Concentration Camp Game Canceled Due to Backlash

[RMcD94]

I await the next attempt at a game where you run a Concentration camp and deal with Jews in "Crematoriums, Block 11, Gas Chambers, execution, interrogation and torture areas".

As it is, people will find any reason to stop a game going out that they don't like, be it "That's too bad" or "We should not record any evidence of the holocaust because only word of mouth doesn't frivolize it"

 

[Kurokami]

THAT IS BULLSHIT!

Fuck everyone who gets offended at a fcking game. Shit. No one, or almostno one, is fcking alive from those camps anymore. It's history. Get over it.

It was the msot interesting premise for a game of hte year.

Damnit.

I know a lot of people from the camps.

 

[Malgan]

All wars, genocides, acts of terrors and real life tragedies are off limits to videogamers. Like WW1, Vietnam, WW2 etc, TZA etc.

Wait, you're telling me it has been done? I'm so going to fire my secretary, I didn't get the memo.

On a more serious note, the game was distasteful and should never have been seriously considered. Only part that pisses me off is the "the Holocaust is entirely off-limits for videogames", which only shows us how far we yet have to go as a medium/artform.

 

[Nouw]

Because imagination is the only es-
Sorry guys, we have to monitor what you think to prevent people getting offended.

You know I doubt without them crying over it, we wouldn't even know of this game. Ever.

 

[theultimateend]

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]

At what point would it have become art?

I don't believe in censorship, but this shouldn't be made, it doesn't look like it handles the material with the taste or maturity it deserves.

Well at least you took the stance of "I don't like it." instead of "I don't like it, so it is not allowed to be made."

I imagine it would have sucked, but I can't recall the last time I played a WWII game that made me go "Oh wow. This is tastefully covering this topic in a mature way."

Quite the opposite usually.

 

[Gigano]

...
Their statement that it's "off-limits" is nuts, but do you really thing the game treats the issue with the taste and maturity it deserves?

I don't. It's not off limits, but it needs to be carefully and properly portrayed.

That should be a matter of individual taste, not general availability.

Those who are offended by it can simply refrain from downloading it. It's an indie mod for a 1992 game, it's not like they'd have encountered it unless they actively and specifically sought it out in the first place.

 

[Katamake]

Isn't 'Prisoner of War' on Ps2 from 2002 in this area? I remember that coming out in 2002 to no controversy, not saying its the same subject matter but its not a million miles away. Don't think it did very well which may help explain nothing really coming out like it in the following 8 years that was worth speaking of.

I wonder if this mod was a stealth game whether the ADL would have complained as much, something sounds oddly more acceptable to me if its about escape rather than blowing up many, many people.

I can understand people disliking the idea of it being a mod, it makes it sound like its not taken seriously. I personally would prefer to see this subject matter dealt with in a way that includes a big budget, and preferably no shooting on the players part. But the subject matter seems to be in the same area as that six days in Fallujah game, maybe someday, but not yet.

 

[Baldry]

I don't think the holocaust should be off limits but it should be handled a bit more delicately.

 

[Gashad]

While the game seems tasteless, its absurd to say that video games can't tackle the holocaust. I mean books and movies are allowed to deal with it so why shouldn't computer games? A computer game that dealt with the issue in a mature way would have been interesting.

 

[Gindil]

Ya know...

I'd love to see a game about black soldiers during WWII. Should that be off limits as well?

 

[Plurralbles]

THAT IS BULLSHIT!

Fuck everyone who gets offended at a fcking game. Shit. No one, or almostno one, is fcking alive from those camps anymore. It's history. Get over it.

It was the msot interesting premise for a game of hte year.

Damnit.

I know a lot of people from the camps.

you are the exception to the rule.

Were they all very upset?

 

[Jackpot]

Why do we have no fucking power to stop these fucking pricks?
Jews do not own the holocaust for one, it's about freedom of speech for two.

 

[Baresark]

Ha, this is clearly defamation of character... I mean, we all know the Jews didn't' really fight back. Wouldn't want a fantasy game making it look like they actually did. FOOLISHNESS!!!!

 

[justnotcricket]

Hm. While I believe that labelling things 'off limits' is a very tricky road to go down, and not a good one if we want videogames to advance as a medium (there have been holocaust books and movies, for example), I do believe that developers would need to treat it VERY carefully - and to be honest, from the screenshot of the game those indie developers were making? Not a particularly sensitive or 'deep' way to depict a concentration camp. I don't object to a game based around an uprising, failed or not, but the eye watering graphics and Doom/Quake-style FPS feel doesn't really seem to do the topic justice. I realise they're an indie developer, but that doesn't make them immune to this criticism. Honestly, It was probably less the holocaust topic in general, and more the presentation that made people react against it and use words like 'trivialise'. It doesn't matter if one of the developers lost family in the holocaust. You have to think of others, and how they might feel.

I know we don't want a tide of dark, grey, Nazi shooters, but the Holocaust is a dark, grey Nazi-involving topic, and I think it needs more thought.

 

[McMarbles]

Ya know...

I'd love to see a game about black soldiers during WWII. Should that be off limits as well?

Well, you know some dumbass out there would complain that it's a racist game because theer are no white playable characters ('cause, y'know, there's such a shortage of those in gaming).

 

[Peteron]

Tasteless? Off-limits? So the Jews aren't allowed to fight back? That's the message being sent. I will admit that the way it is done in was inaccurate as all hell, but why should the story of the prisoners or the guards be off limits? To deny the stories of their lives is to deny their very existence. I can't think of anything more wrong than that short of actually taking someone's life.

No, you are as incorrect as humanly possible. Seeing as the people who complained happened to be of Jewish faith, you really think the message they would be sending is that Jews aren't allowed to fight back? Read what you typed once more and tell me if that makes sense. They did not want this game being made because it is tasteless and will not honor the dead, but rather make it into a fun videogame. That is no way to honor those who died during the Holocaust. And I am German and I know this! As for the person who said "movies can be made of the holocaust, why can't games?" That is because movies aren't just for entertainment, they can be emotional and honorable with lots of meaning. Games however, are nothing more than mindless entertainment. I am not picking on games, I am just stating they are entirely different.

 

[Peteron]

EDIT:double post, my apologies

 

[Chrinik]

Well, the Concentration Camp Manager and several nazi developed games are already on the index in germany...
The Holocaust is off-limits for videogames? Yeah, because it has been tackled in books, TV-shows, Movies and by COMEDIANS for fucks sake, and noone complains. THE CRUSADES have been trivialised by Monty Python! We just wait 40 years, maybe then noone will complain about stupid shit like that.

 

[Kadoodle]

I don't mind the holocaust in games, but depicting the concentration camps in an action shooter seems wrong to me. It would have to be a very well done game with a story like Heavy Rain to pass, not some dumb wolfenstein ripoff.

 

[Kadoodle]

"Umm... fuck that. Seriously not to trivialize the holocaust but I don't see why people act like it was the worst genocide in history. It wasn't. And the fact that Israel still uses it as a get-out-of-jail-free card all the time just pisses me off. They should be glad Germany actually admits that the Holocaust happened. The Chinese still deny the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The Turks still deny the Armenian Genocide right before WWI. More people died by the hand of Josef Stalin's Holodomor than people in the Holocaust. People, not just Jews. Genocide is never okay, but the fact that people act like it was the worst thing to ever happen in history is just fueling the fire."

The holocaust deserves extra attention because it was not mindless killing. Every part was carefully planned, every death was a systematic execution, and the treatment of prisoners was worse than torture. Other genocides, such as darfur, or the Tienanmen square massacre, are/were in the moment killings. No gas chambers. No ovens. No living in shacks with sawdust bread for food. Know your shit before you spew it out your mouth.