09/20/2001

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

Electronic game producers across the country are moving quickly to erase images that might evoke memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Companies sent workers scurrying to excise New York City and Pentagon action scenes from finished products. At least one flight simulator maker ordered elimination of virtual aircraft approaches to the World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks, and delayed the release of its latest version. And game makers, often derided for their violent content in fantasy worlds, have begun a period of "intense introspection" over their products, said the president of the industry's major trade association.

"Everything has changed for everyone and every enterprise."

Electronic Arts (www.ea.com) abruptly took down its hit online game, Majestic, the evening after the attacks. The game, which uses Web sites, clue-bearing phone calls, e-mail and other electronic contacts with players to thrust them into a shadowy conspiracy, was "temporarily suspended," according to a message on the game's Web site (www.majestic.ea.com).

Majestic spokesman Jerry Schmitz said the decision was made out of fear that some of the communications with players might unduly frighten the unprepared. "Some have phone calls with a woman screaming," said Mr. Schmitz. "We felt that could be unnerving."

Mr. Schmitz said play resumed Tuesday after all subscribers were notified and asked to manually request its resumption.

On Arush Entertainment's online gaming site (www.arushgames.com), images of Duke Nukem battling his way through New York City near the World Trade Center were taken down, said Jim Perkins, company president and CEO. The images had been part of a promotion for the upcoming release of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. The release will feature eight "huge, all-new battle missions in the Big Apple," in which Duke becomes a hero as he saves the city from dastardly aliens.

"We removed that out of respect for the families," said Mr. Perkins. "And we're constantly talking about this situation and our content. At this point, we haven't made any sudden decisions other than take that image off our Web site."

Dallas-based 3D Realms and its parent company, Apogee Software Ltd., said no changes would be made in the hit PlayStation 2 game Max Payne, which takes place entirely in New York.

"We're really not affected," said Scott Miller, founder and co-owner of 3D Realms. He said none of the action scenes presents destruction of the cityscape during Max Payne's crusade to avenge the death of his family at the hands of a drug-crazed gang.

Elsewhere, a Microsoft spokesman said its upcoming Flight Simulator 2002 will be altered to erase the World Trade Center. The office towers will be replaced by open space, a spokesman told Reuters.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that the game's release would be delayed.

Microsoft said it would release a patch next week for previous Flight Simulator games that will remove part of the video introduction referring to an airplane-skyscraper collision. Some retailers in the United Kingdom have removed the game from shelves. U.S. retailers have reported no similar moves.

Care is also being taken with game packaging.

Electronic Arts said this week that retailers would be offered revised box art for the year-old strategy game Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 as well as the Yuri's Revenge Expansion Pack. Original artwork featured scenes of well-known U.S. monuments in the midst of a futuristic war.

To many, the efforts seem appropriate.

"It's completely understandable," said Leonard Jason, DePaul University professor of psychology and a researcher on the subject of computer game violence. "I think things might have changed. There might be a change on the issues of violence in our society now."

But others viewed the alterations as knee-jerk overreactions.

"So let's do like they did in Columbine and blame the video games!" wrote Lizard on Cluebot. com ("Politics. Technology. Get a Clue"). "Next, I suppose, Tom Clancy will be in for it – he wrote a book featuring terrorists piloting a plane into Congress, which no one can prove the plotters in this case didn't read."

In fact, Ubi Soft Entertainment announced Tuesday that it would delay the Oct. 9 release of its next Tom Clancy game, Rogue Spear: Black Thorn, where players fight terrorists and rescue hostages. The company said the game's content would be altered.

The industry is planning today for titles that will be released in 2002 and beyond, Mr. Lowenstein said.

"That can put some companies into some very difficult positions if things have to be changed," he said. "Just like every company in America, we're going through a process of re-examination. You ask yourself questions you never have before.

"None of us knows what's going to happen tomorrow right now, let alone a week or a year from now. And we don't know yet how consumer preference will change, but that will obviously have an impact on us and our future."