Fiction is fiction. Reality, however, is not

The power of fiction should never be underestimated. Fiction, is, if you like, the most powerful gaming engine ever devised -- universes can be created within this vast, cavernous space; rulebooks can be rewritten or simply thrown out. I believe that fiction can and should be used to create individual figurative universes. I also believe that each universe should be tailored to its owner�s specifications: whatever these specifications may be.

However, many appear to disagree with me. Many people believe that fictional worlds are just as dangerous as our own, very real, world, and thusly, just as valid for attack. The gaming industry, for one, has been subject to attacks from these people. We�ve seen games censored, criticised and plain old refused release based purely on the content contained within these fictional universes. The Manhunt series in particular is a prime example of this: do you remember the startlingly rabid attacks the series was known to provoke, dear reader? The metaphorical screams of those given podiums from which to rant and rave?

I laughed at these attacks. Well, I didn�t laugh, but I smirked slyly at the computer screen or the newspaper headline from which I read because, well, the situation was so ridiculous. These people were attacking a fictional universe. An imaginary� thing which, had they chosen to ignore, would otherwise never have bothered them. These people acted as if James Earl Cash was going to knock at their door and execute them brutally for the pleasure of one Lionel Starkweather.

Well, I�ve got news for you. Cash isn�t real. He�s trapped in a flimsy little silver disc with Starkweather and, for that matter, the entire population of Carcer City. It�s time that �these people� -- whoever they may be -- begin to wake up and find some perspective. Real atrocities happen in the real world, the world in which you and I and the faceless masses who found Manhunt and other games like it offensive live in. People walking on the face of this earth right now have committed acts of utter atrocity which would put James Earl Cash to shame -- and you can�t attribute that to the gratuitous violence of the Manhunt series. The fictional world is imaginary; a separate universe which is capable of playing some nasty tricks -- nasty tricks which, nonetheless, have no bearing on the real world. Nasty tricks which are as real as the dark figures seen swarming all over bedrooms around the world in the dead of night -- terrifying acts of mental trickery which always fade with the coming of the morning or, in the case of Manhunt, the switching off of the console.

Wake up.

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LOOK WHO CAME:

Lord Death of Murder Mountain