Next Generation is reporting that an Office Massacre game has been announced by UK mobile game developer Alten8.

This, of course, isn't terribly surprising — like Running With Scissors' Postal games, this is a company trying to turn a profit by way of the old "even bad publicity is good publicity" adage. Personally, I don't think I mind: although gamers tend to get frustrated when companies like this gleefully attempt to garner up yet another Senate hearing on the negative effects of video game violence, we don't really see much difference between playing a game where you shoot sprites that are supposed to represent co-workers and a game where you shoot polygons that are supposed to represent demons from hell or effeminate elves. In both games, your supposed acts of violence are imaginary, directed against imaginary targets far removed from life.

The crux of the issue should not be the content of a game, any more than the content of a film or novel should determine its value. The fact of the matter is that no matter what you shoot in a game, its imaginary, its escapism, it has no relevance to the way you behave in real life. So while it is slightly obnoxious that a company is attempting to sell a shitty game based upon notoriety that just gives more ammunition to those already against gaming, we hope that releasing these sorts of games will challenge the underlying erroneous assumption that games, no matter what the content, affect a gamer's own sense of morality.

Office Massacre Game Announced [Next Generation]

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