The Ladies Get Some Payback in Hey Baby

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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The Ladies Get Some Payback in Hey Baby

Summer and catcalls go hand-in-hand, which means it's the perfect time to unleash Hey Baby, a new videogame that finally gives the ladies a chance to get some full-auto payback from all the foul-mouthed sleazebags on the street.

Are you tired of your milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard? Maybe you should think about trading in that tasty dairy beverage for something a little more practical. Like an M4A1 carbine, for instance. Not a practical option in real life, perhaps, but thanks to the magic of videogames and the newly released Hey Baby, you can get the next-best thing in the virtual world.

In Hey Baby, gamers will step into the heels of a woman on the streets of the city who just happens to be packing an assault rifle. The presence of the fully-automatic weapon doesn't seem to be much of a sleaze deterrent, however, as every single man on the street has something stupid to say as he walks by. What's a poor woman to do? Keep walking and pretend she didn't hear? Not anymore, sister!

"Street harassment can make women feel uncomfortable or unsafe in their daily lives," said game creator Suyin Looui. "Cities are such amazing places, and it's important to create positive interactions in shared public spaces. Hey Baby gives women a space to act out their ridiculous revenge fantasies and to laugh about it."

Hey Baby is an amusing if somewhat bizarre idea that's hamstrung by a single, fatal flaw: It's an absolutely god-awful game. A version that looks like a bad Quake 2 [http://www.idsoftware.com/games/quake/quake2/] mod and sounds about as pleasant as a fart through a bicycle horn is available online, while a "premium" release is listed for sale but has apparently sold out "due to popular demand." A press release describes it as a "playful and provocative" game that's "based on hundreds of real stories, collected from women around the world," but the reality is that if I was a high school computer science teacher and one of my students turned this is as a project, I'd immediately fail hm and very likely hit him with something, too.

Honestly, I don't even know if this is supposed to be serious or if it's some kind of heybabygame.com [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96208-Mass-We-Pray-A-Holy-Hoax-or-Just-a-Really-Bad-Game].




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scnj

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Nov 10, 2008
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Wow. That pop in is shocking. And the 'gameplay' looks horrendous. Why would anybody actually want to buy this crap?

Also, speaking as someone doing a Games Development university course, I'd be ashamed to hand that in as a project.
 

Benjamin Grin

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Apr 22, 2009
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The worst (Or best, I can't decide) part, for me, is the guy who leaves behind a headstone that just reads "RIP. I love you." That seems...odd?

Yeh, I'm having trouble believing anyone would be serious about this.
 

Rutskarn

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Feb 20, 2010
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Insane, disproportionate responses to everyday grievances, all couched within a dated and broken game engine. Yeah, this is basically a narrowcasted version of Postal.

If that doesn't spell success, I know a variety of things that do!

Also: is it just me, or are a lot of those guys not even that offensive? I mean, sure, it's irritating, but so are the people handing on fliers on the ring road. I'm not exactly eager to play a game where I mow them down with an assault rifle.
 

AboveUp

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May 21, 2008
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If anything, playing a game like this would terrify women to the point of never leaving the house ever again.
 

Hazy

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Jun 29, 2008
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Dated textures, lousy animations, horrendous lighting and a trailer that looks like it was strewn together in Windows Movie Maker?

Well, sign me up!
 

Chipperz

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Apr 27, 2009
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internetzealot1 said:
This game would take so much flak if it were about men killing women.
Heh, I thought exactly the same thing. In fact, even if it was a completely faceless protagonist that could be either gender, this would still be decried as the most offensive thing since Dante's Inferno's "Bad Nanny" acheievement.

Also, I think I'm more offended that the game itself looks shockingly bad. I've been making more fun games on GameMaker with sprites made on Paint. Games need to be fun above all...
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
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internetzealot1 said:
This game would take so much flak if it were about men killing women.
Exactly. It would be "OMG THIS GAME IS TEACHING KIDS HOW TO MURDER WOMEN! BAN IT" and such.

In fact, my first thought upon reading the article was a sarcastic rant about how it's sexually biased and a murder simulator and other such nonsense that I don't actually believe for a minute but would easily be said about the game if it was men doing awful things to women (for example, see comments for those in favor of banning that RapeLay game). But then you came right out and said it directly, so agreeing with your to-the-point statement is easier.
 

Plurralbles

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Jan 12, 2010
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um... if this was a guy getting cat calls from women or gay men(ESPECIALLY GAY MEN!) it would put everyone up at arms.

Prejudice and stereotypes ftw! :mad:
 

MasterSplinter

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Jul 8, 2009
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I wonder how are they gonna do to make a payback game for women that feel discriminated because nobody tells them anything on the street, y'know the majority, all those that aren't model/movie movie actress material, at least by current "beauty standars".
 

The DSM

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Apr 18, 2009
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I wouldnt care if it looked good, then I would forgive it for being a joke.

But I do not forgive shoddy works(wo)manship, looks like absolute crap.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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internetzealot1 said:
This game would take so much flak if it were about men killing women.
But since its not we can giggle somewhat....if not looking really bad
 

SnipErlite

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Aug 16, 2009
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.....................are the graphics supposed to be crap?

Erm. Well. That looks..........not very good.

And heh, tis true about the gender thing. If it was about killing women, ooooh it'd get sued 10 times over for sexism :)
 

spuddaemon

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Nov 9, 2009
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internetzealot1 said:
This game would take so much flak if it were about men killing women.
Sexism at it's finest. Don't need to look beyond commercials where a naked man is depicted as humourous and a naked woman as the object of a sexual fantasy. Just the same type of biased sexual discrimination.