Konami apparently doesn't agree. Dropping Six Days while still going forward with Saw: The Game is like punishing the kid in class who is asking adult questions while ignoring the kid who is killing the class hamster. Any suggestion that Konami is being high-minded is immediately undercut by releasing a torture porn game based on a series of movies that represent the very worst instincts of American entertainment.

While Konami could have pushed gaming forward by asking gamers to tackle a serious topic with naked realism, instead they copped out and settled for exploiting one of gaming's worst habits -- sinking the survive horror genre to new and more violent depths. Saw: The Game represents what gaming gets dinged for: controversy without substance, the habit for developers to push the envelope without pausing to ask why. These intellectually bankrupt games not only give the industry a bad image, but their unoriginality ensures that actual game progress is stuck in neutral.

Hopefully Atomic games will find a publisher for Six Days in Fallujah. I hope the game's story is handled with objectivity and intelligence, fully realizing that in all likelihood it will be a lightning rod for knee-jerk reactions and (largely) undeserved hate. But like any piece of new art, Six Day in Fallujah has the potential both to draw short sighted critics and later appreciation. In the end, we should encourage this game to not only be released, but as gamers, we should want it to be good. We should want it to ask difficult questions and become such an icon of artistry that it pushes the entire industry forward.