Fascist game developers set the medium back by a decade....

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Yeah, so recently this little ditty (http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/16/6988687/the-worst-trailer-of-the-year-revels-in-slaughtering-innocents) showed up a couple of days ago and.....well....

Yeah, it's rather unpleasant. The very concept itself is pretty nauseating (kill as many random civilians as you can before you die). It's very reminiscent of various spree killings that have made the news in the last decade.

And yeah, I know that modern video games can be pretty ultra violent themselves, but context is everything.

Then I found this. (http://fucknovideogames.tumblr.com/post/100204212288/hatred-is-a-genocide-simulator-developed-by-neo-nazis)

Yep, these guys are real, honest-to-God Polish neo-nazis with open ties to various Eastern European far-right groups.

That, combined with the content of their 'game'.....and you get a rather disturbing picture.

Now....there's always the small, miniscule chance that this is supposed to be fake. I kind of want that to be the case....to be able to log on sometime next week and discover that it's 'HA HA JUST A JOKE!'.

It ain't looking that way, though.....

[tdoggydogg]

They obviously are some sick twisted people to even imagine a game like that. Hopefully its banned, its disturbing enough just watching the trailer.

[Bala Perdida]

Sounds like GTA with more of an emphasis on violence. Nothing I'd be concerned with. The premise sounds boring as hell unless you're a 9 year old. Which I guess is concerning.
There's a real fucked up game where you deport people. I forgot what it was called though.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

I'm pretty sure there was a similar game some, what, half a decade ago? Except it was made by American militia types. Ultimately, games like this are fairly irrelevant - it's disturbing that they exist, but no retail chain is going to carry them, as open fascism and racism is frowned at, and the people who will buy them are, yeah, already open neo-fascists or militia nuts.

So the infection isn't spreading, at least, it's just sort of festering. I think "mainstream" games where all the antagonists are brown people hostile to the United States because of all the bombings they hate freedom are more worrying.

[PhoenixAsh]

Postal

Thats the game you are talking about.

And then off course we have ethnic cleansing but that was a few years later....

[Palmares]

Those were both the games I was thinking of. That Ethnic Cleansing game was particularly bad. I think it was both on a banned games list, but also on worst games ever.


There's a real fucked up game where you deport people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papers,_Please

Do you mean that one? I saw it on a video game review show a while ago.

In Australia, there was a unfinished game that came from a very different angle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Woomera

[RA89]

If this game wasn't made by those guys I wouldn't say it's fascist. I don't think there's anything wrong with the storylines/aims alone.

Gameplay itself looks pretty shit tbh. The novelty of some psycho killer who hates humans will wear off quickly, these sprees can be done in games like GTA which offer more in general. Likewise survival horror games have the eerie atmosphere down better.

[PhoenixAsh]

There is a difference though. In games like GTA doing these things is the players decision and the option is open to the gamer....or it does serve plot-line purposes

Here it is the main and sole purpose of the game and the gamer goes in this knowingly.

[BIXX]

Honestly I think it looks boring. I don't really have a problem with the mindless civilian killing, but I his game just looks mind-numbing.

On the note of postal, I've played the second one and I found it to be silly dumb shit that was enjoyable until I actually listened to the words that the game spoke.

Oh back on topic of the game "hatred", it looks so edgy.

[PhoenixAsh]

Most games are actually pretty boring. And the racism in this one pretty much stays on par with what is repeatedly produced under the banner of mainstream games. The only two things which are controversial enough to make this garbage stand out from other garbage are the edginess and the fact that it is produced by and fits into the culture of violence of ultra nationalists and fascists.

That last one is mostly our concern. The media seems to mainly pick up on the theme itself and so far have done a wonderful job at free marketing.
I have no doubt the game will make a nice profit.

But with young users drawn to its edgy rebelling against conventions image...there will be fan pages and cult status forums and That is where there will be normal people drawn into far right ideology

[Ocean Seal]

Honestly from the title it seems like you are really upset. I fail to see how one tiny developer can set the industry back ten years. Calm down and let the weird fetishists have this game and play something else.

[Rosa Partizan]

This "decade" ain't that important considering that all these misogynists in the gaming scene are already living in the Middle Ages.

[Loony Le Fist]

This "decade" ain't that important considering that all these misogynists in the gaming scene are already living in the Middle Ages.

Yes. The gaming industry wasn't ever particularly inviting towards women (as is true of most others) but there is an ugly misogyny that has appeared in recent times. Some have already pointed out the prolific work of Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra. Today, I see a different culture in modern gaming. The techbros™ have taken over.

[Rosa Partizan]

why can't I quote Loony? :crying:

You have this antifeminist backlash in many areas, the more women are claiming their say male dominated spaces. I find this mentioned game rather disgusting, but not particularly shocking somehow. Isn it that in GTA, you can kill prostitutes? I mean, yeah, you don't NEED to, while in this game, killing is your only mission. Still, there is a lot of sick shit, RapeLay anyone? Faith in humanity forever destroyed. It's not about single games, it's about structures behind the gaming scene, gamers, or even computer obsessed guys that would spend plenty of their time hacking female celebritie's accounts. Guys on reddit and the way they talk about women. There are a lot of intersections between these groups. On the internet, they can be SOMEBODY and channel their frustrations, their sick images. Whatever.

[BIXX]

I think Rosa probably had the best posts in this thread, specifically the one right above this post.

[Illegalitarian]

The issue is bigger than gaming, it's anything tech related in general. The "pink ceiling" exists very much in the same way as the "bamboo ceiling" exists in silicon valley and other areas where capital is being thrown at in mass

[Zoroaster]

The voice acting for the monologue at the beginning of the trailer was a poor performance.

[Redhead]

Jesus, even i wouldnt play this O.O

[PhoenixAsh]

Well...lets have an interesting test.

Take the concept of the game itself. Detached from the poor voice acting and the neonazi-designer etc. Who here would play such a game?

[Zoroaster]

I might play it for the hell of it. Probably not, though. Not my thing.

[Sabot Cat]

Well...lets have an interesting test.

Take the concept of the game itself. Detached from the poor voice acting and the neonazi-designer etc. Who here would play such a game?

It looks boring. Give me something that actually has engaging mechanics, a well-developed plot or interesting art design any day.

[BIXX]

Well...lets have an interesting test.

Take the concept of the game itself. Detached from the poor voice acting and the neonazi-designer etc. Who here would play such a game?
Honestly it looks boring. I don't even have a problem with killing innocents in games (hell, if I'm playing GTA I almost exclusively kill innocents until the cops arrive, or in payday 2 I kill all the innocents if I can to make it easier to steal (assuming the payout will negate all the murder that the game punishes you for)), but that game just looks boring.

[RA89]

I'd play it but certainly not pay for it.

[BIXX]

I'd play it but certainly not pay for it.
I just assumed that that was a given.

[Rosa Partizan]

I am bourgeois and usually buy the games I play :crying: (but I don't play that many games, especially the new RPG shit bores me)

[Slavic]

The graphics actually look pretty damn good considering its the development team's first game. Some of the shootouts look like it could have interesting mechanics.

I also like how some games force you into roles or situations that make you feel uncomfortable by pushing your morality to its limits. There really is no other media like that that exits. Its sorta like an interactive psychopath horror movie.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

I am bourgeois and usually buy the games I play :crying: (but I don't play that many games, especially the new RPG shit bores me)

O rly?

Well then send some of that cash my way, Mrs. Millionaire! :mad:

......Seriously though, I buy most of my games to.......if they're console. If they're PC I just torrent them.

[Creative Destruction]

i just don't play games.

[Rosa Partizan]

I got a steam account, so it's cheaper than buying the disk versions, especially when they're having special offers (two times special in one sentence sounds stupid, btw).

[Zanters]

This game looks absolutely brutal. I'd play it out of curiosity, but it kinda disturbs me.

[BIXX]

The graphics actually look pretty damn good considering its the development team's first game. Some of the shootouts look like it could have interesting mechanics.

I also like how some games force you into roles or situations that make you feel uncomfortable by pushing your morality to its limits. There really is no other media like that that exits. Its sorta like an interactive psychopath horror movie.

I think it can be interesting to have games where they push your limits, but this one just looks boring to me.

[Invader Zim]

Polygon are attempting to drum up a moral panic about this game - which is precisely what the developers want.

There is nothing special about this. There have been books, movies and indeed games which have already covered precisely this ground. As others here have already noted, both Postal, Postal 2 and Postal 3 have already covered this territory - as did, albeit in a different fashion, Carmageddon. Meanwhile, plenty of other games allow you to go on rampages.

Why? Just because. If you don't like this idea of this game or the people who made it, then the best course of action is to not talk about it. Of course, Polygon know this, yet publush a moral panic piece about it anyway.


This "decade" ain't that important considering that all these misogynists in the gaming scene are already living in the Middle Ages.

Have you ever actually been to a LAN event or played much multiplayer? The idea that the gaming community is infested with misogynists (a word that is daily de-powered because of chronic over/mis-use) is, like the fuss surrounding Hatred, a media-driven moral panic to fill column inches. The fact is that the people who who have been the subject of these column inches are trolls on the internet. Do they actually believe the things they say? Probably not. They say them to get a rise out of people. Meanwhile, the actual issue that this current controversy is about, and has been articulated by innumerable even-minded and articulate individuals who have said nothing misogynist at all, has been almost entirely ignored.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Oh relax...

If I grant you that the games industry has been infested with fascist programmers, animators and writers for the last decade, where do you think the medium should be at in this point? In what way has it been set back?
In my opinion gaming is developing at a fair pace, considering story-driven games did not appear until mid-80's. Compare it with the development of cinema an I think you'll see that they're on about the same trajectory (Although I do think we're owed a "Citizen Kane" of games at this point.)

I will grant you that we've had enough of the FPS right-wing revenge fantasies.

[Slavic]

I will grant you that we've had enough of the FPS right-wing revenge fantasies.

And honestly that is only because they are stale from lack of creativity and overuse. The Call of Duty games are fun, but after dozens of CoD and similar games, that type of FPS loses its shine quick.