How is controversy good for gaming?

If nothing else, controversy provides a platform for commentators that know what they’re on about to stand up and speak out against uninformed vitriol.

[blarty]

Controversy is only good if both sides can be heard and mature debate can be had - otherwise it's just propaganda.

[Bigpappy]

It usually only benefits the game or product in question, as some people would spend the money just to see what all the fuss is about. But I can't recall one single time where controversy help to promote or advance gaming in any way, shape or form. If I am overlooking or ignorant to the negative news helps gaming, please feel free to enlighten.

When a developer thinks that a certain scene has to be in his game to help the plot or story, and that scene causes the Media to go bunkers, the bad press isn't helping gaming, but gamers and the developers understand why it needs to be there. But the press just gets the word out to gamers that were not aware of this edgy scene and go out and buy the game. So that helps that game and encourages other developers to do stuff that fits their game even if controversial.

But developers that make games just to stir controversy, are doing a disservice to gamers and the industry as a whole.

[Apocalypze]

(Good) Controversy = Awareness = Publicity = Profit

[aLucidMind]

Precisely. It can bring awareness to an ongoing issue. We witness the sight or a chilling description of something and it can result in us empathizing with that character. In a way, we wind up knowing someone who was affected by it.

Perfect example: White phosphorus in Spec Ops. We are so used to just bombing things in video games. But to see the chilling aftermath, seeing that you incinerated so many innocents and knowing you gave them a horrible death. It opened a lot of peoples' eyes to the horrors of war and the collateral damage incurred.

These sort of things are GOOD. To put restrictions on men, women, and major issues we have from simple violence to horrendous acts like rape (assuming it is limited to being crucial to the story or a character) when literally every other medium does the exact same thing hurts the industry. It also furthers the idiotic fallacy that video games are only for kids when the vast majority of gamers are well over 25 years old and are able to handle these topics.

But hey, God forbid people actually read the damned box... There is a reason why an 'M' rated game is rated 'M'! Because it is NOT FOR CHILDREN! Which means CHILDREN should not play it. This is why Target banned GTA5 in Australia; because dumbass parents didn't want their children playing GTA5, and they're too incompetent to just tell their kid "no".

[Hazmat13]

my game won't be popular but dammit i wanna be edgy. now that being said i HATE the game Hatred but it is above all just a game, besides that it doesn't effect me what so ever so meh. but keep in mind its just more cannon fodder for NEWS corps to say ban video games.

[thehobbyist]

So? I don't think we have to worry about news corporations saying ban video games. Video games are safe, in the US at least. We've had politicians. People who actually wield power, try and fail to ban video games MANY times.

[DragonKnight]

For an industry whose primary audience is adults (moreso male than female, but that's not really too important), you'd think that controversy wouldn't really be a real thing for gaming. Adults are supposed to be able to distinguish real problems from non-problems and act accordingly, but I'd say that in the state that it is now, controversy isn't good for gaming.

Try making a game that can mimic what actually occurs in real life and you get called any number of names ranging from sexist, misogynistic, and racist.

Try making a game that doesn't mimic real life but still contains stuff like immense gore, and you still get people who can't understand that it's a game, therefore not real, and that nothing they experience in the game translates to reality and the events in the game aren't actually happening to real people. Those people then go on a crying crusade talking about offense as though offense is not a choice, but a reaction which it's not. They act as though the fact that they are offended means that some immense impact has just occurred on their life.

We currently live in an age where you can't rescue a woman in a game from anything because that's misogynistic and apparently will make men treat women as weaklings that can't do anything for themselves, despite actual studies proving that assertion to be complete bull.

So is controversy good for gaming? Back when Mortal Kombat was coming out, then yes it was. Today, no it's not. Controversy creates awareness true, but it creates not only for gamers but for the professionally offended who will move to get the games pulled off store shelves a la GTAV or off an online shop like Hatred almost was.

This is because we don't live in a world where adults are the main demographic. We live in a world where children trapped in adult bodies are the loudest voices.

[aLucidMind]

Infantilizing the industry and its primary demographic because of the professionally offended and idiotic/incompetent parents, as you seem to be suggesting, will hurt our hobby. Every other medium can use rape, torture, and all other topic that is considered taboo and "controversial" when a game does it simply because these people believe the primary demographic are still children.

Hence why Target Australia banned GTA5... because parents didn't want their kids playing GTA5 due to their own incompetence (how hard is it to say "no"?). If we want our hobby to be taken seriously then we need to IGNORE those idiots, NOT pander to them. If you want an example as to what happens when an industry decides to abide by what they want our industry to do, take a look at the comic book industry. It sent it through several decades of what, by our standards today, might as well be considered shovelware-grade comics at worst and complete crap at best.

[DragonKnight]

"Infantilizing the industry and its primary demographic because of the professionally offended and idiotic/incompetent parents, as you seem to be suggesting, will hurt our hobby. Every other medium can use rape, torture, and all other topic that is considered taboo and "controversial" when a game does it simply because these people believe the primary demographic are still children."

You misunderstand. I'm not suggesting the industry be infantilized, I'm stating that there is a large amount of adults acting like infants any time a controversial game comes out. Unable to actually take in an adult, fictional experience as adults, they whine like children and profit off of offense where none should be taken. Kids are more mature than those types of people.

The last thing I ever would want is pandering to those kinds of fools. Trust me, I have kind of a reputation for being against that element.

[aLucidMind]

I apologize for the misunderstanding, then. It just really grates on my nerves when some people feel that avoiding these topics when, in reality, allowing them to be brought to light in any medium can actually increase sensitivity to it in a good way. In a game, we can (for lack of a better word) 'meet' someone that had a horrible act done to them. The white phosphorus bombing in Spec Ops: The Line is a great example. Things like that, when done well, will have a similar effect to when the media began covering wars. People began seeing it wasn't like Hollywood's fantasy of it, but rather the horror it was. Our generation got another taste of the same experience done in a different media form. It can make people push to end the horrendous acts due to now having witnessed or experienced the travesty, or have a face they empathize with. People who otherwise would sit on the couch, quietly shunning the issue might begin to take serious issue and take action (in a productive and sane fashion lol).

The fact people don't realize this by now is a bit unsettling to me, especially with the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence and studies that prove the idiots and man-children are wrong.

[MSpence516]

Controversy is not good, competition is good.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Controversy inspires discussion and shines a brilliant light on the mounds of bullsh*t people are being spoonfed on a daily basis.

Just think of it this way;

No controversy

More broken games
No used games
Always online
Parity
No indie games
Corrupt gaming journalism
poor customer service (No discounts, refunds, or credits)

All the things that you take for granted when you play your games are better because of controversy. Don't be a sheep, QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!

[MSpence516]

You misunderstand my statement, what you listed IS the controversy. Without those issues it would be better.

[BabyTownFrolics]

what we deal with as gamers is mostly manufactured controversy, controversies are created in an effort to rile fanboys to garner hits to gain ad revenue. if there was no money to be made then the titles and topics of game articles would be less hyperbolic and vitriolic.

the saddest thing is that instead of rejecting being used we pretend like these fights are of our own creation. It's embarrassing.

[PurpHerbison]

That one tasteless mass murder game built everything it is off of controversy.