9/11 And The Arcades...

[gamernerdtg2]

I've asked this on another site, but I'll ask it here:
Is anyone old enough to remember if 9/11 had any effect on the gaming industry in terms of content or censorship in any way, for any length of time?

I ask b/c there was an arcade around my area that shut down shortly after the attacks.
Perhaps the closing of the arcade and the attacks were related by coincidence, but maybe someone here knows differently.

I remember how Peter Jackson got in trouble for the 2nd Lord of the Rings Movie b/c it was called "The Two Towers" and there was also something going on with Spiderman...they had a scene involving the Trade Center Towers that was taken out.

 

[Frezzato]

I don't recall any adverse effects on arcades after 9/11, but arcades in general had been dying out for over a decade beforehand. I think it was the introduction of both the PS2 and original Xbox that did them in, simply because of the convenience and level of graphics that were attainable at an affordable price.

I think the last time I set foot in an arcade, someone had set up two original Xboxes in a corner. They were system linked and running Halo: CE in deathmatch. Yeah, two-player deathmatch. It was really sad, a final, desperate grasp at getting kids in to drop $10 per hour of play. Personally, I could never get over the fact that most arcade machines even before 2001 were costing in excess of $1 per play--sometimes more.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, there's been a sudden surge of games in which you shoot middle eastern people.

9/11 revenge fantasies sell well.

 

[Cheesepower5]

I was always offended when people would call 9/11 "the greatest disaster in the history of Earth" or compare it to important events in world history, like World War 2. Hell, the response to 9/11 caused significantly more needless death than 9/11 itself. And why? To distract people from real issues and wage holy war for oil. I mean, it's exploited so horribly, and then you go watch the History Channel and they're talking it up as this big world changing event on some bullshit program about Notradamus of all people... The fact is, 9/11 is only important because we make it important. People die every day in attacks, accidents and all that stuff.

So if it did have any effects on gaming, I would rather they be left unsaid. Better to honour the deaths of those killed with solemnity than with sensationalism.

 

[Zhukov]

The fact is, 9/11 is only important because we make it important.

Which means it is important.

If enough people believe something is important and act as if it is important then that thing is important, regardless of what it is or how many people died.

On the other hand, comparing 9/11 to WWII in terms of historical impact is of course utterly absurd.

 

[Full]

I remember hearing that Hideo Kojima cut a part in MGS2 that featured the Twin Towers getting destroyed, because the game came out literally in the same week as the attacks.

Can't think of anything else.

 

[Soopy]

The fact is, 9/11 is only important because we make it important.

Which means it is important.

If enough people believe something is important and act as if it is important then that thing is important, regardless of what it is or how many people died.

On the other hand, comparing 9/11 to WWII in terms of historical impact is of course utterly absurd.

9/11 made exactly zero difference to my life. It has not effected the way I live in any shape or form.

Oh wait, yeah it did. Every year I get a week worth of conspiracy crap on the TV and poor 3D animations of some towers falling over.

Many condolences to victims families, but yeah. America=/=World.

 

[Strelok]

I recall something, but I am not sure if it was movie or a game, that had to be cut just after and it delayed the release. I don't remember the reason for the cut though. The shock of the event over shadowed any of the other events at the time, I had a friend abroad and she couldn't return to Canada for several months because of it.

 

[Amir Kondori]

It was likely coincidence, as arcades have been on the decline for two decades in this country. I remember reading about some game that had the twin towers in some scene but they removed them.

 

[Soopy]

It was likely coincidence, as arcades have been on the decline for two decades in this country. I remember reading about some game that had the twin towers in some scene but they removed them.

I think that was a movie, Spiderman perhaps?

 

[Leemaster777]

It was likely coincidence, as arcades have been on the decline for two decades in this country. I remember reading about some game that had the twin towers in some scene but they removed them.

I think that was a movie, Spiderman perhaps?

Yeah, Spiderman had an entire scene cut from the entire movie. It featured a bank robbery that lead into a helicopter chase, where Spiderman caught the helicopter in a giant web... spun between the twin towers. Parts of this is still visible in some of the earlier trailers.

I'm not sure if it had any effect on arcades, but I'm aware of a flight-sim game that ended up getting canned altogether because of the attacks (apparently because you could crash the planes into buildings).

 

[Requia]

Well, there's been a sudden surge of games in which you shoot middle eastern people.

9/11 revenge fantasies sell well.

Any former or current enemy of the United States be it Nazis, the Viet Cong, the Soviets, and everybody inbetween make good villains, although Nazis are by far the easiest to get away with because no one will defend Nazis.

That's just obvious.

Personally, I'd like an Assassin's Creed game set during the Civil War, but that might be asking too much. To see Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain give his "Stand Firm, Ye Boys From Maine" mini-speech at the Battle of Little Round Top rendered in modern graphics would be epic.

I'd like to see a Call of Duty game game where you kill Nazi's as a *Russian*. I'm sure at least one head will explode as a result.

 

[Mocmocman]

I'd like to see a Call of Duty game game where you kill Nazi's as a *Russian*. I'm sure at least one head will explode as a result.

Call of Duty Finest Hour. Sure it was back in 2004, but you start at Stalingrad.

OT: Don't know about arcades, but I remember radio stations were asked not to play songs from a certain list, and every single song by Rage Against The Machine made said list.

 

[tilmoph]

Arcades were already dead in my town. They were never really big to begin with. There were some attempts (I still have a game token from the one up at the mall) but they never really caught on. If we wanted to play video games, we stayed home. If we were out, we weren't playing video games, except for the ones at the grocery store when our moms were buying food.

I can't remember any kind of censorship in games post-9/11, except for a period in entertainment in general where everyone was pretending the twin towers didn't exist, and were digitally removing them from everything they could.

Also

Is anyone old enough to remember if 9/11 had any effect on the gaming industry in terms of content or censorship in any way, for any length of time?

"Is anyone old enough"?! I am not that old, dammit! It was only 12 years ago!

 

[Neverhoodian]

First of all, the way the question is worded makes me feel old. Just because I was in high school when it happened doesn't mean I'm a geezer now. I realize anyone over the age of 25 has one foot in the grave by the internet's standards, but I like to think I still have a number of years left.

Arcades had been going out of style for quite some time already prior to 9/11. It was simply a coincidence that the one in your down shut down shortly after the event.

The fallout from 9/11 in my hometown pretty much boiled down to everyone and their mother putting American flags on anything and everything. I became thoroughly sick of it very quickly, as I felt it was a hollow gesture at best, and desecrating the flag at worst (who the hell thought American flag drapes was somehow patriotic?). I also remember nobody laughing at the quarantine segments of Monsters Inc. because the anthrax scares were going on around the same time.

I'd like to see a Call of Duty game game where you kill Nazi's as a *Russian*. I'm sure at least one head will explode as a result.

You mean CoD 1, CoD 2 and CoD: Finest Hour?

 

[Ishigami]

Is anyone old enough to remember if 9/11 had any effect on the gaming industry in terms of content or censorship in any way, for any length of time?

Microsoft delayed the release of Flight Simulator 2002 from September 2001 to october 2001 to remove the WTC Twin Towers and avoid bad press.
While this could be interpreted as self censorship (like with the Spiderman movie) it is most likely just that since the towers are gone they were no VFR landmark any more nor an obstacle to IFR.

Microsoft Flight Simulator also received critic for having served as training tools for the terrorist and some shops removed it from their inventory.

Nothing lasting though because all of this is so fucking stupid.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

So if it did have any effects on gaming, I would rather they be left unsaid. Better to honour the deaths of those killed with solemnity than with sensationalism.

I'm more concerned with the immediate impact it had, if anything. It's been 12 years or so since it happened so I don't expect anything to be done today[u/]...although you'd be hard pressed to find a game situated in NYC after they were built and before they were destroyed. I think the Spiderman game for PS2 had them... I can't remember.

It's not sensational to remove images of the towers from mass media outlets, or in games. It's respectful. It was a big deal b/c those were big-ass buildings, and they used to define the city skyline. It was weird for a long time. An Israeli man actually told me that he felt safer in Israel than he did in NYC if you can believe that.

I certainly do understand the travesties that are committed via American media, but if they were actually accurate (meaning that they reported everything without bias as they gain the information) no one would watch the news. Your comments go well beyond the scope of this thread, but I appreciate them.