Hatred looks utterly contemptible

Hexartes · 2014-10-27 22:59:48

Watching the trailer just made my stomach sink and just left this horrible, horrible taste in my mouth

there are a million issues with that game's concept but the thought that stuck in my mind is what that guy's childhood was like

the only answer I could come up with was "not thought of" because the developers didn't want to make a character; they wanted to make shorthand for a scary outsider. And that's terrible.

COLORFUL MOHI · 2014-10-27 23:00:52

man

I'm not trying to be the guy that tells you to not talk about something, but I am so sick of talking about Hatred.

There is nothing good or redeemable about that game, and its developers are almost certainly literal Nazis.

Hexartes · 2014-10-27 23:02:56

I just needed to vent, and nothing good can come of just ignoring it, either. They very clearly wanted to make a political statement, and that statement should be addressed regardless of whether or not it gives them undeserved traffic. It's better than letting the statements fester unchallenged.

That being the case, I don't really have anything to add to the conversation save for what I've already said.

COLORFUL MOHI · 2014-10-27 23:04:51

it's just

like the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of what a video game can be, it's down there with Custer's Revenge.

i might not like stuff like Spec Ops The Line or whatever but at least that stuff isn't made with deliberate malicious intent

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-27 23:15:28

The more we talk about Hatred, the more you play their game. Their game of controversy.

Challenging their statements is exactly what they want. So is agreeing.

So give them silence. Say nothing. Sap their power.

Hexartes · 2014-10-27 23:18:31

That's certainly the pretense, but silence implies consent. I'm not doing the prissy censorship moral outrage they really want, anyhow.

Section42L · 2014-10-27 23:25:05

I would ordinarily agree with you, but this game isn't anywhere near popular enough that it absolutely has to be commented on.

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-27 23:27:51

Silence means we don't talk about it. It means nobody knows about it. If nobody knows about it, there won't be a furor. There won't be a big fight over what is proper in games and what's censorship.

If there's no big fight, then nobody's going to buy the game.

And it will be forgotten.

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-27 23:29:03

Even the worst goddamn things can be looked of kind of fondly in the years to come if it sparks some change, some reaction. If it starts something (Birth of a Nation comes to mind).

So we deny it even that. We deny that it even existed at all. We deny it remembrance.

Section42L · 2014-10-27 23:32:07

TBF, Birth of a Nation influenced its art form in a way that Hatred won't.

You're otherwise on point, though.

Tanya · 2014-10-27 23:43:36

The whole time I just thought I was listening to Linken Park or something "I am cold and bitter, and my heart is filled with pain and vengeance and... maybe the night... no wait, definitely the night! yeah, cause it's dark and pain-filled!"

Hexartes · 2014-10-27 23:45:19

There's no way to stop a conversation entirely.

The people who are for it will absolutely spread the word, and encouraging people not to talk could only ever silence dissenting voices. That's a problem.

Tanya · 2014-10-27 23:56:15

Video games as a medium is a very powerful narrative tool that can be used for exploring a vast variety of different mind-sets and the like.

It is unsettling however the amount of games that just focus of "Death, kill, and murder everything" This game falls very into that camp, and it's not that I worry about its influence on people or the medium at large, after-all, violent and often... can't think of a word I'll just use terrible movies/things of other media exist.

I'm more concerned over the amount of funding and publicity and advertisement these games get, I'd say there's a larger amount of the video game crowd going for this kind of stuff over the amount of movie-goers going to the blood and guts shlock.

Section42L · 2014-10-27 23:57:46

I'm pretty sure that nobody is "for" this game.

The most positive reactions I've seen towards it are people snickering at it for being 4edgy8me.

COLORFUL MOHI · 2014-10-28 00:09:14

TotalBiscuit thinks we should "give it a chance".

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-28 00:09:22

I'm supporting total silence because I can already see the shape of this story. I can see people getting up in arms about getting it banned. And then people will support it anyway to spite those people. They will support it out of "principle." They will support it because they believe it has a right to exist.

And folks are already angry about all this other video game stuff. The battle-lines are already drawn, the war has been raging for months. And what you must never do, is that you must never ever fight on two fronts. This is just something that will fuel a fight that I wanted over yesterday. I'm sick of it.

So I don't want to give it that power. I want it forgotten as quickly as possible.

Y'know what? I'm all for "silencing dissenting voices." Especially since I have no actual power. All I'm doing is that I'm asking very politely for people to stop talking about it. Think of the children. The war was due to be over long ago. Do you want it to keep going?

Hexartes · 2014-10-28 00:12:23

Look, all of what you've said is very pretty but the simple fact of the matter is that once a conversation is started, it's already made its mark and it won't go away. And there is a definite positive effect to taking a stance against something. It leaves an example. "You see Hatred? We didn't like that. Don't be that game." Without the negative reaction making a mark, you'd better damn believe someone is going to have the same stupid idea and there won't be the counterexample to set him off that path.

COLORFUL MOHI · 2014-10-28 00:12:27

In essence it's very easy to construct a narrative wherein people who don't support it are the equivalent of concerned 90s moms who tried to get Doom banned.

You and I both know that's not true, but to an outsider with only a casual understanding of the situation, it can seem true enough for this to suddenly be about "the right to free speech", and when the goalposts get moved like that it is very hard to move them back.

Obā-san · 2014-10-28 00:14:43

total silence would be a good name for a power electronics album

Tanya · 2014-10-28 00:17:09

I'm all for it existing simply because media as a tool is also very useful for understanding the society which created and fostered it. in truth, It's individual existence is meaningless to me so much as it's existence along with a wide breadth of violent and terrible video games that are created in such the fashion that "Hatred" is.

To silence this one game is to ignore the social settings that lead such games get its funding, that lead to it getting its own "audience", without its own existence, we would not be able to tear it apart to examine the things that have led gamers and developers to this position of making it.

Klinotaxis · 2014-10-28 00:18:05

Hexartes · 2014-10-28 00:19:24

Countess Jo said:
In essence it's very easy to construct a narrative wherein people who don't support it are the equivalent of concerned 90s moms who tried to get Doom banned.

You and I both know that's not true, but to an outsider with only a casual understanding of the situation, it can seem true enough for this to suddenly be about "the right to free speech", and when the goalposts get moved like that it is very hard to move them back.

Yes, but there will always be a reason to construct that narrative as long as video games continue being flawed and people comment on those flaws. The end result is that being aware of issues is far more important than said awareness being misconstrued.

Klinotaxis · 2014-10-28 00:27:25

i can't believe people don't just look at the trailer and think "oh, postal without jokes", like if you're going to make some stupid statement with your game at least have it be original

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-28 00:27:44

Fine. Then I will turn to a different tack: spite.

The makers of the game want you to talk about it.

To spite them, to act against their desires, we don't talk about it.

Is that good enough?

Klinotaxis · 2014-10-28 00:30:00

fuck that, they want me to either celebrate it as my favorite stupid mindless video game or for me to decry it at overly violent murder simulation, but actually just fuck it, it's not offending me it's just so fucking dumb

Hexartes · 2014-10-28 00:31:04

No, it really isn't. They don't necessarily want people to talk about their game. They want a petty, easily-mocked moral outrage. Granted, they'll see any criticism as that but the intent of discussion isn't to win over the people who made problematic media; it's to challenge opinions of the people who would consume it.

Section42L · 2014-10-28 00:33:29

I’m honestly still not sure if anyone’s gonna play Hatred for reasons other than to laugh at it.

Hexartes · 2014-10-28 00:35:07

There is a group of people who funded and sunk hundreds of hours into making the damn thing; there's bound to be some audience.

Let's not be myopic here.

Tanya · 2014-10-28 00:35:46

Klinotaxis said:
i can't believe people don't just look at the trailer and think "oh, postal without jokes", like if you're going to make some stupid statement with your game at least have it be original

I'm pretty sure the statement of "Crawling in my skin, for the wounds that will not heal" is a pretty 100 authentically original statement that no game has had the courage to do! That's right, Hatred the game has real courage to go where it's going... unlike all these tame and often... tameful... and uhhh... timid... yeah, that's the word.

I'm too bored of the game to even finish this joke, comments on this post are to assume I masterfully tied up this joke and that it's funny.

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-10-28 00:35:47

I'm pretty sure a petty, easily-mocked moral outrage only gains traction by talking about it.

Section42L · 2014-10-28 00:37:18

DARK METAMORPHOSIS said:
There is a group of people who funded and sunk hundreds of hours into making the damn thing; there's bound to be some audience.

Let's not be myopic here.

People have funded and sunk hundreds of hours into making crazy things that get no serious audience before.

The Room and Chick tracts are exemplars of that.

Klinotaxis · 2014-10-28 00:37:41

Counterclock said:

lol'd

nohaynicklibre · 2014-10-28 05:00:18

If Not Important fought CIA, who would win? Keep in mind the fight takes place in a flying plane and CIA has his loyal hired gun

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-10-28 05:03:14

Mad Doctor Doom said:
TBF, Birth of a Nation influenced its art form in a way that Hatred won't.

You're otherwise on point, though.

And Intolerance was nearly as influential, and was at least 50% Griffith writing "I will not make racist propaganda" over and over on the public blackboard, so that balances things out further.

Alduin · 2014-10-31 01:16:17

would you say that you bear

hatred

for it

Aliroz · 2014-10-31 11:46:42

So, as far as I see it, this discussion boils down to one over what the best way to react to contemptible stuff like this game.

Is it better to display that you do not like this stuff and will not buy it or support it, or is it better to not display anything and thus not give it attention and exposure?

I guess it boils down to different ways people might react to being told some media is banal and unworthy of I-don't-have-a-good-word-for-what-I-want-to-say-here.

Hatred looks utterly contemptible

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