Moral Kombat

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Moral Kombat

Directed by	Spencer Halpin
Produced by	Spencer Halpin, Ramy Katrib
Written by	Steven Kent, Skylar James
Starring	David Walsh, Jack Thompson, Michael Rich, Lorne Lanning, Greg Fischbach, Dean Takahashi, Jef Griffiths, John Marmaduke, Pamela Eakes, Andy McNamara, Greg Ballard, Bob McKenzie, American McGee, Hal Halpin, Dave Grossman, Phil O'Neil, Marie Sylla, Ed Williams, Richard Ow, Henry Jenkins, Jason Della Rocca, Doug Lowenstein, Vince Broady
Music by	Mark Petrie
Cinematography	Jeff Orsa
Editing by	Lakan de Leon
Distributed by	TBA
Release date(s)	TBA
Running time	80 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$650,000 ~ $1 Million
Official website

Moral Kombat is a 2007 documentary film, directed by Spencer Halpin, an American independent filmmaker. The title of the film is in part a reference to the Mortal Kombat series of video games, which are noticeable for their extreme violence.

1 Overview
2 Summary
3 Games Shown in the Trailer
- 3.1 City of Heroes
4 References
5 Articles
6 External links

[edit] Overview

Shot entirely in high definition, the full-length feature documentary studies the controversial subject of violence in video games through a series of thought-provoking interviews with experts on both sides of the matter – some believing that violent games should be banned and the sale criminalized, others defensive of the emerging art form see it as media and protected by the First Amendment.

The film makes extensive use of green screen technology to seamlessly blend the subject matter being discussed (games, characters, archival news footage) in the background, while keeping the interviewee actively in the shot.

The trailer was uploaded to YouTube and made live on January 3, 2007 and was met with overwhelming concern and dismay from gamers around the globe who felt it sensationalized the topic and serves as a rhetoric piece for anti-games and anti-gamer activists and political figures.. The trailer was viewed over 100,000 times in the coming weekend and spurred debate on scores of websites – receiving six awards from YouTube including:

Interviewees in the film are leading politicians, journalists, academics, consumer advocates and special interest group executives, game developers, retailers, trade associations and publishers. The interviewees among others, include: Dr. David Walsh, Jack Thompson, Dr. Michael Rich, Lorne Lanning, Greg Fischbach, Dean Takahashi, Jeff Griffiths, John Marmaduke, Pamela Eakes, Andy McNamara, Greg Ballard, Bob McKenzie, American McGee, Hal Halpin, Lt. Col Grossman, Phil O'Neil, Marie Sylla, Ed Williams, Richard Ow, Dr. Henry Jenkins, and Jason Della Rocca.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Summary

The film opens makes extensive use of a full twenty-eight person orchestra in its sound track, which serves to heighten the intensity of the matter. Despite concern and criticism from enthusiast gaming media outlets and gamers themselves, Moral Kombat was designed from inception to be objective and impartial in the debate. It probes the complexities of artist’s rights versus social responsibility in an intellectual and compelling manner.

[edit] Games Shown in the Trailer

[edit] City of Heroes

From 01:34 to 01:47 of the film’s trailer one of the interviewees, controversial anti-games attorney Jack Thompson, discusses the possibility of another Columbine type incident. Immediately afterwards The Statesman from the video game City of Heroes is shown for approximately five seconds. In response to this Jack Emmert, co-founder and creative director of Cryptic Studios, made the following statement:

"I'm extremely disappointed that an image of Statesman would be used in such a way. I know that we designed City of Heroes to appeal to "children of all ages." My proudest accomplishment with the game is that many parents (including my brother) play with their children...sharing, I hope, the same joy for the comic book world that I've had ever since I was 8. I cannot express the shock that I felt seeing that a character created by Cryptic would be used in the same sentence as Columbine." —Jack Emmert on the Official CoH Forums