Concentration Camp Game Canceled Due to Backlash

[Loud Hawk]

They can't make a game about Auschwitz, but they allow Uwe Boll to continue to make his HORRIBLE movie about it, that makes me want to shoot myself in the head every time I hear more about it. That confuses me.

I am not saying this game is a good idea. Hell no, please do not make it. It will only put gaming in a worse place, but do not go through all this to stop that little Wolfenstein 3D mod and still allow the monster that is Uwe Boll to do something even worse, just because it is a movie.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Should it be off-limits to comics then?

I think not.

 

[Desert Tiger]

I think a game with a story like "Great Escape" would be a wonderful idea... just not the entire game. Maybe a part of the story where you have to figure out a way to get you and as many others to escape by thinking creatively.

 

[InnerRebellion]

Why is this holocaust "untouchable" by video games? It's irritating how people are forced to tiptoe around this issue, and it seems almost like we worship it at times, due to backwards statements like the one here.

The holocaust isn't the only instance of genocide in the modern world, nor is it the most recent. Why, then, is it all people seem to care about?

While I don't agree with it, people always reply to that question with, "Because 6 million Jews were killed!"

Honestly people, yes, the Holocaust was terrible, but Stalin killed way more than that... of his own people! And does the Armenian Genocide ring a bell for any of those people? What's next, you can't depict slavery, specifically involving black people, in games?

 

[thirion1850]

I'm going to be a critical git and put it this way. The people crying that this is somehow tasteless and horrible have obviously never either read or watched any movies/books/documentaries/evidence about this. Yes, the holocaust was atrocious, vile, evil, you name it. But history is history, no matter how utterly disturbing it is. To pack it off at artistic ways of displaying it (film, writing, and now game) would be bluntly restricting knowledge.

I'll also add that the creator of this game was an complete moron, and this game, despite my previous statement, really does look offensive and disgusting.

 

[Something Amyss]

From the headline, I was expecting it to be something like "Concentration Camp Tycoon".

Yeah, I was expecting something more tasteless. I'm not saying I'd play this, but shooting up your Nazi captors in an attempt to uprise and escape? Freaking hell, that's trivial in terms of backlash.

I don't think the Holocaust should be off limits. I think it should be handled delicately, but imagine if Schindler's List was killed for similar reasons.

 

[AngryMongoose]

...Telling Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/] that the Holocaust is off-limits for videogames...

No it isn't, fuck you.

 

[JunebugJuJuBee]

Does anyone remember 'I have no mouth and I must scream'? Not only are you in a concentration camp for part of the story, but you must come to terms with the horrors you (a Nazi doctor) committed on countless Jews, including children. Making a game about the holocaust is no more trivializing than making a movie about it, though it looks like this one was a bit in bad taste. Who knows for sure.

Until we can get the word "game" to stop meaning "play thing" we will never be able to truly tackle these harsh topics.

 

[Icehearted]

Bah! I can't see how anyone would think this was a good idea. As for the games as art" crowd; art doesn't glitch, freeze, need patches, suffer performance issues, require DLC for the full experience, use cheat codes, and it can't be exploited to distort the experience. Games are far away from that.

But I'm getting off topic.

There are lots of subjects that can be understandably touchy, more so considering that for some it is still fresh, and for some the lasting trauma and collateral trauma make mocking such things at the very least insensitive. It's more than just about subject matter, it's about exploiting something for shock value. I hate to judge a book by it's cover, but that looks like it didn't have anything else to stand on.

 

[Thundero13]

This is why we can't have "The Only Escape Is Imagination"

We can here in Europe Mwahahaha anyway this is just ridiculous, some people just get offended way too easily, and they have to stop going crazy immediatly and look at what the developers have to say.

 

[Warforger]

Im up for the whole "games as art" deal. but this.. THIS! THIS IS NOT ART!

Jeez.

[sub]Also this would of been huge on 4chan[/sub]

the Holocaust is entirely off-limits for videogames

Well fuck me. I never believed i could take offense in something, yet here it is.

Excuse me while i go get a knife and run screaming through the streets killing anyone in my way.

who was stupid enough to think that this wouldn't be hated greatly across a wide range of groups?? Seriously why would they even start making this game?

Did you guys even read the article? Its about a Jewish uprising in Aushwitz that ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Its not sending Jews to die, one of the creators is very Jewish and was doing it to show people did in fact fight back (as the Jews were famous for not especially the ones that believed God would save them even in the Gas chambers), I don't see how killing Nazi's from the perspective of someone who could actually lose and pay dear for his actions rather then the perspective of a guy who will win the war and not suffer nearly as much is bad. I don't find it distasteful in the least.

 

[shadow741]

I wonder if they'd allow a 'chicken run' game...

They have, I played it when I was a kid and it sucked major balls.

 

[Yelchor]

I disapprove greatly of any organisation or person wanting to exclude media from portraying anything, even if it relates to unpleasant chapters in human history.

Infact, I'd say this is a completely natural phenomenom. After something dramatic and unsettling has occured, we often seek to work with it so that we may continue having a stable mental condition. Today's media's addressing of such matters is the same proccess on a large scale more or less. As pointed out many times on this website and elsewhere, videogames have a unique potential of having the audience -live- the experience. It's not about what the main character will do, it's about what -you- will do.

By not addressing issues such as the Holocaust little justice is given to the grim story and all the people who suffered with it if you ask me. Closing our eyes and holding over our ears will only have made all the hardships in vain with nothing to learn from. We should be -obligated- to shine light upon these issues, no matter how frightening they may be.

In all honesty, a game that focused on immersion and tension-building rather than scores or sport challenges which put the player in the eyes of, lets say a german soldier, could give some truly gripping experiences in my opinion. That not only does history justice, but most importantly, teaches you something.

Thousands of WW2 games have been made, but I have not seen a -single- one that has even tried to approach the subject manner in such a way.

A great disappointment, in my opinion.

 

[spartan1077]

I don't see the problem. If someone played this game, they aren't the Nazis, they're the Jews...err Jew. So then they are killing the "bad guys" and not innocents. I don't see why make a mod for a really old game, but seriously? This isn't that bad.

 

[BenzSmoke]

How is it being trivialized? Because it's in a videogame?

 

[chronobreak]

Just make the game and leak it, what are they gonna do? There must be some lawyer out there with a gripe against the ADL. I can't see this game being shut down in an actual court of law.

 

[Zukhramm]

So who are the ADL and what right do they have to stop games?

 

[Jerious1154]

Does anyone remember 'I have no mouth and I must scream'? Not only are you in a concentration camp for part of the story, but you must come to terms with the horrors you (a Nazi doctor) committed on countless Jews, including children. Making a game about the holocaust is no more trivializing than making a movie about it, though it looks like this one was a bit in bad taste. Who knows for sure.

Until we can get the word "game" to stop meaning "play thing" we will never be able to truly tackle these harsh topics.

I was going to bring this up as well. I disagree with ADL because I don't think that setting a game during the Holocaust necessarily trivializes it. That section of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream was very mature and very well done and I have no problem with it.

However, setting a shoot-em-up game in a concentration camp most certainly does trivialize the Holocaust, and that is why I think that this particular game is offensive with no redeeming value. I would say the same thing if it was an action movie (no, Inglourious Basterds does not count just because it takes place at the same time as the Holocaust), and I would say the same thing if it was any other genocide (how many games have you ever seen about the Rwandan genocide or the Holodomor?).

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

the Holocaust is entirely off-limits for videogames

Well fuck me. I never believed i could take offense in something, yet here it is.

Excuse me while i go get a knife and run screaming through the streets killing anyone in my way.

Mind if I join you? My anger's been on the rise and I could really use the release.

OT: Not the most tasteful game, but to simply say the holocaust is off-limits is... Well... Eh... I mean if you can have WWII and other war games where countless die, sure. My problem with the game is that rather than making it a good, tasteful game, they made it a gun run.

As I thought about the issue, I feel the same way because in a general context, why have WWII games been so accepted, let alone any game based on historical events and real life wars?

Of course, the nature of this game in question, and the flippant "gunning nazis for fun" remark, leave me very circumspect regarding the true intentions of this game and its validity overall. But all games have to dodge the Holocaust? That seems like lumping an entire medium together with a Wolfenstein mod, while disregarding any potential good that could be achieved by another party.

Personally, the "art" argument is besides the point because it is a matter that with any media form, be it paintings, novels, movies, and, as shown by this, video games as well, there is a line that can be crossed that becomes disrespectful and offensive.

 

[Cliff_m85]

Pixels.


Pixels.


PIXELS.

All it is are pixels aligned in a certain way. No one is harmed by such pixels. Those people yelling about how it should be banned/cancelled should grow a pair and STFU.