Poll: Why does nobody seem to have the balls to criticize Undertale and its genocide mode?

[Fox12]

Undertale is dangerous, because it can make players feel intense negative emotions (guilt, shame, etc.) which might threaten their self-image/self esteem. Neurotic people who cannot handle stress should not play Undertale.

I have autism. Watching internet celebrities play Undertale made me feel very angry, sad and guilty, and made me consider myself an evil person. I believe that playing Undertale could traumatize people who have worse mental illnesses than mine, or even make them want to kill themselves (to commit suicide). Simple-minded or weak-willed people, who cannot control their thoughts or emotions, should not play Undertale. Undertale should warn these people to not play it; it should have a trigger warning.

My home country is the United States of America. I try to write this message in simple and redundant English, so that many people can understand it, and computer programs might translate it better into other languages if I formatted it correctly. Please publicize it; copy it everywhere you can, and tell the people who created Undertale.
Thank you!

Oh, give me a freak'n break. A trigger warning? Really? How did you think the game was going to treat you when you were actively killing characters? The game only treats you like the villain when you act like the villain. Not everything needs to hold your hand, or be sanitized. Besides, a trigger warning would be bordering on a spoiler for a game like Undertale.

I did not play Undertale, so I did not "actively kill characters". I did not read the spoilers or know anything about Undertale when I watched people play it, so I did not know that Undertale made players and watchers feel so bad. That surprised me.

Watching Undertale made me feel very bad, but I would not, and did not, NEED a trigger warning. Only "people with worse mental illnesses than mine" might need a trigger warning.

A trigger warning would not "sanitize the game" or "hold the player's hand"; it would not remove content. A trigger warning would say "WARNING: this game could make you feel intense negative emotions (guilt, shame, etc.) and question what is real or fiction. If you have a mental illness, do not play.". People could then choose to play Undertale or not, even if they know nothing else about it. IF they chose to play, it would run normally.

EDIT:

Undertale does not just treat you like the villain "when you act like the villain"; it sometimes scolds you harshly for making a mistake, and assumes (or pretends) that you meant to sin. As soon as I learn how to hide spoilers, I can explain when Undertale does this.

A trigger warning might be a minor spoiler, but it is very important. People with severe mental illnesses are more fragile than we are; if they play the wrong game without knowing that it could hurt them, they might become traumatized. Please respect them, and show them mercy.

Based on that line of logic we should add a Trigger Warning to every work of fiction. If someone is really that emotionally fragile then it's the responsibility of them or their caretakers to review each piece of fiction carefully before purchase. Maybe they should avoid most fiction altogether. That said, I don't think it's societies responsibility to cushion everything that could be controversial. All things considered, Undertale is extremely tame.

 

[Gabriel Meserve]

Undertale is dangerous, because it can make players feel intense negative emotions (guilt, shame, etc.) which might threaten their self-image/self esteem. Neurotic people who cannot handle stress should not play Undertale.

I have autism. Watching internet celebrities play Undertale made me feel very angry, sad and guilty, and made me consider myself an evil person. I believe that playing Undertale could traumatize people who have worse mental illnesses than mine, or even make them want to kill themselves (to commit suicide). Simple-minded or weak-willed people, who cannot control their thoughts or emotions, should not play Undertale. Undertale should warn these people to not play it; it should have a trigger warning.

My home country is the United States of America. I try to write this message in simple and redundant English, so that many people can understand it, and computer programs might translate it better into other languages if I formatted it correctly. Please publicize it; copy it everywhere you can, and tell the people who created Undertale.
Thank you!

Oh, give me a freak'n break. A trigger warning? Really? How did you think the game was going to treat you when you were actively killing characters? The game only treats you like the villain when you act like the villain. Not everything needs to hold your hand, or be sanitized. Besides, a trigger warning would be bordering on a spoiler for a game like Undertale.

I did not play Undertale, so I did not "actively kill characters". I did not read the spoilers or know anything about Undertale when I watched people play it, so I did not know that Undertale made players and watchers feel so bad. That surprised me.

Watching Undertale made me feel very bad, but I would not, and did not, NEED a trigger warning. Only "people with worse mental illnesses than mine" might need a trigger warning.

A trigger warning would not "sanitize the game" or "hold the player's hand"; it would not remove content. A trigger warning would say "WARNING: this game could make you feel intense negative emotions (guilt, shame, etc.) and question what is real or fiction. If you have a mental illness, do not play.". People could then choose to play Undertale or not, even if they know nothing else about it. IF they chose to play, it would run normally.

EDIT:

Undertale does not just treat you like the villain "when you act like the villain"; it sometimes scolds you harshly for making a mistake, and assumes (or pretends) that you meant to sin. As soon as I learn how to hide spoilers, I can explain when Undertale does this.

A trigger warning might be a minor spoiler, but it is very important. People with severe mental illnesses are more fragile than we are; if they play the wrong game without knowing that it could hurt them, they might become traumatized. Please respect them, and show them mercy.

Based on that line of logic we should add a Trigger Warning to every work of fiction. If someone is really that emotionally fragile then it's the responsibility of them or their caretakers to review each piece of fiction carefully before purchase. Maybe they should avoid most fiction altogether. That said, I don't think it's societies responsibility to cushion everything that could be controversial. All things considered, Undertale is extremely tame.

People with mental illnesses should not need to avoid most fiction. They deserve to enjoy fiction, just like us. Also, some of them might find it hard to review fiction themselves, but not have guardians who can review it for them. Giving Undertale a trigger warning would be a decent and moral thing to do, which would help society. Please respect people with mental illnesses, and show them mercy.

Maybe we SHOULD add a trigger warning to every piece of fiction. But I think that would be unreasonable, even though perhaps I should not think this way. I believe that we only need to add a trigger warning to fiction which we know needs it. Since Undertale made me feel so bad, even though I hardly ever feel that bad about anything, I assume that Undertale needs a trigger warning, so that people who are more fragile than me do not accidentally traumatize themselves.

LATE EDIT:

Undertale is tamer than other games in many ways, but most people do not expect it to make them feel as bad as it does. This means that people with mental illnesses might not expect it to traumatize them. In fact, even their guardians (if they have any) might underestimate the game when reviewing it, BECAUSE it seems so tame. That problem makes a trigger warning necessary.

 

[Kingjackl]

While I'm not sure I agree that Undertale specifically needs trigger warnings, dismissing the concept outright is terribly small-minded. Really, the only difference between trigger warnings and regular classification warnings is the former is more specifically targeted toward people who need them. That's why when I see people disparaging trigger warnings outright, I feel they should just keep their mouths shut since it clearly does not involve them.

A trigger warning should be applicable to content that might, you know, trigger someone. Depictions of suicide, drug addiction, etc. With that in mind, I don't think Undertale necessarily warrants that, since the genocide mode narrative doesn't have any real world applicability in the way that, say, No Russian or the suicide scene in Life Is Strange does. It simply being upsetting to play is too broad a concept. At least that's my two cents, and again, I would always defer to someone who has experience with these issues over someone who doesn't.