Above: Michael Block, programmer and founder of Culture Shock Games.
GamesBeat: Was it also intended as something that might inspire people from the neighborhood?
Thornton: Yes. Like I say, I was talking about Michael’s intended audience. But after coming to the game, I told him that I felt this was something people in the neighborhood could gravitate to as well. We all like to see ourselves portrayed, on TV and film or wherever. When we’re not included—why do I want to see the movies when I’m never in the movies? Why should I want to watch a show that doesn’t speak to my reality? When there’s this inclusiveness—I say all the time that the most wonderful sound in any language is your name. Now my friends and family who know about the game are anxious to try it for themselves.
We’ve done beta tests with kids playing the game. They’ve definitely said that it rings true. They’ve said, “My life is like this. These are things I have to deal with every day.” It’s relevant to the people who live in those areas and languish under those conditions.
GamesBeat: In some ways, it’s surprising that this story hasn’t been told in a game before.
Thornton: I don’t pretend to be an expert on games, but there’s a lot of action in popular games like Grand Theft Auto. A lot of that action is violent. Kids are shooting up zombies and everything else. You’d think that was hard to compete with. The market is driven in that direction, just like in the movies or the music industry. There’s a lot of other music besides gangsta rap, guys saying “bitch” and “nigger” and everything else. There’s a lot of positive rap out there. But it doesn’t get air play. Likewise with games. Maybe there’s a market for this that nobody knew about.
Above: A mother worries about her son in We Are Chicago.
GamesBeat: How much of the story is personalized in some way?
Thornton: I largely drew from my own life. Aaron, our protagonist, is just like me. When I found out the particulars—okay, this guy isn’t involved with gangs. He’s a good kid. He’s a writer, a poet. That’s me. I’ve been writing poetry since I was maybe 15 years old. So yes, I identified heavily with him, and much of my experience is written into the story. His mother is like my mother. His father, although his father has died in the story, is like my father. His sister is like my sister. His buddies are just like the friends I grew up with. And they have to make the same sort of decisions we were faced with.
GamesBeat: Do you feel like the path you have to take through those decisions is obvious? Or is it a little foggy or fuzzy in some ways?
Thornton: It depends on the player, whether or not the right option to choose is clear. When you’re playing a game, as opposed to living through the experience in real life, there’s a huge difference. There are lots of gray-shaded areas in real life.
I had a friend who felt pressured to join a gang — and he was the only one of our circle who ever did join a gang – because on a particular day he was by himself and he was confronted. He couldn’t fight or dissent, so when they said, “We want you at this meeting Thursday, and if you don’t show up we’re going to come looking for you,” he was swept up in something that he didn’t have a choice in. In the game, though, it just depends on who you are – if you’re going to take the easy way out, or if you’re going to hold fast to the morality you’ve been taught. “This is wrong, and under no circumstances will I choose this option, because it goes against what I’ve been taught.”
GamesBeat: What about the place? It’s not based on an exact map of Chicago, but how authentic do you feel the locations are?
Thornton: One example, they’re accosted near a school that I attended. That’s in the game. Some specific locations are quite authentic.
GamesBeat: It still has to be fictionalized to some degree, I suppose? You don’t necessarily want to use real-world businesses or specific homes.
Thornton: The look and feel of the game is very authentic, but yes. In terms of naming particular businesses, those are fictionalized.
Above: Taylor is Aaron’s younger sister in We Are Chicago.
GamesBeat: Seeing the finished product now, what do you think about how it’s turned out?
Thornton: I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen. The things that I brought to the game I think were much-needed. I used to talk about the fact that our neighborhoods, on any given block on the west or south sides of Chicago—you’re in California, correct? My daughter attends USC, and when I went to USC, I saw a lot of the same things there as here, the urban blight.
On the south and west sides of Chicago, on any given block you’ll see four or five boarded-up houses, four or five vacant lots, no thriving businesses. You’ll see stores you wouldn’t really want to go in. Nothing like what you see in upscale neighborhoods and gentrified neighborhoods. It’s like a desert. You’ve heard of food deserts? There are neighborhoods where you have to travel quite a ways to get to a grocery store, which means that the money you’re spending doesn’t circulate in your neighborhood. All the things you need for you subsistence, you have to go to other neighborhoods to buy them, and the money you spend ends up in those other neighborhoods. Your neighborhood just gets poorer and poorer.
Those boarded-up houses bring homeless people who go in and squat in those places, drug addicts who shoot up in those houses. The abandoned homes become dangerous. At the very least they’re eyesores, driving down the value of houses on the block. When they end up on a demolition list, they mark those with red Xes. That was one thing I pointed out to Michael, driving through the neighborhood – look at the houses with the red Xes. What type of psychological effect does it have on kids to not only see on this blight, but then see that? That has to have a lasting effect on their psyche. He incorporated that into the game. You’ll see houses with red Xes in the game world.
GamesBeat: He mentioned that there was a point in the game where there’s a gunshot, and the family doesn’t really react to it, because it doesn’t sound like it’s nearby. Nobody would be shocked to hear that in the general area.
Thornton: That’s the reality of the situation. From time to time you do hear gunshots, so you become an expert at judging the distance. If it’s close, you take some kind of protective action. There’s a saying, that bullets don’t have names on them. Just because they’re shooting at one person doesn’t mean another won’t get hit by a stray bullet. There have been many recorded instances where someone is in their living room, just enjoying the safety and sanctity of their home, and they get shot.
GamesBeat: Michael mentioned that it was something that his own staff didn’t understand. You had to step in and make them aware.
Thornton: Absolutely, yes. There were a few instances like that, where being raised in that environment—I’d routinely have to say, “No, that doesn’t ring true. Black folks, we wouldn’t do that. We wouldn’t say that. We’d react this way.” I was the voice of experience.