Rock, Paper Shotgun spoke with Battlefield 3's executive producer Patrick Bach about the level of authenticity in the game, and Bach said players won't be able to shoot civilians -- accidentally or otherwise.
"If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side, because people think it's cool to be naughty, they won't be caught…"
Bach said.
"In a game where it's more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child."
Bach said DICE decided to completely remove those types of choices from Battlefield 3 because the studio didn't want to bear the burden of gamers' choices in the media. Instead, DICE is going for a more mature approach in the way it tells its story, Bach said.
"That doesn't mean that I don't want people to feel that war is not good. We are trying to do something that is more mature. Mature not being gore -- some people confuse the two. That's childish actually, to want more blood."
"I think games need to grow up a bit. They will grow with gamers. There will always be games for children – I want games for grown-ups, games I can play. As long as I'm in the business I will make games that I want to play."
Battlefield 3 is in development for Windows PCs, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The game is set for launch on October 25.
Spy Guy says: I'm reminded of the story one gamer father wrote for Bitmob entitled "My Four-Year-Old Son Plays Grand Theft Auto." Curious how his child would play Rockstar's open-world game, the father supervised his son while playing and discovered the kid only wanted to help people, driving fire engines to fires and ambulances to accidents. Check out the article if you get the chance. It's worth the read and goes hand-in-hand with Bach's comments about choice in video games.
