id Software’s Tim Willits and Todd Hollenshead have said in an interview that a PlayStation-playing President will likely lead to a more peaceful world in the future, and that Doom 3 isn’t for everyone.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, id Lead Designer Willits said, “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. It’s just going to happen. One of the things that I see with my kids – I have a 10-year-old – is that they love to play online games and get together, and when they play these games, their world shrinks. They’re solving problems and playing against each other or with each other, amongst all these different cultures and people throughout the world, and 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. So I actually have a brighter outlook on the future based on the social interaction, the social connectivity that we have in videogames in our youth.”
id CEO Hollenshead added, “We’ve always been the first to say that our games aren’t appropriate for all people and I’ll extend that to say that there are lots of games that I don’t think are appropriate for everyone – for small children. If someone’s easily frightened or have nightmares, maybe they shouldn’t play Doom 3. If they’re a fan of Nazis, maybe they shouldn’t play Wolfenstein!”
The pair also touch on numerous other topics, including their time at E3, changes in technology licensing, and the representation of violent videogames in the media. Pointing out that “id hasn’t made games for small children since Commander Keen,” Hollenshead said, “You wouldn’t go get a Quentin Tarantino movie and go, “Oh my God! I can’t believe someone was shot in that film!” because you know there’s Disney for kids and there’s Quentin Tarantino for adults, or there’s Spielberg for everybody.”
The full text of the interview is available here.
