Taboos in gaming

[Ailes]

I've been thinking about taboos in games lately. I started up "Metro 2033" and I think it was one of the first games in a long time in which I saw children. I think I remember the developers of GTA once said that there were no children in their games because they (or the public) did not want to see them getting slaughtered. Fallout 3 went the middle course: There were children, but you could not fatally harm them (at best put them unconsciousness).

Children are just one difficult topic in games. One another is sex. GTA: San Andreas with it's "Hot Coffee" mod that activated a minigame in which you could have sex is a pretty famous example. This minigame was programmed into the game by the developers but locked out later and "rediscovered" by a modder, if I remember correctly. Even simple nudity (see "Giants: Citizen Kabuto") or being able to get into a relationship with other characters or like, hug, kiss them seem very rare things in any genre unless it's "The Sims" or MMORPGs we are talking about.

Some things are more or less difficult depending on the country a game is released in. Sex seems a great deal in the U.S. and violence not so much - apparently it's the other way around in Europe. I live in Germany and violent games are often censored in some way by the developers to avoid getting classified too high by national organizations responsible for rating computer games. One example would be Team Fortress 2 where there is no or green blood at best (haven't played it for some while) and where the various body parts and limbs that are cut off are replaced with sausages, little toy items and whatnot. Or some gore levels are simply not selectable in the options menu (Red Orchestra). Another example are the Command & Conquer games where (among other things, this was the most obvious) the human soldiers in the earlier games were replaced visually and acoustically (death screams and sounds) with robots/cyborgs (the later titles are censored too, but I haven't played them too much).

Another thing coming to my mind are political symbols and topics. Any FPS in which you would play the Nazis during World War 2 and eventually redo or be faced with their crimes would probably be forbidden, made extremely difficult to buy or heavily censored in Germany (they don't seem so strict about WW2 strategy and WW2 FPS multiplayer games, though; they seldom deal with anything beyond the plain warfare however). I've heard World of Warcraft had a hard time in China - adding Pandas was apparently a very early idea from Blizzard but postponed to "Mists of Pandaria" because the Chinese government did not want to have Pandas in it. I think Command & Conquer: Generals was forbidden or censored there too because of one of the factions being Chinese and using very "dirty" and "unconvential" means of battling their opponents (suicide trucks with bombs on them and sorts like that).

There are some games that break taboos though, at least to some degree. There is sex in Fahrenheit (a.k.a. "Indigo Prophecy") and Heavy Rain and you are allowed to do some interaction (not as much as in the "Hot Coffee" mod though), but it is very limited to what the story allows you to do.

What's your opinion on this? Do you know other taboos? And games that break these? Do you even desire games in which you can hurt children, have relationships, hug or kiss characters, have sex with them, play bad people (not just fictional or stylized ones like in "Dungeon Keeper", "Evil Genius", "Manhunt" or "Postal"), actually hurt and harm humanity realistically and in ethically questionable ways, have tons of blood and gore and limbs and body pieces fly around? Do you think developers/publishers should stop bowing to the public opinion like the GTA creators did when they locked out their "Hot Coffee" minigame or when Blizzard was holding back on planned content to get WoW onto the Chinese market?

[timmy berg]

Fawcks님이 먼저 게시:

dont mind me, just passing by, watching everyone whine about how videogames are obligated to be child-friendly or "politically correct"

lol

[Your_White_Knight]

Ailes님이 먼저 게시:

Taboos in gaming

I've been thinking about taboos in games lately. I started up "Metro 2033" and I think it was one of the first games in a long time in which I saw children. I think I remember the developers of GTA once said that there were no children in their games because they (or the public) did not want to see them getting slaughtered. Fallout 3 went the middle course: There were children, but you could not fatally harm them (at best put them unconsciousness).

Children are just one difficult topic in games. One another is sex. GTA: San Andreas with it's "Hot Coffee" mod that activated a minigame in which you could have sex is a pretty famous example. This minigame was programmed into the game by the developers but locked out later and "rediscovered" by a modder, if I remember correctly. Even simple nudity (see "Giants: Citizen Kabuto") or being able to get into a relationship with other characters or like, hug, kiss them seem very rare things in any genre unless it's "The Sims" or MMORPGs we are talking about.

Some things are more or less difficult depending on the country a game is released in. Sex seems a great deal in the U.S. and violence not so much - apparently it's the other way around in Europe. I live in Germany and violent games are often censored in some way by the developers to avoid getting classified too high by national organizations responsible for rating computer games. One example would be Team Fortress 2 where there is no or green blood at best (haven't played it for some while) and where the various body parts and limbs that are cut off are replaced with sausages, little toy items and whatnot. Or some gore levels are simply not selectable in the options menu (Red Orchestra). Another example are the Command & Conquer games where (among other things, this was the most obvious) the human soldiers in the earlier games were replaced visually and acoustically (death screams and sounds) with robots/cyborgs (the later titles are censored too, but I haven't played them too much).

Another thing coming to my mind are political symbols and topics. Any FPS in which you would play the Nazis during World War 2 and eventually redo or be faced with their crimes would probably be forbidden, made extremely difficult to buy or heavily censored in Germany (they don't seem so strict about WW2 strategy and WW2 FPS multiplayer games, though; they seldom deal with anything beyond the plain warfare however). I've heard World of Warcraft had a hard time in China - adding Pandas was apparently a very early idea from Blizzard but postponed to "Mists of Pandaria" because the Chinese government did not want to have Pandas in it. I think Command & Conquer: Generals was forbidden or censored there too because of one of the factions being Chinese and using very "dirty" and "unconvential" means of battling their opponents (suicide trucks with bombs on them and sorts like that).

There are some games that break taboos though, at least to some degree. There is sex in Fahrenheit (a.k.a. "Indigo Prophecy") and Heavy Rain and you are allowed to do some interaction (not as much as in the "Hot Coffee" mod though), but it is very limited to what the story allows you to do.

What's your opinion on this? Do you know other taboos? And games that break these? Do you even desire games in which you can hurt children, have relationships, hug or kiss characters, have sex with them, play bad people (not just fictional or stylized ones like in "Dungeon Keeper", "Evil Genius", "Manhunt" or "Postal"), actually hurt and harm humanity realistically and in ethically questionable ways, have tons of blood and gore and limbs and body pieces fly around? Do you think developers/publishers should stop bowing to the public opinion like the GTA creators did when they locked out their "Hot Coffee" minigame or when Blizzard was holding back on planned content to get WoW onto the Chinese market?

TLDR: so I skimmed to "...I live in Germany and violent games are often censored..."

When a country starts censoring things... that should be a BIG RED warning flag.

If what that text wall was getting at was "Should they be censored?" my answer is NO.

[Pierce Dalton]

timmy berg님이 먼저 게시:

Fawcks님이 먼저 게시:

dont mind me, just passing by, watching everyone whine about how videogames are obligated to be child-friendly or "politically correct"

lol

Dude, you necroed a thread from 2013 to say "lol"? xD

[Devsman]

Being positive about good things.

Is there a hospital in the game? They're secretly harvesting organs.
Are there police? They're definitely out to get you.
A church or temple? Definitely insane evil cultists.

[☎need4naiim☎]

I hate the fact that such a great geometrical shape&symbol from ancient times has become a taboo after WWII.


Temples are mostly shown as evil places that your body and soul are only useful as a sacrifice for an Evil God/Goddess. Men&Women seen as being tortured inside, screams and agony ricocheting through bloody walls of those temples, frightening you deep within. Where are those temples in reality? The temples i have visited so far were the most serene buildings in the world.


Most young female humans dress like b**ches.


End game bosses like to groan, scream and brag more than they attack.