Controversial video games

[Lark]

Well, there's one game which has been creating headlines lately and I was surprised there wasnt a thread already:

[video=youtube;qV3PhvCf_Jg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV3PhvCf_Jg[/video]

But I think the idea, spree killing, has featured before and isnt a new one:

[video=youtube;2n_BinoS1Ug]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_BinoS1Ug[/video]

And:

[video=youtube;DwxoNEVdUEc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwxoNEVdUEc[/video]

What makes Hatred different? Or is it that its not different at all? What do you think of the timing of the release what with the Gamergate controversary and the cancellation of a keynote speaker critical of video games content at a college in the US because a killing spree had be threatened should they speak?

Or is it just that the world is worrying that too many necrophilious/death wish points are being clocked up?

For my part games are less fun and imagination these days than they are about shattering taboos and enacting socially prohibited behaviour, like a raging ID, I grew up at a different time with a different gaming culture and I prefer it. Controversy about games should always be accompanied by the ringing of cash registers because its all free marketing, often for some lousy game mechanics or game play.

There was similar scandal when I was young and the Viz video game (Viz was a UK adult comic) was released and computer magazines at the time would only feature the first part of the first level because the rest was deemed too rude/pornographic (the graphics were pixelated and blocky remember) once the scandal died down a lot of people had to admit it was a poor game (and expensive at the time). Similar scandals accompanied Leisure suit Larry, whose original game was a short affair centring upon a lonely guy trying to get laid or killing himself for not getting laid if I remember rightly, and a couple of other titles I dont remember. Although the fantasy was sex and not killing and pretty niche or marginal.

 

[nosferatu]

I know of one. Gunman's Proof. Last game ever made for the SNES. I tried the translation and uuum there were a lot of racist aliens I kid you not. Maybe that's the reason the game never left Japan.

I heard Conker's Bad Fur Day caused a lot of controversy too but I forget why. I loved that game though it was really funny!

Edit: Uuugh and Resident Evil 5 too... I don't understand that one though... I actually kind of liked that game. Though I preferred RE2 and 4 in the series.

 

[nosferatu]

As for Hatred...Don't know the game well, actually haven't even heard of it until now, but I'm guessing the controversy ties in with school shootings and terrorism... But I seriously don't see why this game is worse than any other game with characters who decide to go apeshit on humanity. (I haven't even played the game =x)

 

[Rcs6r]

Who let Rob Zombie near a game studio? XD

Also, don't go to the Youtube page, unless you want to kill braincells. The comment section there.... yikes.

As for the game, what makes it different from the other games you mentioned is the time period it is being released. It reminds me of the late 90s/early 2000s when games were a bit more edgy, mostly because the industries were not as prevalent and more niche. The player character even dresses like a late 90s subculture:

Remember the whole "trench coat mafia" thing during the Columbine shootings?

Once game companies got huge and corporate, designs started becoming more politically correct and having mass-appeal, a reason why the developer is making this game.

That and they are taking modern gaming aesthetic cliches such as the rough "gritty" desaturated colors, excessive blood and violence and satirizing it. From what I read about HATRED, it's not so much a game as it is a middle-finger from the developer to the game industry.

 

[Yatagarasu]

Is Hatred different? I would say it is. If its only purpose is to simulate killing sprees, then it is different from most games that also have sex and violence but do not make it the point of the game. It is all about the message. As [MENTION=12210]nosferatu[/MENTION] mentioned, Japan has been involved in a lot of controversy which is why they are very sensitive in regards to releasing 18+ material in anywhere outside of Japan. And let me tell you... Hatred would be par for the course in Japan.

Resident Evil 5 was controversial because it involved the characters going into a fictional African town and killing "Africans" that were infected by a virus.

 

[Rcs6r]

Resident Evil 5 was controversial because it involved the characters going into a fictional African town and killing "Africans" that were infected by a virus.

I understand why people would be sensitive to that. Should we abandon certain regions of the world from being depicted in fiction though? Especially in a well-known long standing IP like Resident Evil, where there's been zombie outbreaks in just about everywhere else in the world.

 

[nosferatu]

Is Hatred different? I would say it is. If its only purpose is to simulate killing sprees, then it is different from most games that also have sex and violence but do not make it the point of the game. It is all about the message. As [MENTION=12210]nosferatu[/MENTION] mentioned, Japan has been involved in a lot of controversy which is why they are very sensitive in regards to releasing 18+ material in anywhere outside of Japan. And let me tell you... Hatred would be par for the course in Japan.

Resident Evil 5 was controversial because it involved the characters going into a fictional African town and killing "Africans" that were infected by a virus.

I suppose now that ebola is in the US RE5 could get harped on even more. Because RE5 gave people ebola...

I mean I remember people getting offended by the game in the past, but I always figured the game was focusing on the zombie parasite rather than putting emphasis on ebola.

 

[Rcs6r]

It reminds me of the late 90s/early 2000s when games were a bit more edgy, mostly because the industries were not as prevalent and more niche. The player character even dresses like a late 90s subculture:

Heh, after reading the game's Wikipedia page:

Polygon's Ben Kuchera wrote that the trailer was a "rhetorical failure" in that it attempted to shock viewers, but ultimately reflected juvenile attention-seeking reminiscent of the Slipknot-style, 1990s "shock culture" aesthetic.[8] In response, Destructive Creations' CEO felt that the trailer's "so called 'shock tactic' [did] its job very well", and added that the industry reaction to the trailer reflected the political correctness—"the way we are told and taught to think"—against which the game rebelled.

 

[Rcs6r]

You know, after letting that trailer sink in for a few minutes, I'm already over it. It's like Grand Theft Auto without missions or purpose and is about as artful as a Halloween decoration.

 

[Yatagarasu]

I understand why people would be sensitive to that. Should we abandon certain regions of the world from being depicted in fiction though? Especially in a well-known long standing IP like Resident Evil, where there's been zombie outbreaks in just about everywhere else in the world.

I don't think we should. While playing the game I never saw anything racist. The outbreaks have happened all around the world. For goodness sake, one of the main characters of RE 5, Sheva Alomar, is African. It isn't about the people like the media tried to make it look like.

 

[the]

Is the goal just to kill everything? Seems pretty status quo and lacking in plot/storyline. Is this the Rampage of video games?

 

[sprinkles]

I don't think it is ideal. I don't think it is a good game. I don't believe in censorship so I don't really care that it exists.

I don't see the point of it other than being another mindless title shoveled out of the pile. Hotline Miami was artsy, Postal was rebellious for its time. This thing is just a coat tail rider.

Edit:
It also annoys me how the logo kind of mimics the DOOM logo.

 

[sprinkles]

Also apparently this game was intended to criticize a level of political correctness that simply does not exist anymore. It is a generation too late. It fancies itself as something akin to the Dada movement after it had already served its purpose.

If the developer thinks games are too colorful and restricted then they obviously live in a bubble and need to stop playing Farmville and casual phone games. That dross is flooding the casual market but is hardly the state of gaming as a whole.

 

[muir]

The world is run by psychopaths who want to push psychopathy onto the population by bombarding us with mindless sex and violence until we become desensitised to extreme behaviours

 

[Lark]

The whole thing is a bit of a taboo subject and taps that style of gaming, although wasnt there a game a while back in which people could play some random muslim terrorists and which featured suicide bomb trucks, dingy speedboats and that sort of thing, it was a command and conquer style game.

I wonder were the creativity or imaginativity in games has gone though, the platforms are there in terms of graphics and the like to make it much easier than it has been in the past for definite, some creativity was compelled in the past by the limits of the platforms but removing those limits hasnt made them more creative only less.

There were great games on the commodore and spectrum for instance, I remember one which simulated a jousting tournament which had the horse and rider graphic enlarge from a dot giving the illusion of it coming towards you and you had to control a lance positioning it quick enough to catch the target but not being to hasty in order to permit an easy evasion, games arent made emulating that kind of thing so much, unless as part of a subgame or something.

There was a game about a lazy porter which was actually a bunch of alternative sub games because the guy was dodging a supervisor and going into rooms to play a console, that's before you consider any of the bigger titles or series, like Dizzy and the Yolk Folk, which was a whole series of platform, inventory building and role playing dialogue games, sometimes very amusing and inventive.

There's some people have said that Dateline Miami adopted the eight bit appearence because it was so violent it couldnt otherwise have gotten a release but I dont really believe that, its simultaneously tapping nostalgia among some players I'd say while actually just reflecting that some of those games were just better.

 

[nosferatu]

While we are at it, why don't we explore the idea of Scientologists getting offended by the Dead Space series! Because maybe Scientologists inadvertently inspired the plot, even though the game has nothing to do with Scientology!

 

[Matt3737]

I think the quote from Polygon given by [MENTION=5861]Horatio[/MENTION] is spot on. The 'political correctness' angle is a weak excuse for an attempted shock tactic. Looking at the game without any foreknowledge of the marketing rhetoric would not convey any inkling of anything to do with the topic.

Violence in games is nothing new, but neither is it in film and television. Suspension of disbelief allows us a modicum of distance to engage in such topics without it necessarily being the sole focus. This is just trash that undermines the premise by making it the sole focus and associating it with real life tragic occurrences.

I wouldn't condone trying to suppress artistic expression, but I wholly condone condemning it as worthless.