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[scoobidoo112]

Japanese pedo games.

This might get me some hatred, but I'd much rather have pedo's getting off on non-real video games/comics than actually abusing kids or watching actual child porn. But that's just me.

Pokemon.

Got into it huge as a kid, kind of lost interest when I thought of it as glorified animal abuse.

Not sure if serious.

 

[DoktorEvil]

That ban hammer got pulled out quick.

and with only 4 posts to get to Member status and be able to come back.

 

[Pro from Dover]

Similar settings, yeah.

But usually with some commentary, some statement about it.

I love AC, but its 'quietness' is unnerving. It just accepts that this is what it is.

Its Lovecraftian in the sense of the world being an awful place and everyone is just accepting and indifferent of it.

Whoa! I understand what you're saying, and I dig AC a lot, but this helped me see in on a whole new level. It's kinda creepy cool!

 

[DOWN]

GTA was the poster child for morally objectionable gaming.

 

[Kataploom]

First Crysis game for me. Since then I don't like killing people (humans) with real guns or any real imitation of fire weapons, that's not my thing but I don't care if anyone else does like it since I'm pretty aware that's just fiction. Surprisingly, I don't give a shit when it's online or against other people, but just when playing against AI.

 

[potam]

Tomb Raider (original). It was the first time I felt bad about killing animals in game, since all of them looked so realistic (lol).

 

[Yasumi]

Nothing really bothers me outright. Honestly if something can elicit a strong emotional reaction, all the better. I love games that can make me cry, cringe, feel disgusted, happy, hopeful, depressed, or whatever else. Yay fiction.

 

[dorikyasu]

Pikmin
Felt bad sacrificing countless Pikmins just to get Olimar's spaceship parts...

 

[pinkurocket]

Pokemon.

Got into it huge as a kid, kind of lost interest when I thought of it as glorified animal abuse.

I never thought anything bad about Pokémon until a teacher in high school compared Pokémon fights to cockfights. I was like ...oh.. They are actually catching wild animals and then making them fight and hurt each other for no real reason... :I

And Pikmin also felt bad, killing and sacrificing so many little Pikmin. Worst was when in a fight and you can see their little ghost escaping the body and it has this specific sound that is just awful. I couldn't play it for that reason. ):

 

[darkside31337]

Not sure if serious.

Totally serious. The show and games sugarcoat it with themes like friendship and the fact its a cartoon but the central mechanic behind it all is that its about the enslavement of otherwise free animals and training them to fight other ones.

Violence in things like Mortal Kombat honestly bother me less because its not really trying to hide anything.

 

[Kyzon]

Pikmin. I raise these little cuties from birth only to send them to their death to help me achieve my goal.

They even sing for me sometimes. It's heartbreaking. :'(


Love the games though

 

[SerTapTap]

This might get me some hatred, but I'd much rather have pedo's getting off on non-real video games/comics than actually abusing kids or watching actual child porn. But that's just me.

I honestly agree-at some level it's a biological thing (you do not choose fetishes any more than you chose sexuality). No idea if it "helps" or not, probably not the sort of thing you can properly scientifically test.

 

[scoobidoo112]

I never thought anything bad about Pokémon until a teacher in high school compared Pokémon fights to cockfights. I was like ...oh.. They are actually catching wild animals and then making them fight and hurt each other for no real reason... :I

Yes, except no animals actually get hurt and all the virtual ones are revived or healed. It's fake. Cockfights and dogfights are real. The difference is pretty clear.

I honestly agree-at some level it's a biological thing (you do not choose fetishes any more than you chose sexuality). No idea if it "helps" or not, probably not the sort of thing you can properly scientifically test.

It's something we have to deal with at some point. People are born with that mental disorder and getting rid of materials that can help relieve their problem only makes things worse imo. It's not like pedo's can go out and find help very easily in a society that hates them, so I think fiction can at least be a temporary solution.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

The first two things exist in real life,

And you don't even have to do the last thing, people just do that because they want to, also I am pretty sure you don't even have to do the first thing,

And? It doesn't stop it from being morally objectionable.

Why would I want to play a game like that. I don't find it funny at all. In fact after seeing my cousin play GTAV and the stuff they did....yeah I rather not play such a stupid game now.

 

[DryvBy]

I usually don't care about a lot of things in video games. Fake violence is fake violence, same with other things. But SMT's use of names I consider sacred, I couldn't play that. I do like Persona and some of the SMT games, but the ones where they're using certain names... no thanks.

Otherwise, some of the weird stuff I saw in Second Life and the morally decaying RapeLay stuff... who thinks of that stuff?

 

[scoobidoo112]

Totally serious. The show and games sugarcoat it with themes like friendship and the fact its a cartoon but the central mechanic behind it all is that its about the enslavement of otherwise free animals and training them to fight other ones.

Violence in things like Mortal Kombat honestly bother me less because its not really trying to hide anything.

I disagree on the aspect of morality, but I perfectly understand and respect where you are coming from.

 

[DMiz]

Honestly? Grand Theft Auto III, and in that vein, the GTA games and the Mafia series.

I don't believe in any stereotypes re: the people who play those games, I don't think they perpetuate violence, and I don't think they're 'bad for the industry' or whatever levy Jack Thompson used to shoot out of his mouth.

I just personally don't find enjoyment in playing the role of the protagonists in those games. I can understand why people like these games - I mean, movies like Fast and the Furious 6 and the genre-defining Godfather series attest that we love to watch stories that involve those themes - but to me, I can't seem to get into it. (Also, please don't interpret this as a 'holier-than-thou' or 'social justice' kind of thing; if I had to summarize my argument, I just personally don't like how the game presents the context of you shooting your foes, as I can't seem to get into it or derive entertainment from it. That's it - there is no qualitative assessment of those who do like those games).

Note: I know there might be some counter-arguments raised here (e.g. I'm a big fan of Uncharted 2, and in essence, I'm doing the same thing in that game as I would be in GTA), but I guess it's the way it's presented. If I think deeply about Uncharted 2, yes, Nate is probably the same if not worse than Niko. But the thematic presentation - Nate is trying to save the world from evil mercenaries vs. the archetypes employed in GTA - makes a key difference to me.

Note 2: I like Red Dead a lot more than I like the GTA series. A big part of that, again, is the theming of the respective titles. Jack Marston is a man wanting to leave a life of crime. Niko was trying to do the same thing - but there were fewer people I wanted to rescue or see safe in Liberty City compared to Bonnie, whose relationship with Marston was one of the finest examples of understated romantic feelings ever shown in video games thus far.

 

[binhoker]

The vietnam section in one of the cod games in which you put a knife into a dudes neck and bring it out through his wind pipe really soured me more than I thought possible with a game.

I'm well aware that these games are at heart paranoid imperialist fantasy romps, but to revel in the butchery of a conflict of the worlds largest superpower against a backwards, poor and struggling third world nation was pretty much the only time I've felt moral outrage sufficient to penetrate the thick shell of acceptable, deniable stupidity that surrounds the pastime.

 

[SerTapTap]

Pikmin. I raise these little cuties from birth only to send them to their death to help me achieve my goal.

They even sing for me sometimes. It's heartbreaking. :'(


Love the games though

Think of it this way--olimar sprouts 99.9% of Pikmin in the games. They wouldn't be alive if not for him. Whatever harm you do is inconsequential to the massive growth and organization they wouldn't have had without you.

Still hurts when the little dudes die though.

 

[mcz117chief]

I never bought Sniper Elite 2 because of those vomit-inducing x-rays

 

[Springy]

I never thought anything bad about Pokémon until a teacher in high school compared Pokémon fights to cockfights. I was like ...oh.. They are actually catching wild animals and then making them fight and hurt each other for no real reason... :I

Sounds like your High School teacher was a card-carrying Team Plasma member.

 

[DedValve]

Totally serious. The show and games sugarcoat it with themes like friendship and the fact its a cartoon but the central mechanic behind it all is that its about the enslavement of otherwise free animals and training them to fight other ones.

Violence in things like Mortal Kombat honestly bother me less because its not really trying to hide anything.

I massacre people in videogames all the time, pokemon is one of the few games where the monsters actually enjoy doing and nothing bad ever happens because of magic science.

 

[pinkurocket]

Yes, except no animals actually get hurt and all the virtual ones are revived or healed. It's fake. Cockfights and dogfights are real. The difference is pretty clear.

I was just saying! It's not as extreme obviously since it's still a game/cartoon. And there's a lot of nuances since it's not just a bloody massacre like the real deal. However I still remember that moment when I realized 'oh shit' when I thought about it. I was young and naive, I love Pokémon but the fighting is a weird concept if you try to put it into a 'real-world' perspective.

 

[BasilZero]

Red Faction Guerrilla

It tries to pass off terrorism as the moral high ground. The "good guys" in that game were self righteous terrorists.

I actually thought about this too - I would say gta too.

But again it's a form of fiction so it doesn't really bother me.

 

[Manu]

For me it was probably the Mortal Kombat (can't remember which one) where you can decapitate a bunch of babies all at once.

I don't think that happens on any Mortal Kombat game I've played, and I've played them all except for Deadly Alliance.

 

[Akuun]

Region locking Starcraft 2. How can they seriously justify barring me from playing with my friends across the pond, when I could do that in the previous game which came out 12 years earlier? Such a giant leap backwards.

Add taking out LAN play to this too.

 

[IDKAboutThat]

David Cage's trilogy of awfulness. The female characters are "empowered" right up until it makes for a good exploitation scene, to the point of Beyond: Two Souls having three near-rapes of your main character, and one was originally intended to just go all the way through with it. Presumably someone talked somebody off the bridge on that one. This leaves aside the insane amount of scenes and plots in previous games that are lifted wholesale from other stuff, such as the community of homeless people in Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit that call themselves the invisibles. And I would be able to laugh it off if these games weren't mostly critically acclaimed. People are wising up after Beyond, thank goodness.

 

[Kater]

I honestly agree-at some level it's a biological thing (you do not choose fetishes any more than you chose sexuality). No idea if it "helps" or not, probably not the sort of thing you can properly scientifically test.

It's a psychological disorder, not a fetish.

 

[toastyToast]

Devil May Cry 2

 

[binhoker]

Red Faction Guerrilla

It tries to pass off terrorism as the moral high ground. The "good guys" in that game were self righteous terrorists.

You are aware that terrorism is a tactic, it is not a moral or immoral stance and is not the sole preserve of the "bad guys".

 

[Scrabble]

Let's compare it to another game. The only game I've played where the characters and the world exhibit certain negative traits that I felt the writers were 100% on-board with would be the rampant sexism bordering on misogyny of The Witcher. Great game with a great world, with some of the best writing I've experienced in a game. That said, the game is chock-full of useless bimbos, sexual playthings, and references to women as something strange, manipulative, and "other". When one of the characters in the early game refers to women as the source of all evil, I couldn't help but feel the writers were on-board with him despite the fact that he was written as a villain. Not a minute before that scene does a woman ply Geralt with sex in order to spare her life. Throughout the game, women are described as being physically weak but able to hold immense sexual power over men. It almost equates attraction with sorcery. It's a very strange message that wouldn't fly in this day and age. And don't get me started on the conquest cards. It didn't effect my enjoyment of the game but it was still quite jarring.

No one looks at something like teletubbies and goes "man the creators must be the most peaceful, nicest, and most caring people in the world", but when a piece of art has objectionable and offensive material, people immediately turn to the artists and suspect they advocate or hold the same views as the material they create. It's an absurd position to take and isn't founded on anything.

If a comedian says absurd and fucked up shit for comedic effect, then that doesn't make said comedian an awful person, because it's comedy. Likewise, if an artist depicts objectionable material you don't agree with in a work of fiction, that doesn't make them a piece of shit whose harboring ill feelings. I don't know why people always try to make that connection. Are the creators of Saw or the Human Centipide demented and awful people? No, of course not. They are artists who create works of fiction.

 

[IDKAboutThat]

I usually don't care about a lot of things in video games. Fake violence is fake violence, same with other things. But SMT's use of names I consider sacred, I couldn't play that. I do like Persona and some of the SMT games, but the ones where they're using certain names... no thanks.

It's easier to swallow if you think of it the way that the developers are- just borrowing another culture like we have for theirs for years. Still, I can understand something just leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

 

[Spine_Ripper]

None overtly.

Picturing getting "morally" outraged over any entertainment seems like a stretch for my brain.

Practically nothing in life has left me "outraged". Yeah there's some things that I see/hear in games that make me go "well that won't upset anybody," but I'm not going to pretend to be mad at something that doesn't do anything for me.

 

[Kyzon]

Think of it this way--olimar sprouts 99.9% of Pikmin in the games. They wouldn't be alive if not for him. Whatever harm you do is inconsequential to the massive growth and organization they wouldn't have had without you.

Still hurts when the little dudes die though.

They must have some way of sprouting before Olimar finds them though. He doesn't even let them bloom before he's snatching them. He's basically yanking fetus' out of the ground and commanding them to do his bidding.

 

[Asbear]

I remember being genuinely offended by the popping of heads when you headshot people with snipers in GTA: Vice City.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

None. I like to focus on rectifying the morally objectionable things I do (thankfully not that many) and that happen in the real world as opposed to the goofy, cartoon fake ones.

 

[Kyzon]

I love Pokemon and I find nothing wrong with it, but for the Pokemon debate I'd like to present this.

 

[SerTapTap]

They must have some way of sprouting before Olimar finds them though. He doesn't even let them bloom before he's snatching them. He's basically yanking fetus' out of the ground and commanding them to do his bidding.

Well sure, if you don't let them bloom while doing other things, in order to get the most efficient pikmin. You monster.

It's a psychological disorder, not a fetish.

The difference is entirely based on how society views them. See homosexuality being a "psychological disorder" previously. Actually hurting kids is a deliberate action, a crime, and an awful thing. What your brain lusts for is a result of things entirely outside of your control.

I love Pokemon and I find nothing wrong with it, but for the Pokemon debate I'd like to present this.

Is it better or worse if the pokemon earnestly enjoy beating each other up and don't particularly mind being beaten up? Game mechanics, the show and even many of the rather brutal comics all indicate the pokemon either don't mind or straight up enjoy it.

 

[blackjaw]

MadWorld was the first game that I think really, really bothered me with just how violent it was. Even just thinking about it how upsets me, honestly.

Agree, Madworld was one of the few games I was excited for on Wii, after No More Heroes, and I was really grossed out by a lot of the kills.

 

[Crash Station]

None that would make me stop playing if I was having fun, but I was a bit uncomfortable with killing/torturing innocents in the God of War series. I just have trouble sympathizing with characters like that, even if they're portrayed as such like Joel from TLoU.

 

[spindashing]

If that was all that what had happened, I don't think anyone would have felt bad about it.

What actually happened was Kojima seemed to have run out of ideas on how to make skullface a villain of note. So he had

Spoiler

Skull face make a child rape a female character, had others rape her and then put bombs into her stomach and uterus, bomb rape, and used her to try and get rid of Big boss.

What makes this worse is, there is already shit like THE AFRICAN CHILD SOLDIERS , that are imply that Skullface is a bad guy. This horrible trivialization of a fucked up situation just because you couldn't think of anything and decided to mark millar out is horrible.

Its like a child learned a bad word, but the bad word is a slur and it hurts people, and the child is using it with no regards to how it relates or how it makes people feel. And its just making the child look bad, " See see, I know grown up stuff too, I can be adult ". Sure hypothetical child kojima, sure.

I did hear about those other things, but I didn't want to get into detail. God damn...

 

[Kinyou]

That one medal of honor game that takes place in Afghanistan. I know, it's pretty hypocritical because I had no problem with playing the other games that are based on real wars, but that they took one that was still on going really rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[Kyzon]

Well sure, if you don't let them bloom while doing other things, in order to get the most efficient pikmin. You monster.

I'm of the family to believe that if Olimar never showed up then Pikmin would naturally be pollinated by their onions, and eventually become like.... Kokiri or something, but Olimar hops in and, nope!

I think this game is about human colonization in regards to rain forests, lol

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

It's a psychological disorder, not a fetish.

When you get right down to it, it's a fetish. A very illegal one, but one all the same.

 

[AmaterasuOni]

This is such a ridiculous opinion and quite frankly I get tired of people acting like it's some sort of objective truth. Games are not real, sure, but does that mean you wouldn't be offended by a game that shows something deplorable in graphic detail like child rape? If so then that's fine, but I don't think it should surprise you to learn that not everyone is so easily capable of putting aside their moral values while consuming entertainment.

That's why we have censorship laws. I honestly believe in free speech and that includes all art, gaming included. It's up to the lawmakers to force the laws upon us. With self-censorship art becomes meaningless.

I would definitely be offended by child molestation and many other things, but it's not my job to try to silence these "artists".

Censorship is a really hard topic, because when done wrong, it's harmful. When done right, it still might affect people who are not part of the censored target (happened here in Finland with our "child porn filtering", they banned the Thai Princess' official website and many other sites which had nothing to do with child porn).

EDIT: People just gets way too offended these day, it's like a plague of our times - IMHO. Just take a look at the 80s or even 90s, life was more simple then, we actually laughed to many of these things which are now offending people. People needs to relax.

 

[Kyzon]

Is it better or worse if the pokemon earnestly enjoy beating each other up and don't particularly mind being beaten up? Game mechanics, the show and even many of the rather brutal comics all indicate the pokemon either don't mind or straight up enjoy it.

Good question. I'm 100% sure Pokemon don't enjoy this though.

R.I.P. In Pieces, Arbok.

Also, are we allowed to post that? If not I'll remove it.

 

[Richie]

Tough to say. I've played games where the main character does morally objectionable things (GTA, RDR, Fallout, Elder Scrolls) without actually finding the game to be morally objectionable. That seems weird to me, judging the game based on the actions of a character (which are in turn actions of the player). To really qualify for "morally objectionable" status, I feel the writers of the game have to have a certain sympathy for the vile acts the character commits, or perhaps grant the act some level of moral sanction through their writing or presentation.

For example, in RDR you can tie up a woman and leave her on the train tracks to be mowed down by a train. The action itself is reprehensible, but nowhere in the game does the writing suggest that this is okay. The writing does sanction some violence, but few people would be ready to say that killing someone like Allende isn't without some merit. In this way a game like RDR skirts the issue of promoting wanton violence.

Excellent post. A game can have some pretty messed up stuff taking place, but as with every other media, there's a difference between violence for the sake of it, and it actually having a point. Actually, the interactivity that defines the games' medium could allow for very impactful social commentary, should it be designed to actively make a statement with each and all of the player's actions. Not an easy things to accomplish (gotta make the story progress without seeming like you're rewarding the very thing you're protesting) but I firmly believe it can be done.

Also, the objectification of women in most games as a reward or something that you have to save as a male hero like most Mario games, some Legend of Zelda games, Darksiders II.

Aside from the very early Zelda games, I actually think the franchise does a good job handling the ladies. Hyrule Warriors has made it more clear than ever just how much female badassery the series has.

 

[PensivePen]

The original PC ports of RE4, DMC3 and Onimusha 3. The fact that such subpar products could be released, and charged for, was pretty terrible. Worsened by the fact that all three are amazing games.

 

[IDKAboutThat]

If that was all that what had happened, I don't think anyone would have felt bad about it.

What actually happened was Kojima seemed to have run out of ideas on how to make skullface a villain of note. So he had

Spoiler

Skull face make a child rape a female character, had others rape her and then put bombs into her stomach and uterus, bomb rape, and used her to try and get rid of Big boss.

What makes this worse is, there is already shit like THE AFRICAN CHILD SOLDIERS , that are imply that Skullface is a bad guy. This horrible trivialization of a fucked up situation just because you couldn't think of anything and decided to mark millar out is horrible.

Its like a child learned a bad word, but the bad word is a slur and it hurts people, and the child is using it with no regards to how it relates or how it makes people feel. And its just making the child look bad, " See see, I know grown up stuff too, I can be adult ". Sure hypothetical child kojima, sure.

My personal feeling on it is that Kojima's retiring after this game, so he wants to leave people on a 'horror of war' note to get his original message from the first metal gear games across. He's just tired of tiptoeing around it.

 

[Deified Data]

No one looks at something like teletubbies and goes "man the creators must be the most peaceful, nicest, and most caring people in the world", but when a piece of art has objectionable and offensive material, people immediately turn to the artists and suspect they advocate or hold the same views as the material they create. It's an absurd position to take and isn't founded on anything.

If a comedian says absurd and fucked up shit for comedic effect, then that doesn't make said comedian an awful person, because it's comedy. Likewise, if an artist depicts objectionable material you don't agree with in a work of fiction, that doesn't make them a piece of shit whose harboring ill feelings. I don't know why people always try to make that connection. Are the creators of Saw or the Human Centipide demented and awful people? No, of course not. They are artists who create works of fiction.

Do you not agree that The Witcher went out of its way to present women in a negative light? Because the rest of my post that you didn't quote addressed everything else. I'm not even hugely sensitive to this stuff - hell, I can find the way we choose to discuss it sometimes downright irritating - but in this case it was sort of impossible to ignore.

Did you play The Witcher?