Controversial Games

[The Blackangel]

What’s the most controversial game you play and truly enjoy? Personally I love playing Hatred. For those who don’t know, it’s an EXTREMELY violent and graphic game. In a nutshell, you’re a pissed off character that kills literally everything that moves. Several groups have lobbied to get the game completely banned. I downloaded it from Steam. I haven’t checked lately, but I think that Steam has removed it from their catalog.

[killamch89]

Hatred definitely pushes the envelope when it comes to violence in video games. I can see why it's controversial, but I think there's a place for games like it in the industry, as long as it's clear what the game is about. It’s just not for everyone, and that’s okay. As for controversial games I love to play, Manhunt is the one I love to play using an emulator. I'm still confused why they banned this game when there were even more violent games out at the time that haven't been touched at all.

[The Blackangel]

I never got what the problem was with Manhunt either. I think it was actually Manhunt 2 that was the big problem. I could see differences between it and the first Manhunt but nothing that would be the downfall of society, as they tried to make it seem.

[Shagger]

I'm posting under the assumption that controversies related to the business practices surrunding a game or the companies behind the game are not relevant here. Such complaints are understandable, but not actually related to the game itself.  This is about games that are controversial because of thier content.

 

Weirdly, I actually miss the days of people complaining about violence in games and that being considered controversial.  I don't think it's been brought up since Hatred (or possibly GTA 5), and even that wasn't a huge deal.  Sex and sexualisation of characters has come up sometimes, but not to the point whare it's been exatly mainstream news.  These days most "controversial" games get to be "controversial" for, quite frankly, ridiculous reasons.  It's usually a load of buthurt man-babies upset that a game has gay or black people in it.  Or because a game has a woman in that actually looks like a woman and not some teenager's wet dream.  Embarasment is a more familiar feeling than anger for me these days.

 

I hate censorship as much as the next guy, there is just no need for it when we have the ratings system for games.  So long parents respect both the ratings system video games themselves for what they are, an entertainment medium and not toys, children are pretty safe form content that is innapriate. Having said that, there has to be a line drawn somewhere.  And let's be honest, there are good reasons why it's not gamers and the game developers that cater to them that decide whare that line should be.

[The Blackangel]

16 hours ago, Shagger said:

I'm posting under the assumption that controversies related to the business practices surrunding a game or the companies behind the game are not relevant here. Such complaints are understandable, but not actually related to the game itself.  This is about games that are controversial because of thier content.

 

Weirdly, I actually miss the days of people complaining about violence in games and that being considered controversial.  I don't think it's been brought up since Hatred (or possibly GTA 5), and even that wasn't a huge deal.  Sex and sexualisation of characters has come up sometimes, but not to the point whare it's been exatly mainstream news.  These days most "controversial" games get to be "controversial" for, quite frankly, ridiculous reasons.  It's usually a load of buthurt man-babies upset that a game has gay or black people in it.  Or because a game has a woman in that actually looks like a woman and not some teenager's wet dream.  Embarasment is a more familiar feeling than anger for me these days.

 

I hate censorship as much as the next guy, there is just no need for it when we have the ratings system for games.  So long parents respect both the ratings system video games themselves for what they are, an entertainment medium and not toys, children are pretty safe form content that is innapriate. Having said that, there has to be a line drawn somewhere.  And let's be honest, there are good reasons why it's not gamers and the game developers that cater to them that decide whare that line should be.

You’re absolutely right. But for the wrong reasons. And you’re wrong, but for the right reasons.

The reason is because (as you stated) the rating system is in place so people know what age range it can be appropriate for. But there are games, mostly pretty obscure, that defy the ratings system. I’ll go back to Hatred for this. There is no actual rating for the game. Mostly because not a lot of people know it exists, and those that do are just gamers who enjoy extreme brutality. The rating association doesn’t rate games that are that obscure. Then, there are games made for pure shock value and to both offend people and piss them off. Kill The Faggot, JFK Reloaded, Columbine Massacre are just a few of them. Some may be next to impossible to find, but if you look long enough, you will find them. So while the rating system is a good thing to have in place, it’s not foolproof. It seems to apply only to mainstream games. A lot of indie titles don’t have a rating either. I have over 130 DDL’s on my Switch, and I would venture to say that less than 20 are actually rated. I have some that are definitely not for children that have no rating. I also have games that no one would ban their children from playing that are rated.

But I have no children and still play Hatred, so I probably have no horse in this race. Either way though, I’ve been playing games like this since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

Edited November 18 by The Blackangel

[killamch89]

20 hours ago, Shagger said:

I'm posting under the assumption that controversies related to the business practices surrunding a game or the companies behind the game are not relevant here. Such complaints are understandable, but not actually related to the game itself.  This is about games that are controversial because of thier content.

 

Weirdly, I actually miss the days of people complaining about violence in games and that being considered controversial.  I don't think it's been brought up since Hatred (or possibly GTA 5), and even that wasn't a huge deal.  Sex and sexualisation of characters has come up sometimes, but not to the point whare it's been exatly mainstream news.  These days most "controversial" games get to be "controversial" for, quite frankly, ridiculous reasons.  It's usually a load of buthurt man-babies upset that a game has gay or black people in it.  Or because a game has a woman in that actually looks like a woman and not some teenager's wet dream.  Embarasment is a more familiar feeling than anger for me these days.

 

I hate censorship as much as the next guy, there is just no need for it when we have the ratings system for games.  So long parents respect both the ratings system video games themselves for what they are, an entertainment medium and not toys, children are pretty safe form content that is innapriate. Having said that, there has to be a line drawn somewhere.  And let's be honest, there are good reasons why it's not gamers and the game developers that cater to them that decide whare that line should be.

As @The Blackangel said correctly, that rating system is really lacking in certain areas because there have been some quite frankly horrendous games out there. There was the suicidal game years ago on Steam that had no rating either. You're right that a lot of the "controversial" complaints about modern games are so trivial that it makes you really scratch your head and I'm glad nobody has taken them seriously either. If it were up to those people, we'd be stuck playing overtly kid friendly games with no violence or controversy in it. The part that annoys me is a good amount of those people making those trivial complaints aren't even gamers and they keep pushing this nonsense about games making kids violent that the media and political officials have brainwashed them into believing.

4 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

You’re absolutely right. But for the wrong reasons. And you’re wrong, but for the right reasons.

The reason is because (as you stated) the rating system is in place so people know what age range it can be appropriate for. But there are games, mostly pretty obscure, that defy the ratings system. I’ll go back to Hatred for this. There is no actual rating for the game. Mostly because not a lot of people know it exists, and those that do are just gamers who enjoy extreme brutality. The rating association doesn’t rate games that are that obscure. Then, there are games made for pure shock value and to both offend people and piss them off. Kill The Faggot, JFK Reloaded, Columbine Massacre are just a few of them. Some may be next to impossible to find, but if you look long enough, you will find them. So while the rating system is a good thing to have in place, it’s not foolproof. It seems to apply only to mainstream games. A lot of indie titles don’t have a rating either. I have over 130 DDL’s on my Switch, and I would venture to say that less than 20 are actually rated. I have some that are definitely not for children that have no rating. I also have games that no one would ban their children from playing that are rated.

But I have no children and still play Hatred, so I probably have no horse in this race. Either way though, I’ve been playing games like this since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

Have you seen the suicidal game that was once on Steam (name escapes me at the moment)? And that game didn't even get half the backlash that games like Manhunt and Mortal Kombat got in the 90s.

[The Blackangel]

1 hour ago, killamch89 said:

Have you seen the suicidal game that was once on Steam (name escapes me at the moment)? And that game didn't even get half the backlash that games like Manhunt and Mortal Kombat got in the 90s.

I can’t say that I have, but I also can’t say that I’m surprised that those games exist.

[killamch89]

14 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

I can’t say that I have, but I also can’t say that I’m surprised that those games exist.

Yep - If I'm remember correctly, there was an article about it but other than that - silence.

[Scorpion]

I appreciate your honesty! Hatred certainly stirs debate. I enjoy games that challenge norms, but I prefer less extreme violence.