Battlefield Hardline - Does the game's subject matter bother you?

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

Short version: some people take issue with the fact that Battlefield Hardline involves a militarized police force in the role of the heroes.

Some examples:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/19/6029085/battlefield-hardline-police
https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/9439-the-ethics-of-battlefield-hardline/
https://twitter.com/BRKeogh/status/499370306796937217
https://twitter.com/Campster/status/476091738537222145
https://twitter.com/Campster/status/476091846234357760

Me? I don't see the problem personally. I mean: most gamers seem to be a-ok with playing as similarly well-equipped criminals in a game like Grand Theft Auto V, "It's just a game!" and all. So in that context, I don't see why Battlefield Hardline should be subject to scrutiny, even taking into account the current situation in Ferguson.

 

[gargantual]

Mere coincedence. If they operate like Cap'n Price, it might be a bit off putting, but these are simply intersections. Visceral games could not predict Ferguson.

Now activision was wary of Inf Ward wanting to do modern warfare while Iraq and Afghanistan were ongoing.

 

[Wulfram77]

GTA is different because GTA knows the player is the bad guy. Or at least such is my understanding not having played the game.

Though I'm not especially bothered by Hardline because it seems too silly to take seriously.

 

[Racecarlock]

I didn't see anyone getting up in arms over Spec Ops The Line taking on PTSD, or for that matter militarized cops in every GTA game so far.

Just because something bad is suddenly happening in real life doesn't mean a game suddenly isn't allowed to depict it anymore.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Does the game's subject matter bother me? I'll let Nicholas Angel field this one.

"Well, I wouldn't argue that it wasn't a no-holds-barred, adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork." -Nicholas Angel, Hot Fuzz

 

[TheGamerElite33]

Battlefield hardline is just another lame attempt at cash cow. it has nothing to do with BF but using the name in order to sell.

 

[MysticSlayer]

It probably has less to do with the specific subject matter and more to do with the current problem in Ferguson, Missouri, which has people concerned about the blurring line between police and military [https://time.com/3138267/obama-ferguson-police-militarization/]. As a result, the subject matter of the game is seeming less innocent now than it probably did to Visceral when they started making the game, as there is now an ongoing problem that touches on this very subject matter. The racial tensions behind the ongoing problem don't help matters at all. Overall, I'd imagine a lot of people don't want to play a game that could potentially paint a militarized police force in a positive light when you consider the cultural context surrounding the game.

Personally, I'd rather wait until we see how the game actually handles itself. I mean, people were concerned about Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" level, but instead of romanticizing terrorism and making light of the Georgia-Russia crisis, the level was used more to criticize American nationalism, intelligence gathering, and foreign affairs, at least when held up by the context of the rest of the story. Battlefield Hardline may end up being more of a criticism of police militarization. Sure, it isn't very likely that it will have a deep commentary, but showing at least some understanding of the subject matter is a possibility that I wouldn't overlook until the game releases and we really can see how much (or little) understanding it had.

 

[gargantual]

Just remember tho, we're all quick to question and determine games as art until they go in directions that make us uncomfortable. Military police may appear time sensitive, but as long as the game doesn't turn out to be "get those brown people" contrast or look like the majority of COPS episodes, then the fact that its military police won't be all that impactful to players.

I still wonder why some forces are putting in such hefty DoD weapon requests for such heavy gear in communities that just need more PR, support projects, work opportunites, racial reflection in law enforcement and personable familiarity.

Makes me miss Rainbow Six: Patriots all the more frankly. I was soo waiting for that plot to address the police state issue directly.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's a childhood fantasy turned into a video game. Just cops vs robbers. It's harmless, unless you want to see it as something more.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I just don't think the subject matter is appropriate given the current direction of the game. The militarization of police forces is a sensitive issue, especially in light of recent events. While I definitely think that games should be allowed to tackle sensitive issues, and I think they have the power to do so very well, a lot of care and thought has to go into doing so. I just don't see any of this kind of care or thought going into Hardline. I think at one point they described it as "The Ultimate Cops and Robbers Fantasy," although I could be wrong about that.

I don't think the game is offensive or anything, just really, really tasteless.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

I just don't think the subject matter is appropriate given the current direction of the game. The militarization of police forces is a sensitive issue, especially in light of recent events. While I definitely think that games should be allowed to tackle sensitive issues, and I think they have the power to do so very well, a lot of care and thought has to go into doing so. I just don't see any of this kind of care or thought going into Hardline. I think at one point they described it as "The Ultimate Cops and Robbers Fantasy," although I could be wrong about that.

Out of curiosity: do you have similar reservations about a game like Grand Theft Auto V which basically tries to be "The Ultimate Criminal Fantasy"?

 

[kilenem]

I've done a post previously about this but I would like to see a shooter set in the 80's when Corrianne hit and how the Cops were the good bad and the ugly. Some cops were trying to stop drugs from coming in, others were robbing drug dealers and the ugly part is some stumbled upon C.I.A and F.B.I involvement in the drug trade. That time period is cops started to become militarized

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

It's a childhood fantasy turned into a video game. Just cops vs robbers. It's harmless, unless you want to see it as something more.

100% this. People will make an issue out of anything these days. Anything the game is doing with "militarized" police is purely for the purposes of making it similar gameplay-wise to your standard military shooter. The game is not trying to say anything on the subject, glorify it, etc. It's just merely trying to be a cops vs robbers version of a military shooter.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

It's a childhood fantasy turned into a video game. Just cops vs robbers. It's harmless, unless you want to see it as something more.

100% this. People will make an issue out of anything these days. Anything the game is doing with "militarized" police is purely for the purposes of making it similar gameplay-wise to your standard military shooter. The game is not trying to say anything on the subject, glorify it, etc. It's just merely trying to be a cops vs robbers version of a military shooter.

Bloody hell you can't even have anti war style songs without someone calling afoul of nationalism.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

It's a childhood fantasy turned into a video game. Just cops vs robbers. It's harmless, unless you want to see it as something more.

100% this. People will make an issue out of anything these days. Anything the game is doing with "militarized" police is purely for the purposes of making it similar gameplay-wise to your standard military shooter. The game is not trying to say anything on the subject, glorify it, etc. It's just merely trying to be a cops vs robbers version of a military shooter.

And you never stopped to consider that the whole "It is just mindless fun"-argument might be at the core of the issue? The militarization of the police force and its' heavy-handed practices is a hot topic at the moment, something that thousands of people are currently being affected by, by virtue of being in areas where semi-militarized police are currently operating. To then suggest that a game just wants to have some ol' ultraviolent, mindless fun with Cops wielding military grade weaponry and ignoring most of the laws here is can easily be considered somewhat insensitive and in bad taste.

Imagine if someone made a game where you repeatedly steer various aircraft into famous american buildings and then try to pass it off as "but it is just mindless fun". Do you think that would go over well? Right now, Hardline is pretty much doing the same thing.

That being said, it really doesn't bother me. But I can easily see why people might find Hardline to be in somewhat poor taste.

 

[Saulkar]

It does not bother me but it is easy to see where others who are are coming from. Actually, I lied, it bothers me a little bit. Right now, the militarisation of the police is an active concern and a game where the good guys are essentially soldiers set loose with little to no regard for the law in a bid to terminate the bad guys comes off as tasteless. At the same time the characters of a game like GTA V are the bad guys, full stop, with the police responding to you likewise and gradually escalating as you reveal yourself to be a greater and greater threat.

Personally I think that the game could be saved by some post match, backhanded flavour text that becomes more passive aggressive the more you act immoral and lawlessly as a cop while the possible introduction of non-lethal tactics would be a saving grace. At the very least, some self-awareness would go a long way.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

And you never stopped to consider that the whole "It is just mindless fun"-argument might be at the core of the issue? The militarization of the police force and its' heavy-handed practices is a hot topic at the moment, something that thousands of people are currently being affected by, by virtue of being in areas where semi-militarized police are currently operating. To then suggest that a game just wants to have some ol' ultraviolent, mindless fun with Cops wielding military grade weaponry and ignoring most of the laws here is can easily be considered somewhat insensitive and in bad taste.

Imagine if someone made a game where you repeatedly steer various aircraft into famous american buildings and then try to pass it off as "but it is just mindless fun". Do you think that would go over well? Right now, Hardline is pretty much doing the same thing.

That being said, it really doesn't bother me. But I can easily see why people might find Hardline to be in somewhat poor taste.

I fully agree with Stephen Fry about people being offended, "so fucking what?"

Hardline is just BF cops and robbers. Cops and robbers is just a kids' game, it's harmless. Your analogy is horrible, there is no game ever about flying jets into buildings. If BF is actually trying to do something serious with the issue like a Specs Ops The Line thing and they do it poorly, then I can see the issue. BF is a series only about the multiplayer, no previous entry has tried to say anything about anything, why would Hardline be any different? By the time Hardline comes out, the issue won't even be on people's minds anymore.

What about PayDay? The police are rather militarized in that game.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Gamer's have been shooting militarized police since Grand Theft Auto - that would be the original top down one, kids - in 1997. There was a fairly big out-cry then, which was just as irrelevant as it is now. Videogames, like any work of fiction, maintain a distance from the participant. This effect, externalization, is debated by some scholars to be a healthy effect - reading works of literature about various events, real or otherwise, allows our minds to explore and analyze what might be otherwise sensitive or damaging subject matter. This is well documented in analysis of literature.

Videogames are no differenct - the combination of visual and aural media, as well as participant interaction, does not magically make it more 'real' to the mind, whatever the assertion of panic stricken pundits and mom-watchdog groups.

Taken in this context, now is the PERFECT time to have a videogame about police operating as a standing army, with heavily militarized equipment, acting without restriction.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Imagine if someone made a game where you repeatedly steer various aircraft into famous american buildings and then try to pass it off as "but it is just mindless fun". Do you think that would go over well? Right now, Hardline is pretty much doing the same thing.

Difference is 9/11 happened 13 years ago, while Hardline was announced long before Ferguson.

OT: I didn't have problem with playing Splinter Cell after NSA shitstorm, and i won't have problem with playing this. Mostly cause i just won't play it, but still

 

[Racecarlock]

Imagine if someone made a game where you repeatedly steer various aircraft into famous american buildings and then try to pass it off as "but it is just mindless fun". Do you think that would go over well? Right now, Hardline is pretty much doing the same thing.

I think they did, it's called microsoft flight simulator. And if we're stretching, GTA V has planes in it too.

People try to make this big deal about violence in games, but it's not real. And so what if it's tasteless? So is south park, and nobody seems to have problems with that except moviebob. I mean, south park had an episode where america called in al qaeda to help with invading jersey shore citizens by crashing planes into them. How is some shooting that's probably not meant to represent anything going to offend everyone?

I mean, they might have railed against games years ago, but we have defeated them every time and I don't think we should start caving to pressure now.