Tag Archives: Ban this filth

Games

Racialist Evil

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It was inevitable, and I’m sure when most of us saw that stunning Resident Evil 5 trailer we knew it would be coming. Barely a week later and the race card has been played (also see The Village Voice, amongst others). I dread to think what it’ll be like when (please don’t let it be ‘if’) the game comes out.

Besides the obvious point that there were no complaints over several games of largely white zombies – with few exceptions like the police chief in RE2 there were no black zombies, which is surely more racist? – but this is a game set in Africa where, shockingly, most people are black. Are we supposed to pretend Africa doesn’t exist like Bob Geldof keeps telling us we do? Or do we populate in-game Africa with white people? Or even Asians, since this is a Japanese game?

Ultimately, whichever way it goes we’re going to have complaints because this is such touchy subject matter. I just wish there weren’t so many reactionary idiots, and it’s telling that the first blog post about it complains that:

“…this video game is marketed to children and young adults.”

Ignorance is bliss, right? It should also be noted that the trailer is age-gated on gaming sites, as per new rules, meaning that visitors need to give their age in order to view it. While that won’t stop kids seeing it (at least not the ones with enough intelligence to realise that it’s only a game), it makes it easier to parents to moderate the content.

Nonetheless the more enlightened commentators on this have raised some interesting points. Could the virus and transmission thereof be an allegory for the AIDS crisis in Africa? And does the fact that the game is coming from an ethnically homogenous country like Japan where racism is perhaps not such a delicate issue, explain why the villagers look so threatening prior to infection?

I hope Capcom try their best to take the high ground by refusing to censor the game but ensuring that things are handled as sensitively as possible. That means, whatever they do, if they’re adding an overall (RE4 spoiler) Saddler figure to control the ‘zombies’ DO NOT make it a white guy. The way the story is going it could end up being Wesker, and I can’t begin to describe how unwise it would be to make a white man in military uniform kill black people who are being controlled by another white guy who happens to be tall, blond-haired, and blue red-eyed. I wouldn’t even touch that one.

Editorials, Games, Nintendo, PlayStation

Manhunted Down

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Manhunt 2

So Manhunt 2 has become the first game since Carmageddon to be refused a BBFC rating, effectively banning it from sale in the UK. Unless they turn all the victims to zombies and make the blood green, it’s unlikely to see the light of day here at all. This is the part where I wave my import Wii and chipped PS2 around, grinning like a loon. I had no interest in this game until now.

The kneejerk reaction from many gamers will inevitably be the freedom of speech card, just as predictable as the tabloid headlines tomorrow (expect lavish use of the words “sick” and “outrage”). And as much as I dislike censorship, I’m not sure this is a bad thing. Manhunt, for all its excessive gore, depicted a man forced to kill or be killed without a say in the matter, and in that respect had some moral justification, however tenuous, for the act of murder. The sequel, on the other hand:

“…Lamb is battling with his own psyche. A reluctant but able killer, he’s guided by the rather unpleasant Leo, a fellow inmate with a penchant for bloodlust. And it’s this Leo who acts as Manhunt 2’s interior monologue, audibly urging Lamb to commit grisly acts of murder a provoking him to let go of his remaining threads of sanity.” (GamesTM 56)

Is it any surprise that the BBFC criticised a game like this for its “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing”? I have no problem with virtual depictions of killing but when the only justification is that you’re a psychopath you run out of moral high ground to take very quickly. Even the most visceral horror films are told from the perspective of the victims.

I remember all the furore around the first Manhunt (ignoring the fact that the inaccuracies went unreported – like how it was the victim who loved the game), and being incensed at how under-researched the tabloid articles claiming that the objective was to sate your bloodlust were. Do we really want to make them right when they get wind of this one? For this same reason I think this game does nothing but harm to our hobby. We don’t need it. Every sale that this game made on pure controversy is another spot of credibility to the Mary Whitehouses of the world.

It’s unfortunate that it got banned through legislation, but when the developers won’t exercise self-control and a bit of responsibility it might be for the best.

Games, PlayStation

The Whites Are Coming!

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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this one. There’s a huge palaver over a new billboard in Holland for the launch of the white PSP since it has a white, blonde-haired woman grabbing a black woman by the face while proclaiming that “White is Coming”. Hmm…

LocoRoco

Now I hate all this political correctness shite (I’ll happily laugh at jokes about white people, black people, men, women, religions, gingers, blondes, the French, etc) but surely an ad agency had to know that people were going to find that offensive?

That was probably the idea since there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but coming after the shock news that LocoRoco is an allegory for white flight, complete with what appear to be fanged Rastafarian minstrels trying to eat the poor oppressed white (yellow?) folks, does this mean we can expect to see Ken Kutaragi goose stepping across the stage at E3 2007? It would surely be less controversial than his showing this time.

As I often do, I’d like to thank UK Resistance for the usual biting analysis:

The key facts of the matter are this: It don’t matter if PSP is black or white. It’s still shit and hasn’t got any games.

Can’t argue with that…

Games, PC games, Xbox

Hot Potion of Healing

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I’ve just seen the news that Oblivion has been re-rated by the ESRB to change the rating from its previous T to the more adult M. I’m surprised because although the game does have violence, there’s little in the way of excessive gore and I’ve seen far worse in T-rated games as most enemies in this game just fall down and die. The more interesting factor in the decision to rescind the T rating is this one:

partial nudity in the PC version of the game can be created by modders

Besides the fact that I have no problem with a 15-year-old seeing a “partially nude (topless) female” (how many of them haven’t?), I’d hoped that the ESRB had learnt something after the backlash surrounding Hot Coffee. Apparently not. I think I’m right in saying that almost any game can have its art assets hacked by a modder and made nude (or anything else) but that’s besides the point. As with San Andreas, this content wasn’t intended to be seen. Can you really hold them to blame when someone else modifies their code from its original state?

The assertion that they should is absurd, especially when they took steps to make it inaccessible in the first place. It’s funny to me that many of those who decry mod content and blame the developer for it are often the same ones who bang the drum of not holding gun manufacturers responsible when someone decides to play a “murder simulator” for real. I’m not saying that they should (the ethics of the gun industry is something that I’m not touching here), but that double standards such as that completely undermine the argument.

Games, General

Ban GTA…Again

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Another day, another group calling for GTA to be banned. This time it’s those wholesome folks at the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA calling for someone to halt the decline of the fabric of society.

I’m going to ignore the fact that it’s prostitutes worrying about their reputation being harmed by the role models in GTA, because there’s something else bothering me about the constant calls to ban or censor it, whether it’s from prostitutes, Haitians, Australians, or random politicians looking for column inches.

That concern is this – is there actually anyone in GTA who you’re not encouraged to kill? As a member of the perennially oppressed young, white, middle class male demographic I’ve seen plenty of missions that require the wanton slaughter of my ilk. I don’t recall ever being told to kill a hooker (in fact there are several missions where you have to help them), but the majority require you to kill some crass white stereotype.

For this reason I’m announcing my campaign to ban GTA on the basis that Rockstar hate and encourage the killing of white people. Whiteboys Against Nazi Killers (WANK) will not tolerate this kind of bigotry.