@ten_pints said:
So GTA never encourages you to kill police officers then? Good luck getting past the prologue.
@PernicioEnigma said:
I totally agree, but very few people take issue with killing innocent people in GTA games and choose to do so for pleasure. I've said it before in a previous thread regarding this game, but basically what the issue boils down to for me is people are okay with killing innocent people in video games if it's done in a guilt free way, but when the narrative actively encourages you to do so, it's no longer guilt free, and suddenly people take issue, even though they're committing the same actions. At least people like Jack Thompson (remember that guy?) are consistent...
That prologue is charged by a narrative. You assume the role of a character, who in turn is a hardened criminal. It doesn't encourage you, but more so forces you to kill cops if you ever care to progress in the game. But it's the exact same way with gang members or other criminals you encounter throughout the game. Every character in the GTA series is despicable, yes. But that's the thing: They're characters in a pre-ordianed storyline. You're not emulating yourself in these situations, but instead channeling a profile that's already built. Many, many games do this. Not just GTA.
I feel a lot of this has to do with how a game, or any piece of fiction portrays its violence. Keep in mind the GTA series doesn't discriminate towards killing any specific group of people the way Hatred is seemingly going at it. The series has never had a mission where it tells you to kill some guy just walking down the street, or to kill a cop for no reason. The actions are done via the circumstances the characters find themselves in. When said characters are criminals, you don't expect them to be doing anything honourable. When you're not engaged in a mission however, when the willpower of the character is that of your own, there's nothing that encourages the player to stay on that route, nor is there any real incentive to it.
With Hatred, what have we seen so far? That killing people for no real reason is what the game is all about. It's where the developers want the game's incentive to lie. The violence is being portrayed in a way where you're going to feel the suffering of every single person you kill. It is deeply disturbing both in content and creation, and there doesn't seem to be any point to it aside from a guy being pissed off at the world. Honestly the game looks like it was made by someone who wanted to shoot up his or her high school back in the day. There looks to be a genuinely hateful (no pun intended) motive behind the making of the game.
It's a terrible thing to say, but tone in something like this matters a whole lot. It's a clear cut double standard. But in one way, shape or form, regardless of genre, we do a whole lot of killing in video games. Even Mario, as playful as he looks, has committed mass murder within his own realm of reality. But because of how the violence is channeled, it never really feels that way.
Perhaps Hatred can be an effective title in showing just how hypocritical gamers can be when it comes to violence. The only thing is that it doesn't look to have that intent. It just wants senseless and tasteless chaos.
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