Kunkel mulls this over. He likes it: "The challenge is you want to make the good characters as cool as the bad. It turns the whole game on its head."
"I'm uncomfortable with allowing people to play a terrorist," Desiderio objects. "Couldn't you be a comedian or a government worker?"
Steve Wik, from left, Vince Desiderio, Andrew Hall, J.B. Gore, Mike Jaret and Bill Kunkel are game designers.
(Ariana Eunjung Cha -- The Washington Post)
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"Well," Wik says. "You're an ECO-terrorist. We're basically making fun of those . . . people that burn down houses to save the planet."
Desiderio: "Hmm . . . maybe."
As the meeting continues, the team debates whether this kind of game will sell and how to balance a player's desire for mayhem with a goal of promoting nonviolence.
Jaret suggests players be penalized if they use their weapons too much. Their options are limited -- a game without the guns and knives would be too radical.
"People are playing Postal because they want to be bad," Kunkel says.
Desiderio nods. "That's everyone's fantasy."
