Opinion// There is No Dead Island Controversy

So Dead Island has been announced, and everyone’s going gaga over the trailer. Forgive me for being so blunt, but I fail to see why. Various industry outlets such as MCV and The Guardian are suggesting that it's one of the most controversial teasers in gaming history.

Really? I’ve watched the thing about fifteen times already, just to see if there was something my diminishing brain power could discover. But every time I came to the same conclusion. There is no controversy over the Dead Island trailer.

Here’s the video below, if you’ve not seen it yet. Let it sink in - the camerawork, the setting, the emotional message.



Pretty good, isn’t it? And yet, film and TV drama trailers achieve this very same level of cinematography without breaking a sweat - especially in teasers for zombie films, where practically everyone’s ripe for a munching.

The issue can’t be the fact that a kid’s been turned into a fictional flesh-eating member of the undead. What parent gets nightmares about that? Of course, it can’t be the powerful idea of failing to rescue your child from danger, either. Even in games, that's been covered by Quantic Dreams' Heavy Rain, and there was barely any controversy over that.

Beyond games, this concept has been raised in countless films in the past, most prominently Ransom - so what makes Dead Island, as brilliant a trailer as it is, worthy of discussion in a world where this sort of idea is played out all the time?


CGI? Oh My.

Maybe it’s because of the fact that it tugs at heart strings, yet no gameplay is seen and the final product may well have nothing to do with what we’ve all seen this morning. Are we worried that the trailer will mask a potentially awful game with heart-tugging emotive visual scenes?

CG trailers like these aren't meant to detail gameplay elements and mechanics. Like the thirty-second teaser videos of films like Toy Story 3, these videos simply exist to convey ideas, concepts of an upcoming product. Most times, they have nothing to do with the end result. And if the window-chucking child trailer does have relevance to Dead Island’s storyline, then all the better for it.

Similar themes ran throughout the entirety of the aforementioned Heavy Rain, and yet the reaction to that could not have been any different. It was praised for its artistic direction, and the dare to explore and evolve the traditional point-and-click adventure into an experience that truly immersed players in its world. Who's to say that Techland isn't going to attempt the same thing with Dead Island?


Stereotypes

Naturally, the argument against that is because it's a zombie game and it will likely focus on action-based gameplay. But that shouldn't negate any intention of adding a little sensitivity into the proceedings - especially in a completely fictional environment. I am immediately reminded of the search for Dom's abducted wife in Gears of War 2 - an attempt at sensitivity in a game that's largely balls to the wall, brainless pew-pew action. I am unsure why it's fine for one and not for another.

All this proves is that video game marketing has finally turned a corner and decided to target its audience in a more mature fashion. Not necessarily in terms of content (don't want kiddies seeing flesh-munching zombies after all), but in terms of its approach to selling the product. And at the end of the day, everyone has something to sell. Do movie studios not have a film to sell? Books don't fly off the shelves by themselves.

There will always be conflicting reactions to content presented in this manner, based on one's own experiences and morality. But that shouldn't equal a controversy, otherwise we might as well act this way with almost everything. While I can certainly sympathise with those that feel affected by the content in the Dead Island trailer - or in fact, anything - it shouldn't excuse the fact that it's an original, powerful way of presenting the zombie game genre.


Worth the Fuss?

Maybe that alone is worth the amount of discussion this trailer has generated. After all, as game critics we’re always trying to prove how the industry is growing up and how it’s maturing into a medium that should be respected on the same level as films, books and television drama.

Reacting to something like this as if it's a controversy, when other mediums pull this stuff off effortlessly all the time, is only reinforcing the mainstream opinion that games are for kids and shouldn't be challenging the status quo, like some of the world's greatest films have done.

The Dead Island trailer is a fantastic piece of filmwork. It's visually and emotionally challenging. But it's nothing really special when compared to the film industry, which farts emotive pieces like this during breakfast.

The fact that this trailer has caught so much attention for what it's achieved is a sign that the games industry at large - from those who make the products to those that report on them - truly has a fair way to go to earn the same mainstream respect given to other entertainment mediums.