在网站、游戏平台和发行商中分别引起了什么反应,游戏的传播性如何?

当我们的游戏登上TouchArcade的首页时(在报纸和电视报道之前),就有许多主要的iOS发行商和我们联络。经过一系列的讨论,我们决定自己发行游戏,一来是为了保持我们的独立传统,二来也是为了建立我们自己的品牌。

有很多人表示想要帮我们创作游戏音乐或者预告片,但我们已经有合适的人选了。其他人申请的工作内容也都合乎常理,我们并没有发现什么奇怪的请求。

媒体报道是否影响了玩家对游戏的看法?

我认为玩过这款游戏的人,自然会形成自己的看法,他们不会到受媒体炒作的影响。

被媒体曝光之后,苹果是否有和你们沟通过?

苹果现在还没有表态,所以我想在游戏投放App Store之前,他们应该不会有任何评论。至于苹果是否会接受我们的游戏,我始终认为我们的游戏是对现实的讽刺,人们应该以此来评价我们的游戏。

smuggle-truck

smuggle-truck

如果除去移民元素,你觉得这款游戏还会有趣吗?

从我们的测试反馈资料来看,它的游戏机制很有趣,很富有挑战性。卡车后面的物体并没有改变游戏的设置,它增添了信息和主题,可以加强用户的黏性。

有人开玩笑说要更换卡车后面的东西,他们给我们发送了一些建议,“如果苹果不让你们通过应用审核,那就把卡车上的货物变成毒品,或者弹药。”我很好想知道媒体会如何看待这个问题,这两种方法其实都是走私,难道换了东西,就会让其中一种看起来更具有政治正确性吗?

这款游戏引发的争议,是不是引起了人们对移民问题的高度关注?

我们希望媒体能够报道游戏。我们也知道人们会这种创意议论纷纷。我们一直都希望移民改革能够引起关注,我们希望人们讨论这一话题。

你们团队对移民问题持什么态度?

当前的合法移民系统存在一些严重的问题,需要进行改革。我们认为,改革能够减轻人们对非法移民的压力,让大家在移民时能有更多的合法选择。

至于有关改革过程的细节问题,我们目前正和许多麻萨诸塞州的移民改革团体合作讨论,找出改革最核心的问题所在。

你知道还有哪些游戏也是针对社会问题的?

很明显,《愤怒的小鸟》(Angry Birds )就和纽约自杀性爆炸事件有关。

《偷渡卡车》一开始就有计划发布网页版本吗?

在我们决定为游戏开发一个关卡编辑器后,我们就开始构思自己希望添加的功能。我们想要有一个聊天系统,一个关卡分享系统,以及一个中央定位器,用来访问网页版本的关卡编辑器。

经过一番观察,我们发现Kongregate已经支持所有的这些功能,它的Unity Game Contest计时器再好不过了。网页版本的游戏可获取更多终端用户,以便玩家独立对游戏做出评价。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Interview: Owlchemy Labs Talks Smuggle Truck’s ‘Newsgame’ Controversy

[As Boston-area indie Owlchemy Labs releases a playable demo of its 'newsgame' Smuggle Truck on Kongregate, the creators have been talking to Gamasutra about the controversy over the web and upcoming iOS game's U.S. immigration-centric content.]

As the Smuggle Truck story page explains, the game “…was inspired by the frustration our friends have experienced in trying to immigrate to the United States. With such a troublesome issue being largely avoided in popular media, especially video games, we felt the best way to criticize it was with an interactive satire.”

The goal in Smuggle Truck is to get as many immigrants across “a fictional border” by navigating a truck across a bumpy terrain, and large media outlets such as Fox News have taken the statements of a New York Immigration Coalition representative and negative Facebook comments on Owlchemy’s page and given them high-profile coverage.

Interestingly, a number of the complaining organizations are pro-immigration, and believe that the game trivializes the plight of immigrants.

In a local Fox report, Eva Millona of Massachusetts Immigrants & Refugee Advocacy Coalition said, “Last year, 170 human beings died crossing the border… it’s disgraceful that anyone would try to make money out of this tragedy by making light of it in a game.”

Smuggle Truck was originally prototyped during a Boston game jam dubbed “Immigration Jam” in August 2010, but Owlchemy hasn’t stopped with just a game jam. The team is meeting with multiple immigration reform groups in Massachusetts to help create a productive discussion about the topic.

In addition, Owlchemy stated they are actively engaging pro-immigrant group Student Immigrant Movement and have also talked with Steve Kropper, co-director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform. “If Smuggle Truck makes more people talk about the issue, democracy will take care of solving the problem,” said Kropper.

The team has since avoided responding to any interview requests regarding the backlash, other than a public statement that “we want to create a game that is fun to play but also stirs up discussion on ways to improve the problematic immigration system in the United States”.

But founder Alex Schwartz spoke to us about what’s happened so far and how they’re hoping their title can make a difference:

What were reactions and outreach for your game from websites, platforms, and publishers?

When we hit the front page of TouchArcade (before the newspaper and TV spots started to hit), we were contacted by a couple of major iOS publishers. After lots of discussion, we decided to self-publish, both to stay close to our indie roots and to begin to build our brand.

We also received offers from people who wanted to help create the game’s music or trailer, but we already had those positions covered. Other than that and the normal influx of job applications and the like, we didn’t see too many strange requests come out of the woodwork.

Has the media changed the opinion of the game for anyone who has played it or seen it previously?

I think players will draw their own opinions of the game once they play it instead of buying into the more sensationalist media hype.

Has Apple communicated with you since the media scandal?

Apple is very tight lipped in general, so I’m sure they won’t comment on the game until it’s submitted. As for whether we think we’ll be approved by Apple, we’re confident that our final presentation of the game will properly reflect the satire and that it will be judged as such.

Would the game be more or less fun without the immigrant gimmick?

What we’ve gathered from tester feedback is that the mechanics are fun and challenging. What happens to be drawn on the sprites for the items in the back of the truck doesn’t change the gameplay in any significant way. It does however augment the message and the theme, which can affect a player’s engagement with the game.

People joke about changing the contents of the truck by sending us comments like “Hey, if you don’t get approved by Apple, just change the truck cargo to drugs, or ammunition.” Personally, I would be interested in seeing how the press reacted to that, as in, is one type of smuggling any more or less politically correct than another?

How much of this is a cleverly orchestrated play for attention?

We expected press to pick up on the game. We also knew that people would remark on the concept and spread the buzz. It’s been our public intention all along to bring the issue of immigration reform to light and to kickstart the process of getting people discussing it.

How does your team feel about the immigration issue?

There are major issues with the current system in place for legal immigration. It requires serious reform. We feel that with reform, the pressures that drive illegal immigration can be lessened, and more people will have a legal choice when it comes to immigration.

As for the details and specifics of the reform process, we’re currently working with multiple immigration reform groups in Massachusetts to figure out how to best focus the discussions toward relevant reform topics.

What other games can you think of that have tackled any social issues in the past?

Well, apparently Angry Birds is about suicide bombing New York.

Was a web-based version always planned for Smuggle Truck?

Once we decided to create a level editor for the game that would act as a platform for the game launch, we started planning what features we’d want. We wanted a chat system, a level sharing system, and one central location for accessing the web version of the level editor.

After looking around, we realized Kongregate already supported all of these features and the timing of the Unity Game Contest couldn’t have been better. A web-based version gets the game into the hands of the players so they can judge it for themselves. (Source:Gamasutra)


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