With Bioshock: Infinite being released this week, surprisingly causing little controversy (only for being true to the time period, lots of racial discrimination and so on...), I've been thinking a bit about the subject of "controversy"... Why shy away from it? Why not embrace the taboo? I'm not saying to make games or movies about raping kids just for the sake of controversy, I'm just saying that what's considered taboo today shouldn't hinder developers from making whatever they want.
Why not include children in open world games? Why not have you play as an extremist terrorist? Why not strike where it will make an emotional impact? Because soccer moms and Fox News says it's wrong? Bullshit, we and the developers must ask ourselves, who buys games which has been deemed controversial? It's not the old, conservative, extremely religious or overly sensitive parents that buy these games, why cater to them?
The people being vocal about all these controversies are the ones not buying these games anyway. I doubt a radical feminist would ever buy a Duke Nukem game, so why would it be logical to censor it to please the radical feminists? We sometimes hear the phrase "if you don't like it, don't buy it", I wish we could use that phrase more liberally instead of letting non-gamers dictate what gamers get to play.
Surely I can't be the only one wanting to be shocked every now and then? I suppose it's like liking horror games, just an itch you want scratch, ironic too since horror games are rare today as well. Though, every now and then a game comes along that actually shocks me, not always because the content itself is very taboo but it's because it's emotionally shocking. The twist in Bioshock and Spec Ops: The Line as examples, hold your nipples I'm not going to spoil them, I'm just going to discuss emotions that they made happen. While I was uncomfortable at the time, Spec Ops: The Line specifically made my head spin, but afterwards I really liked what it did, it made an impact, it was memorable. I will remember that game a lot longer than lets say, Cod MW2 because it made me feel something other games don't.
Another thing that comes to my mind is Gta V, it's supposed to include animals, this is in my opinion a step in the right direction. It made me feel uneasy, any Gta player has at times just decided to drive over a bunch of pedestrians on the sidewalk, if you're one of them did you feel anything? I don't, random, virtual humans whom you don't know anything about won't make you feel guilty for driving them over, but what about a dog? Most people work that way, we hear about how millions are starving to death in third world countries, wars... We don't care, but when we hear about how some crazy person has killed a puppy or kitten? Then we see red, that person should die a horrible death, we've never seen the animal victim, but we just feel strongly about it. So what would happen then, if we play a game where we're used to running over people, we suddenly hit a dog? Well, just thinking about it makes me feel uneasy, uncomfortable, what to do about it? Well, it makes you want to avoid it, without forcing you you avoid it, without making them immortal (like the children in Fallout 3), that is how you should do it, IMO.
True freedom, choices, just like the real world, what's the point of being good if that's your only option. You're not really a good person if you do good things because that's the only thing you can do. However, the shock value here isn't in simply having it there, and avoiding it, it's in doing it by accident. You don't mean it, but it happened anyway, will you change your ways, or will it harden you? That's exactly what would make the game a more personal experience, games shouldn't always have to force these moments, they should just let them happen. Controlling moments that shock you is just another way to censor games anyway, the point is simply that I want more "taboo" things in games, not only moments but an ubiquitous theme perhaps that lasts throughout.
So that's my opinion for the day, more controversy and fuck anyone offended. Don't like it, don't buy it.
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