No More Torture for Splinter Cell: Blacklist

[iseko]

I wonder what doesn't get america in a fuss these days... Bunch a crybabies of you ask me. Offended by every little thing that passes you by. Grow up because it is starting to piss me off. Also I don't understand how you can't let this one slide. But getting beaten to death in a first person view by kratos and having your eyes poked out is fine and dandy? Having your head ripped off and used as a flashlight -> good times?

I'm guessing it has something do with guantanomo bay? You made a little booboo in the human rights department and now you want to shush everything remotely related to it? If that is what this is than man up and grow a pair.

 

[Canadish]

It does seem like an odd thing to cut, with all the other scenes of torture in games already. Not to mention the other horrible stuff they usually let you do.

On the other hand, I can't say I'm unhappy about seeing it go. It does seem like there has been a long ongoing trend in the media trying to normalize and justify torture. Or do they still want me to call it "advanced interrogation technique"?

Depicting it is one thing, but glorifying it and depicting in such a simplified manor is another. I hate to sound like the fussy American soccer mum here, but little Timmy is going to end up playing the game. And making torture a mechanic, without discussing the wider themes, implications and consequences within the narrative...well, it's just going to make it seem cool and normal.

Eitherway, I suspect this is all just a publicity stunt by Ubisoft. Latch onto controversial topic, draw attention to sub-par game series that has been selling poorly, take a stance, generate discussion with your game at the center of it, enjoy free publicity, make dosh.

 

[RA92]

The only Splinter Cell I ever played was Chaos Theory, and it was a fun romp. Sure, a lot of things were at stake in the game world, but it still found time to take itself lightly. I used to love hearing conversations between enemy guards (the conspiracy banter in the bank about Americans using clothes to help in the invasion of their country was hilarious), and it gave them a certain bit of depth. I always took care not to kill them - partly for the challenge, and partly because how could I kill that one young idiot who was in awe of the fact that I was a ninja and was probably going to kill him with shurikens?

Splinter Cell has changed in its tone dramatically over the years, and I'm really not interested anymore. I hear there are bits where you can't go for a complete non-lethal run, and the part where Fisher stabbed a man and kept gouging for information just made me cringe. Yeah, sure, fucking edgy, but my Fisher would never do that!

 

[cikame]

How to get information out of someone quickly while on sensitive missions?
I think Sam Fisher would know how, except he doesn't sound like Ironside... and his sensitive mission information will now be found in PDA's left lying around... because people use PDA's...

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

I really wish the game industry would more focus us good story instead of such cheap thrills.

So IF the toture is NECESSARY for driving the story it's ok but should NOT be acted out.

No One Lives Forever 1 also had a torture scene in it. which in the end turned out to be necessary to get the info.
And NOLF1/2 are among my AllTimeFav.

 

[Dogstile]

That's a shame. They really showed how far Fisher was willing to go to get the information and showed how ruthless he is becoming as a character.

 

[Subscriptism]

Don't like the mechanic? Don't buy the game, don't ruin it for the rest of us.

 

[Balkan]

Imagine if the white phosphore scene was removed from Spec Ops. No one "loved" the scene, but it was a part of what made the game so interesting.
So, if the torture scenes were part of the context of blacklist, than removing them would leave an empty space. The other option is that the scenes were there to be enjoyable, and since they aren't, removing them wouldn't effect the product.
Time will tell.

 

[VanQ]

When did video games become the biggest sissy on the entertainment media playground?

 

[5-0]

If TV and films can do it, then games should be able to. This is not cool.

 

[Doom972]

This series has been dead to me ever since I finished the poorly ported PC version of Double Agent. Blacklist might've changed my mind, but I definitely don't want a censored game.

One thing I liked about gaming in the 90s and early 2000s was that developers seemed to do what seemed right to them, instead of taking into account stupid comments about the game being offensive in some manner. Games were able to be challenging both in gameplay and in story. I wish developers would stop caring about what random people on the Internet think, and just make the games that they want to make.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Plus, torture is a very valid way to get info when one is 100% sure that the bastard/subject carries the information, I also believe it should be used as punishment for certain crimes, death is way to fast for some people. It falls short, and is actually absurd, when it is used at random to obtain information, because, heck, it's just fruitless, and might result in misinformation. However, as far as i remember, Sam always got the right people for info Just like Batman hahah

That would be because - say it with me now - they are fictional characters who are acting out a story.

Of course they go to the right people for info, because if they don't then the plot doesn't advance. It's easy to do awful, morally reprehensible things as a fictional character because nobody is judging you. Batman can torture whoever he likes, and everyone is fine with it, but if one of the real-life superheroes started doing it we'd throw them in jail.

What the whole debate boils down to, particularly in regards to recent Middle Eastern wars, is that in the real world you cannot do bad things while claiming to be the good guy. If the United States wants to use drone strikes and torture, there's nobody who can stop them, but they ought to drop the act of painting it as a 'war on terror' and just admit that they're doing exactly what the enemy would do in the same situation. Be honest about the rapidly shrinking moral difference between the two sides. One side leaves a car bomb in the middle of a village, the other hits the village with a drone. One side takes hostages, the other side takes prisoners, both sides torture the captive for information. The effects are the same, but at least one group is honest about being bad guys.

 

[Slash2x]

Well good I am glad we will have a nice friendly conflict now. None of that hurting people stuff... Wait you still have guns in the game? And you can still kill people? hmmm..... But no one get threatened right? Ok that is good then better to shoot them in the head then hurt them.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Boyo, you messed up your quotes so bad I have no idea how you even managed to do that...

I'm special. They call me specialist.

You have me saying something belonging to a completely different person, you might wanna fix that.

Weird. Stupid Internet Explorer text-selector that keeps stopping in random places...

 

[You Can't Take the Sky From Me]

You know what they should do? Present it like Frederick Forsyth would. No glamor, no appeal, but present it (from the point of view of the character) as merely part of what they must do. It would be horrible and inhuman, but it would be real. That would be a a scene that could be respected.

 

[Biodeamon]

aaaaaw, but that was favourite part of conviction