BY JULIA CORDEROY
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY
A group of software developers in Australia is working on a first person shooter video game. Sounds simple enough-- except in this game, players “shoot” with a camera instead of a gun.
NBC has the scoop...
“It is an indie game developed by Defiant Dev. in Australia. In it, you play journalist Jesse Demarco, who travels Africa and the Middle East searching for story leads, capturing moments on video and piling stories for cable news.”
The idea came from former ABC journalist, Tony Maniaty [pronounce - Manatty]. He told ABC News Australia his game could help budding journalists. But others in the business aren’t impressed by the idea. A reporter for BBC talked with ABC’s PM radio talk show...
“I think it sends a very dangerous message to the young journalists who are coming up: that the best way for them to very quickly make their name is to go to somewhere very dangerous, and hope to get shot at, and then to broadcast that material and hope to make their name. And I guess my concern about this sort of game is that it reinforces that trend. It's a kind of war porn, almost.”
Gamers seem to have mixed feelings on the new game. A writer for Geekology says...
“If Warco is done right, this could be a revolutionary game... it's nice to see video games take a more sensitive viewpoint of war for a change.”
But a writer for Piki Geeks is a bit skeptical the game will even be worth playing.
“While Warco looks to be one of the most unique recent entries into an over saturated FPS [First Person Shooter] market, it still remains to be seen whether or not the game will be actually be fun.”
Defiant Development is currently looking for a publisher for "Warco." There has been no word on an expected release date.
