Controversy on Mature Rated Games and Its Stupidity

Every single time I read about something in a game that made people angry, I get angry. Let it be torture scene from the critically acclaimed and controversial Grand Theft Auto V, the sexual violence report on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, or the most recent report about killing a family as Dracula for blood to show how monstrous he has become. I have seen feminists, pacifists, and even parents complaining and whining about those stuff while ignoring what the game has been rated for. If there is sexual violence, you should accept the fact that there will be sexual violence in that game. If there is excessive violence, you are responsible for buying that game to your child to play. If there is controversy going on, you should accept it.

Let's start from the most memorable one shall we? I wonder what it was... Oh yes! "No Russian" from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. This is one memorable mission in which you had to kill most of the Russians in an airport to get the antagonist's trust. Not many people liked it because you were killing innocent civilians, not the armed terrorists. Russia, of course, took offense of this mission and the Russian copies of the game was modified to not have this mission altogether. While oddly enough, Japanese and German copies of the game gave a "game over" if you killed any Russian civilian which contradicts the mission's purpose. While other countries compared the mission to some real-life events, and start blaming this game on the murders of people which is totally false. It wasn't a pretty mission but they gave you an option to skip it so why not use it?

I talked about only a part of the game, how about talking about the whole game series? I am now looking at Manhunt series aka the murder simulator as it was called by parents and governments. Manhunt is a psychological horror game made by Rockstar that has the main point to kill people as violent as you can. The game was good but it was really graphic in its time that UK has tried to ban it but it failed since it had increased demand thanks to the publicity. What publicity you ask? The murder of Stefan Pakeerah by his friend, Warren Leblanc. The murder was described "horrific" as they investigated until they found a copy of Manhunt in Warren's bedroom. This is where it started. Parents and friends mentioned that Warren was obsessed with Manhunt so they thought maybe that was the reason, especially that the game gives you more points for your brutal kills which is the reason why the murder was so "horrific". I say that Warren was one of the people that let a video game influence him. I knew many people who played violent games, and they are just fine and don't have the temptation to slice people's necks open.

Now I am going to talk about the most recent report: Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. Many journalists reported that during the preview, they had witnessed a playable portion in which Dracula was trapped with a family as he was in need for blood. Guess what happened... He killed all of them in first person perspective while the screen faded to black as he went to kill the young girl while it ended with a scream. While not many people are taking offence at this currently, there are feminists that do. The most notable example is Kat Bailey's article in USGamer. She complained about how "blatant it is with its allusions to rape"... I really don't want to start a debate here but I got NO CHOICE for it. She said that she saw only the woman being fed in the game while others were untouched so she wanted to make it seem like it was emphasizing on rape but NOPE. The build showed all the family members being fed upon, and guess what? No rape occurred. Dracula is a vampire, not a sexual deviant. He drinks blood, not insert his genital in women. Why the hell does she mention RAPE when Dracula was only FEEDING on the family members, not the woman only? This game shows what vampires REALLY ARE, not sparkling vampires and etcetera.

My opinion in all of this, why are there controversies about murder, sex, and etcetera while the game has been rated for mature? You should only buy the game when you are old enough to understand all of it. Not all video games are for kids these days, and yes, I did play M rated games when I was kid but I knew that all of those were not real, and understood what the developers were doing with those games. Am I violent? On the contrary! I hate to get involved in fights and I rarely do if someone managed to really piss me off. Am I in desperate need to have sex? No, I do not. All of this is just a publicity, and if you really think if you give the game bad credit, it would not sell well, or even get banned? Not at all. In fact, Manhunt got increased demand in UK while the government was trying to ban the game so the efforts were futile.

I felt like I wanted to get this out from my mind as I got tired from seeing complaints on games that were being made for mature people, not for the kids. Seeing complaints about the sexual themes on Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, and the false "rape" claims on Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 made me want to address all this in a blog. I hope that you guys enjoyed the blog, and please have a good day.

[DragonKnight]

People complain just to complain. It's a response based in laziness. Whether it be a parent who was irresponsible as a parent and bought their minor child an M rated game, or whether it's a "journalist" looking to insert a social justice agenda in whatever game they feel like this week, or whether it's politicians claiming that games cause violence, it's all about laziness.

Parents use video games to babysit their children and will say they don't have the time to police all the content their children are exposed to. Then when they see the depths of the mature content their kids are exposed to, they rabble to the government to police the content for them.

Feminists just want positions of supremacy but don't want the responsibilities inherent in such a position. Rather than accept games for what they are, and what they are intended to be, feminists would rather see more examples of mythical "male privilege" and "anti-woman sentiments" in games instead. And instead of coming up with real solutions, or getting into game design themselves to be pioneers, they write hate filled articles and blogs designed to do the same thing parents do with the government. Complain enough and make developers feel bad enough so they end up censoring themselves to make social justice warriors feel better about themselves.

The government merely latches on to these things to remain in power. If they appear to be against what parents are against, then they are more likely to be voted into power. No politician actually cares about video games, they just use them as a platform for their campaigning.

Games are meant for entertainment, and entertainment is subjective. If something isn't fun to you, you have the right to not play it but you DON'T have the right to try and prevent others from enjoying it just because you don't like it.

[FogLight]

You have said this way better than me, but they will still continue on. Whether they would be the media like Fox News, feminists, or parents who don't look well at what the rating contains inside the game.

And there are some hypocrites saying that the developers should use their full creativity on games but look what is happening now, the same people complain about some scenes being "uncomfortable" to them. My biggest pet peeve is that Kat Bailey reported that only the woman was assaulted while all other reporters said that all three family members were fed upon. It even went to Dave Cox saying that the build shown to the press were all the same. This is how I got really huge suspicions that this article was made for the sake of click baits.

PS: "So while I applaud Cox and his team for their desire to take on challenging material, I really hope they cut the Family Scene before Lords of Shadow 2 launches next month."

You don't ask a developer to remove that scene easily like that. That is what I call bad journalism.

[Blacklash93]

"Complain enough and make developers feel bad enough so they end up censoring themselves to make social justice warriors feel better about themselves."

Examples and evidence? There was that God of War trophy thing, but anything siginificant? They didn't change Tomb Raider. Or Senran Kagura. Or Bayonetta. Or MGSV.

As much as these people exercise their right to be stupid, developers exercise their right not to listen to them. That's how the world works.

[DragonKnight]

Hitman. Do you remember the scene with the nuns?

Here's a link.

http://www.escapistmagazine...

And even say it didn't happen, the goal is to make it happen. That's what I was getting at.

[Blacklash93]

Right, I remember that. Granted, it wasn't just feminists. There was also a big religious aspect to that controversy as well. Some didn't take kindly to the fetish nun outfits and there was some nonsense about "Convert or Kill" and the promotion of violence by and against religious persons. On top of the women thing, it all rolled up together to make it the controversy that it was.

Did we ever figure out what they changed? I did play through it, and the game seemed to treat them like every other encounter. I was still strangling fetish nuns like everything else. I'd be interested to find out.

The way I like to think of all this is like this:

These self-interested idiots are going to be what they are and that's not going to change. However, the blame should go to developers for caving into controversy. As long as there's nothing outright banning them from certain content, they're responsible for their integrity.

[DragonKnight]

I'm not exactly sure what they changed. Perhaps all they did was add context to it, I don't know.

But I agree with you that devs shouldn't cave in to controversy. Like Sony Santa Monica did with the Bros Before Hos trophy in God of War Ascension after Adam Sessler threw a hissy fit about it.

[thorstein]

What we need isn't more regulation.

What we need is a Public Service Announcement about the
"Off Switch." We need to let the public know how to use it, its function, and why it need be used.

As an alternative to the "Off Switch" is similar to the "Tuner" on most radios and televisions. Changing the channel can often give these people the results they desire without any "harm" to them.

The fact is, as an adult, I know this doesn't harm me. Therefore, I, as a free thinking individual will chose what is appropriate for me in this regard.