April 20, 2004 Slothing stealth explosion Manhunt first went to the PC. Game from Rockstar Games I was not for impressionable. The violence that puts at the forefront and liters of blood did not give moral choice: if you want to survive in the game of a crazy director – the execution of enemies. As a result, the game was banned in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and a number of other countries, and in the rest it received a high age rating. Russian media poured Manhunt to the “Pharmacy Strelka” case Dmitry Vinogradov, who shot six people in 2012. Before that, they denounced Postal In the case of Alexander Koptsev, who arranged a massacre in the synagogue in 2006, and last year went Metro 2033 , who allegedly inspired the Kerch shooter Vladislav Roslyakov (or still a non-existent Doc 2?).
To the anniversary of the PC-release of one of the most immoral games in history, we decided to remember what other projects were in the center of different scandals, why this happened … and how it ended.
The origins of violence
It all started back in the days of arcade halls. True, then the anthem of ultranasil consisted of primitive black and white pixels. The writer Ib Melchior hardly assumed that the cruel sport from his story “Rounter” would first fall on the anti -utopian highway of the film "Deadly races – 2000" 1975 with Sylvester Stallone, and then to the game. In 1976 Exidy I released scandalous Death Race , adopting the concept of a cruel rally, where the player was no longer a witness to violence, but his participant.
Users were invited to break the bones of the "Gremlin" who came across in the way, very much reminiscent of people. The cries of the victims that pop up in their place are tombstones and the eerie design of machine guns with skulls were not appreciated by everyone. Not to mention the original name of the game: Pedestrian ("Pedestrian").
If mothers from the 1970s knew what the games will be in our time, they would hardly have concerned them to the harmless Death Race
The cheese-brow was expected to begin with an worried mother who entered the Arcadian Automated Hall and accused the game of teaching children to kill. Following the National Security Council called the race "unhealthy and disgusting", and the media criticized the media. So, a popular program 60 minute On the CBS channel, she devoted a whole release to the psychological impact of games. EXIDY Marketing Director Paul Jacobs was justified, they say, Arkada is humorous, there are neither streets nor pedestrians in it. Not all owners of the halls decided to buy Death Race, but after such an active campaign against the game, its sales grew several times, and collectible machines can still cost thousands of dollars.
Correction above all
Spastic – a medical term associated with cerebral paralysis – became a slang and a very rude word that characterized an inept and stupid interlocutor. And it seems that the games have to do with it? But in 2007, the British discovered that the intellectual game Mind Quiz from Ubisoft It was this word that called you after an unsuccessful answer. This was not liked by a resident of the Belfast, who contacted journalists and told her story: she lost her three -year -old son, who suffered from cerebral paralysis, her father also suffers from the ailment, and a similar use of the word, from her point of view, is unacceptable. Ubisoft was recognized as a mistake, apologized to everyone who was offended, and recalled the product.
Creators Mario Party 8 For Nintendo WII, they stepped on the same rake, forcing to be rude to one of the villains, campaign. Not in the UK, a friend! Nintendo recalled all copies of the Mario Party 8 on foggy albion due to the use of the same potentially offensive word. True, unlike Mind Quiz, the game returned to the shelves – just a dangerous word was replaced with a more harmless.
Thanks to Mario lessons, now you will not bite too much on excursions in London
Speaking of regional prohibitions, one cannot but mention the history of, perhaps, the largest Russian game scandal. Two years after the events in the UK, the publishing house Activision prepared for the release of the sequel to the Great Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The problem turned out to be like you, perhaps, remember in the starting mission No Russian: a player introduced into a terrorist organization had to shoot civilians at the Russian airport. This episode became known due to leakage before the release, and, expected, the storm burst out.
The State Duma proposed to introduce Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 In the list of extremist materials, and in this case, perhaps, deputies can be understood – the episode could really shock the Russian public. Activision first did not bring Modern Warfare 2 to Grammir, and then she took up self -censorship and completely cut out this level from the Russian version, although it could have been missing anyway. Because of this, MW2 officially reached Russia only on a PC-on the consoles it was impossible to remove a separate piece of the finished product.
LGBT scandals
Fantasy role action Dragon Age: Inquisition Forbidden in India for one simple reason: since 1861, same -sex marriages have been legally prohibited since 1861. And homosexual relations in Inquisition were submitted by developers as a given, the game even earned the recognition of the GLAAD LGBT organization-the characters came out voluminous and unique, received side quests and, yes, they could marry. Against this background, the protest of Russian deputies from the Communist Party, who were giving up on FIFA 17 Just for supporting the campaign of the English football Premier League "Rainbow laces".
The native of the noble Tevinter family Dorian is famous not only for magical talents, but also by novels with male inquisitors
And here is a very recent example: Ubisoft had to apologize for the homophobic symbol in The Division 2. In April, a selection of screenshots surfaced, ridicurating numerous spelling errors. One of the graffiti shows a policeman with a donut, and the number on his icon easily deciphers as a homophobic curse. The studio not only apologized, but just in case removed the image with the release of a new patch – you never know what.
Familiar with the concept of “LeT Speak” easily considered a message on the badge number of the police icon
Violence against children
There were also problems of the games of the genre of Survival Horror. For example, in the UK (yes, again) banned Rule of Rose 2006, inspired by the gloomy fairy tales of the Grimm and Edward Gori brothers, – in it, according to the public, were too young characters.
In Rule of Rose, girls live in their own world, and this world is full of violence
England, 1930. The pupil of the orphanage Jennifer has to survive at the very bottom of the hierarchy of the local secret society, and at the same time solve the terrible secrets of the mansion. Outside Japan Sony Relieved on the forces of local publishers, and on those raised accusations of lesbianism, sadomasochism and children's torture. Roman mayor Walter Veltroni demanded the ban on the game in Italy. The scandal reached the EU, where they started talking about the need to ban minors to access to such products.
Games with death
Comics Equen Shadow Man , With a subtitle 2ECOND COMING , became famous for very dubious advertising. Acclaim EntertainmentI bent the public with a statement that it would pay relatives of the recently dead in order to advertise the release of the game about the trip to the world of the dead … on grave slabs. Like, this is not a cunning advertising trick, but an opportunity to adequately conduct a loved one for a good subsidy. According to the studio press secretary, the game should have been dark and bloody, so the decision to raise advertising “to a new level” was quite appropriate.
The skull on the cover is? Eat. So in the cemetery advertising is the place!
The Anglican Church said that she would not allow such lawlessness in her cemeteries. Yes, and the Association of outdoor advertising of Great Britain did not agree with the message, although they were unlikely to embarrass the similar level of shocking. In any case, the studio required the permission of the local authorities, and the initiative itself smelled of desecration. There were no people who wanted to participate in the advertising campaign – and the game itself, as it turned out, was far from the ideal.
Animals in trouble
Cruelment of animals caused a scandal around Whiplash (2003) for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. On the eve of the release in the UK, criticism sounded from all sides.
Strengthened together Spanks and Radmond Rabbit Eve out of the Genron Corporation, testing animal products. Affection-the brain of a rescue operation, and therefore Redmond, pumping rage, often became an improvised weapon: it could be thrown into a thick guard, throw it into some mechanism, use it as an boarding hook … In general, it is easy to make the shoot in very dubious ways.
The poor fellow of the rabbit could be repaired in toxic waste, “charge” with electric shock and even fill with helium to break out of the walls of the damned corporation of evil
Although the message of the game was just in the protest against mockery of animals, the game caused indignation with cruelty and jokes over the suffering of Radmond. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelment of Animals was especially actively against the game (of course).
The polemic did not lead to the prohibitions on the sale of Whiplash: Eidos She stated that she created the game precisely to highlight the problem of experiments on animals among children. As the opponents of bullying rightly noticed, and if anyone does not understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable, then the problem here is not in the game itself.
https://sister-site.org/big-win-box/
Cakes of discord
A funeral strategy Fat Princess 2009 for PlayStation 3 I would definitely not see the light in 2019 amid the ideas of body positive. But ten years ago, feminists considered the concept and the name of the very insulting. Nevertheless, the developers managed to defend the game, and in 2015 there was even a continuation in another genre.
Our review Fat Princess Adventures
The first game came down to one thing – to save the princess and return it to the castle. To annoy each other, the teams fed strangers of the princesses with a cake – the young lady became harder, and it was unbearable to drag it. The light did not agree on the feeding of the light: it was possible to build siege tools, defensive structures, use abilities – it was a full -fledged RTS.
But gaming blogs like Feminist Gamers and Shakesville, of course, have focused on mechanics with cakes. Sony was accused of creating a generation of "fatched heteronormative morons", and also offered to extract gold, not cakes. At the same time, some game journalists did not find anything offensive in Fat Princess. On the contrary, they appreciated the “impudent sense of humor” of the developers and noted that here female characters can “tear your ass” and save the girl in trouble.
In response to the accusations, James Green, art director Titan Studios , asked the following question: “It will become better or worse if I say that the concept designer who created the characters is a girl?"
On the bones of history
The format “based on real events” sometimes also comes out sideways. Historical simulator JFK: Reloaded 2004 tried to recreate the murder of President John Kennedy. Players were offered to try on the role of Lee Harvey Oswald and shoot the presidential limousine. Moreover, if the player accurately reproduced the pool flight trajectory, he could get up to one hundred thousand dollars-the whole game, in fact, was conceived as a mass forensic medical examination, an attempt to understand once and for all what happened on November 22, 1963. Naturally, the family of the late president and a number of senators who called the idea of “vile”, and the organization of Children Now, promoting safe media outlets, said that Indie game was not educational and taught how to become a killer was condemned.
In another case, the opponents of the game were more persistent, and the release had to be canceled. In 2004, during the American occupation of Iraq, the US naval infantrymen stormed the city of Falluja, losing a hundred soldiers and killing about one and a half thousand rebels. Based on those events, a shooter was created Six Days in Fallujah for consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It turned out to be very realistic, because the creators had access to reports and plans for battles, photographs, videos and satellite cards, and the infantrymen themselves – participants in those events – acted as consultants. But the game never from afar.
Studio Atomic Games announced it only five years after the operation, and the project instantly ran into a powerful protest movement. For example, the father of the royal military police, who died in Iraq, told the press that the release would become painful for both the participants of those actions from the USA and Great Britain and for Muslim families, moreover, fanatical Muslims, he could even push even more cruel actions. In the same material, the former colonel of the 1st battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment Tim Collins said: “It is too early to start making video games about the war that is still going”.
Now this topic is far from so sharp. And if on the second day of the war in Iraq, Sony could not register the then popular slogan “Shock and AWE” (“shock and awe”, tactics of intimidation of the enemy by demonstrating amazing military power) as the name of the game, then a couple of years later they began to call this common phrase levels, achievements and weapons in many large projects: for example, in GEARS of WAR 2 And League of Legends.
The game industry proves: over time, people can get used to any previously alien ideas, but everything is their place and time. Yes, sometimes developers give large misfires. Then, ignoring the local laws of advertising, energy drinks will shive into the frame ( EA Sports MMA ), then suddenly the release of the air system will be released after September 11 in America ( Propeller Arena ), then try to release in Germany the simulator of the overseer of the concentration camp ( KZ Manager Millennium ) or make Russian gamers burn houses and shoot Soviet soldiers ( Company of Heroes 2 ) ..
But, like any other art, games simply develop public discussions and approach the boundaries of the permissible, which are inexorably extended. If the series Netflix (The same suicide "13 reasons why") can raise their taboo topics, then the games are worse?