PlayStation-playing President will give us acceptance, says id

Sensationalism and misunderstanding are to blame for the current controversy over games like Manhunt but there are reasons to be optimistic about the future, id Software has told GamesIndustry.biz.

"I believe that as our generation and our kids get older and older, eventually we will have a president that had a PlayStation growing up," id lead designer Tim Willits argued in an interview published today. "It's just going to happen."

"I believe that when our kids get older and become the politicians of the future, it will probably be a more peaceful world because they have grown up knowing that they can just play with people from China or Russia and everyone's the same and everyone solves problems together."

Asked about the mainstream press and political response to game violence, id CEO Todd Hollenshead said: "I think the media is always looking for stuff to make headlines, and they sensationalise things. They take something that they know will make news and they run with it and then figure out whether it's true or not later."

"I think that the wider videogame market doesn't understand that they're not just for kids, they're for adults too. That's where paranoia and lack of rationality comes into it," he added.

Hollenshead pointed to influential changes being made today as examples of what needs to be taken into consideration. "From a console standpoint being able to lock out that content by the parental controls stuff that's embedded in all the consoles now is.. The industry is doing that stuff," he observed. "Even on the PC platform."

Ultimately though, he said, a lot of it comes down to another, oft-overlooked factor: "These are activities that are going on in people's homes, which is where the parents, generally, should be and have an opportunity to supervise the activity."

For more of Hollenshead and Willits' views, including their reflections on the E3 Media & Business Summit and the changing face of technology licensing, read the rest of the id Software interview.