Cahiers du Jeu Video 03 - Légendes Urbaines ( Pix N Love Edition )

In his super-chic home, Tim is quietly watching TV while thinking about the next home cinema he might buy. Nancy is overwhelmed by the nagging televisions that downgrade her happiness gauge while boosting that of her husband, whose main occupation is to do everything in his power to leave them to her. So far, a model family. But that doesn't take into account the sinister surprise of a late afternoon that is maturing under Tim's horrified gaze: a horde of tramps seem to emerge from the mouth of the drain. In the face of this utterly incongruous scene, he almost begins to doubt his own lucidity. Could these monsters be attacking his fortress of comfort? And why should they blame him? And yes, American superburbs are only peaceful on the surface, there's always a corpse in the wardrobe. The Americans in The Sims are all the nicer, while the tramps in Condemned seem creepy or terrifying. For every game that pushes us à into the clothes of the clerics of power, there's always another to déveil the other side of the décor. An underworld overrun with oppressive puppets: ill-famed gangs, aggressive punks and lawless pimps.

The Sims, Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy are on the surface hardly comparable. But they are all modern legends about the city. And the utopias, anxieties and nostalgias that we project onto them. 

In pixel cities, nothing is said, everything is experienced. In oldies games, a simple scrolling of the screen is enough to highlight the divide between rich and poor. As for reconquering the areas that have been left behind, this can only be done by radically rethinking the way the world works;by radically rethinking  gameplay (Mirror’s Edge, Skate). But the real evolution of the citizen games is to create persistent worlds that question the city model. Their spirit, however, is not far removed from what reality, fortunately, condemns us to: living together. Another legend?