Zero Punctuation: Hatred - Maypole of Controversy

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
The Bucket said:
Worgen said:
Nurb said:
It WAS a tad frustrating that the SJWs had more effect on changing the standing of this game on steam than the conservitives and soccer moms that usually yell about this sort of thing though.

Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.

Yahtzee's humor always makes things better, however.
Extra Credits thing was more based on how the game marketed itself and it marketed itself as a deer hunter game where the deer are replaced by people and graphic executions are the name of the game. The game was marketed for full offensive effect and was hoping to be a hit based on people buying it to express how they wouldn't be told they couldn't buy something and it worked ok.
They did call the game itself sadistic in the video, it wasnt wholly concerned with the marketing campaign. And either way, it is extremely silly to react to a game you believe is attempting to whip up a moral panic to achieve more visibility and get sales by making a video of it wherin you contribute to the moral panic around it. It ultimately doesnt hurt anyone regardless of its quality and content, the best response if you find it that objectionable is to ignore it. I doubt they convinced anyone who was going to buy it to not get it
Because the game marketed itself as sadistic. I agree that the best thing would just be to ignore it, that would have really annoyed the devs, but when everyone else is already talking about it you might as well throw in your two cents.
 

The Material Sheep

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Worgen said:
The Bucket said:
Worgen said:
Nurb said:
It WAS a tad frustrating that the SJWs had more effect on changing the standing of this game on steam than the conservitives and soccer moms that usually yell about this sort of thing though.

Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.

Yahtzee's humor always makes things better, however.
Extra Credits thing was more based on how the game marketed itself and it marketed itself as a deer hunter game where the deer are replaced by people and graphic executions are the name of the game. The game was marketed for full offensive effect and was hoping to be a hit based on people buying it to express how they wouldn't be told they couldn't buy something and it worked ok.
They did call the game itself sadistic in the video, it wasnt wholly concerned with the marketing campaign. And either way, it is extremely silly to react to a game you believe is attempting to whip up a moral panic to achieve more visibility and get sales by making a video of it wherin you contribute to the moral panic around it. It ultimately doesnt hurt anyone regardless of its quality and content, the best response if you find it that objectionable is to ignore it. I doubt they convinced anyone who was going to buy it to not get it
Because the game marketed itself as sadistic. I agree that the best thing would just be to ignore it, that would have really annoyed the devs, but when everyone else is already talking about it you might as well throw in your two cents.
Why throw in your two cents if you know the best way to disapprove of something like this is to ignore it? Extra Credits were just playing to the newest wave of perpetually offended crowd that is now trendy. Plenty wrong with the game outside of dumb violence.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
The Material Sheep said:
Worgen said:
The Bucket said:
Worgen said:
Nurb said:
It WAS a tad frustrating that the SJWs had more effect on changing the standing of this game on steam than the conservitives and soccer moms that usually yell about this sort of thing though.

Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.

Yahtzee's humor always makes things better, however.
Extra Credits thing was more based on how the game marketed itself and it marketed itself as a deer hunter game where the deer are replaced by people and graphic executions are the name of the game. The game was marketed for full offensive effect and was hoping to be a hit based on people buying it to express how they wouldn't be told they couldn't buy something and it worked ok.
They did call the game itself sadistic in the video, it wasnt wholly concerned with the marketing campaign. And either way, it is extremely silly to react to a game you believe is attempting to whip up a moral panic to achieve more visibility and get sales by making a video of it wherin you contribute to the moral panic around it. It ultimately doesnt hurt anyone regardless of its quality and content, the best response if you find it that objectionable is to ignore it. I doubt they convinced anyone who was going to buy it to not get it
Because the game marketed itself as sadistic. I agree that the best thing would just be to ignore it, that would have really annoyed the devs, but when everyone else is already talking about it you might as well throw in your two cents.
Why throw in your two cents if you know the best way to disapprove of something like this is to ignore it? Extra Credits were just playing to the newest wave of perpetually offended crowd that is now trendy. Plenty wrong with the game outside of dumb violence.

Why did Yahtzee review it? If it wasn't notorious then he wouldn't have bothered.
 

VanQ

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Caramel Frappe said:
Pretty much .. Hatred exists for people to talk about it- only to get more interested and pay for it to see what the fuss was all about.. rather brilliant really. Not needing to be complex, or ground breaking- the controversy around the game itself is enough to make the devs behind the scheme rich.
About this point specifically, I saw more talk about games as an art form as a result of this game's existence than any other "art game" in the past 10 years. I saw talks about games as an art form on 4chan, 8chan, Escapist, MMOchamp, a bunch of sites I frequent and hell, even Reddit had some interesting things to say for once. And that was all as a result of this game. I actually bought the game because while I didn't find it all that fun, I did very much enjoy the dialogue that happened because of it.

Of course, the usual crowd of perpetually offended types didn't actually appear to take part in any discussion at all. There were big blog posts and the usual Kotaku/Polygon type of bullshit but those writers just ejected their opinion into a void and ignored any and all actual discussion that was being had.

The game itself actually contributed very little, but the combination of the game's existence and peoples' absolutely ridiculous reaction to it contributed quite a bit to the community as a whole. A really interesting case.
 

The Material Sheep

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Worgen said:
The Material Sheep said:
Worgen said:
The Bucket said:
Worgen said:
Nurb said:
It WAS a tad frustrating that the SJWs had more effect on changing the standing of this game on steam than the conservitives and soccer moms that usually yell about this sort of thing though.

Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.

Yahtzee's humor always makes things better, however.
Extra Credits thing was more based on how the game marketed itself and it marketed itself as a deer hunter game where the deer are replaced by people and graphic executions are the name of the game. The game was marketed for full offensive effect and was hoping to be a hit based on people buying it to express how they wouldn't be told they couldn't buy something and it worked ok.
They did call the game itself sadistic in the video, it wasnt wholly concerned with the marketing campaign. And either way, it is extremely silly to react to a game you believe is attempting to whip up a moral panic to achieve more visibility and get sales by making a video of it wherin you contribute to the moral panic around it. It ultimately doesnt hurt anyone regardless of its quality and content, the best response if you find it that objectionable is to ignore it. I doubt they convinced anyone who was going to buy it to not get it
Because the game marketed itself as sadistic. I agree that the best thing would just be to ignore it, that would have really annoyed the devs, but when everyone else is already talking about it you might as well throw in your two cents.
Why throw in your two cents if you know the best way to disapprove of something like this is to ignore it? Extra Credits were just playing to the newest wave of perpetually offended crowd that is now trendy. Plenty wrong with the game outside of dumb violence.

Why did Yahtzee review it? If it wasn't notorious then he wouldn't have bothered.
He doesn't have a moral problem with the game existing. So it's not like something he feels obligated to see fail or is something of a set back for gaming whatever the hell that means.
 

CaitSeith

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scw55 said:
Sir Thomas Sean Connery said:
Yeah, it really is just controversy for it's own sake. Which can be fun. It's nice to see people running around like the world is on fire.
The issue though is sometimes innocents get caught in the non-existent fire and get legitimate burns.
There was controversy for controversy sake in Britain recently and... it was embarrassing.

I wonder if the people who made the game knew what they were doing. They saw the promo for Dead Space 2 and thought "That's an excellent idea! Lets incite that reaction in people!"
Just the Dead Space 2 promo? Oh, man.

 

CaitSeith

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Lunar Templar said:
Oh this again

I thought we'd already moved on from it and where in to the 'forgetting the crappy game exists' phase of it's life
So the next game that pulls this trick comes sooner? Let's at least pretend that we are learning the lesson this time.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
The Material Sheep said:
Worgen said:
The Material Sheep said:
Worgen said:
The Bucket said:
Worgen said:
Nurb said:
It WAS a tad frustrating that the SJWs had more effect on changing the standing of this game on steam than the conservitives and soccer moms that usually yell about this sort of thing though.

Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.

Yahtzee's humor always makes things better, however.
Extra Credits thing was more based on how the game marketed itself and it marketed itself as a deer hunter game where the deer are replaced by people and graphic executions are the name of the game. The game was marketed for full offensive effect and was hoping to be a hit based on people buying it to express how they wouldn't be told they couldn't buy something and it worked ok.
They did call the game itself sadistic in the video, it wasnt wholly concerned with the marketing campaign. And either way, it is extremely silly to react to a game you believe is attempting to whip up a moral panic to achieve more visibility and get sales by making a video of it wherin you contribute to the moral panic around it. It ultimately doesnt hurt anyone regardless of its quality and content, the best response if you find it that objectionable is to ignore it. I doubt they convinced anyone who was going to buy it to not get it
Because the game marketed itself as sadistic. I agree that the best thing would just be to ignore it, that would have really annoyed the devs, but when everyone else is already talking about it you might as well throw in your two cents.
Why throw in your two cents if you know the best way to disapprove of something like this is to ignore it? Extra Credits were just playing to the newest wave of perpetually offended crowd that is now trendy. Plenty wrong with the game outside of dumb violence.

Why did Yahtzee review it? If it wasn't notorious then he wouldn't have bothered.
He doesn't have a moral problem with the game existing. So it's not like something he feels obligated to see fail or is something of a set back for gaming whatever the hell that means.
You misunderstand. I'm saying if it wasn't for the controversy surrounding it, he wouldn't have batted an eye at it. It would have launched and vanished. It will survive in the popular discussion much longer than it will as a game people play and it is because it came out with a trailer that made it look like a sadistic experiance.
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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el_emmens said:
The Artificially Prolonged said:
There is a homophobic pizza place? What do they do refuse to serve people coming in asking for a meat feast or ham & pineapple? God damn some peole. Do not taint pizza with bigotry, pizza transcends all human pettiness.
Indiana had it's weird "religious freedom act" where businesses could refuse service if something went against the owners religious morals. one of the places was this random ass pizza place that went "we won't cater to gay weddings or functions" THE MASSIVE RAGE was practically as impossible to ignore as the grease on a cafeteria pizza slice
The Artificially Prolonged said:
That is depressing. There was similar thing here in the UK with a bakery refusing to serve for similar reasons but they got taken to court and the courts thankfully saw sense.
*Sigh* Allow me to clarify things, a little. The short version is that some news channel sent an reporter down to a restaurant that they knew was run by a Catholic family. They specifically asked her if her restaurant would cater a gay wedding, and she said that while they're fine with anyone eating in their restaurant, that they would have to refuse to cater a gay wedding if they were asked since that event conflicts with their religious beliefs. That, in and of itself, is a non-story. So instead of going home empty-handed, they ran the story to make it sound like the pizza place was specifically coming-out against gay marriage, when in reality they were just answering the questions of someone who walked into their store.

And now, at least last I heard, the store is closed. Not only because of all the negative PR, but also because people were vandalizing and trashing the store. All because they answered some (seemingly) innocuous questions to a news stations that then spun the story for the sake of webpage hits, that bigger news websites then spun even further.
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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Nurb said:
Watching Extra Credits make itself look rediculous by saying this game was totally different and wrong to exist than the violent games THEY liked to play was also disappointing to see.
That video was released before the game was out, and was based on promo material that specifically advertised the game as something completely different than the final product. Also, you make it sound as though Extra Credits were the only people talking down about the game, when just about everyone (even the Escapist) was talking about what a deplorable game it looked like. Heck, even most reviews talk about how much the final product differs from what was advertised. But no, that's fine. You just want some ammo to use against someone popular, and Extra Credits IS a popular target these days. After-all, what better way to make yourself sound intelligent than by slamming on the opinion of someone popular?
 

el_emmens

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WhiteTigerShiro said:
And now, at least last I heard, the store is closed. Not only because of all the negative PR, but also because people were vandalizing and trashing the store. All because they answered some (seemingly) innocuous questions to a news stations that then spun the story for the sake of webpage hits, that bigger news websites then spun even further.
Gotta love the bias of american news media.
 

Lunar Templar

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CaitSeith said:
Lunar Templar said:
Oh this again

I thought we'd already moved on from it and where in to the 'forgetting the crappy game exists' phase of it's life
So the next game that pulls this trick comes sooner? Let's at least pretend that we are learning the lesson this time.
>.>

The 'Internet'? Learn from it's past transgressions?

I'll believe that when I see it.
 

iller3

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WhiteNachos said:
TheYeIIowDucK said:
So Yahtzee's ultimate opinion on the whole GG issue and everything surrounding it is... "who cares", apparently. Can't say I disagree.
He probably doesn't care, but Hatred is not a GG issue.
^ yeh ... hate to "me too" without any links but, I watch GG'ers from the sidelines like every day. They thought the game was shyte and too cliche` to even play devil's advocate on. I guess their whole narrative now is they didn't have to do anything b/c it backfired on all the moral-hards. I remember when postal-1 came out. It bored the hell out of me and I went right back to playing Simcity. *shrug*
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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I bought hatred day 1, but I'm not going to play it until someone comes out with a mod to replace all the voices with Nathan Explosion quotes and add Dethklok background music.
 

Darth_Payn

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Mikeybb said:
The basketball court analogy is wonderful.
It succinctly expresses my feelings about current internet 'debates' in a way I wasn't sure how to articulate so swiftly.

Reminds me to step back earlier when I find myself dribbling all over the court.
Though, on reflection 'dribbling' isn't a term I want to associate with it given the poo flinging connection.

Also, Jeffrey Cuddletrousers needs to be the name of a protagonist in another game.
I'll be using it for all unnamed protagonists from hereon out.
Jeffrey Cuddletrousers, the Prince of Persia.
That could work.
 

Darth_Payn

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Caramel Frappe said:
Pretty much .. Hatred exists for people to talk about it- only to get more interested and pay for it to see what the fuss was all about.. rather brilliant really. Not needing to be complex, or ground breaking- the controversy around the game itself is enough to make the devs behind the scheme rich.

Even now it's still probably getting bought like crazy because if you try to make a big deal out of it... it'll only create more attention towards the game. If you really hated a game, you wouldn't bother talking about it or giving it attention.
It's the "Springtime For Hitler" of PC games!
 

Grabehn

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I thought the hysteria from "gaming" sites at the moment of this games announcement was fucking hilarious, there's (probably hundreds) of studies at this point that prove games don't make you deranged psychos and yet they went on a witch hunt over an absolutely "nothing" that did just what others games did in the past but happened to do it in the era of "OMAGAWD GAMES ARE A SERIUS THING" So it got picked on their choice of theme.

Yes you kill people in the game and that's the objective, it's basically just zombies with a different skin tone as far as it goes since a videogame is still just a videogame, it's all virtual/fake/fictional or whatever you want to call it, if something in a videogame "makes" you do something like what's depicted, it means you had mental issues to begin with.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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This is one of the most fair reviews you have done i think. One thing though, the world design wasnt that bad. the destructible enviroment like that is something id love in other games.

TheYeIIowDucK said:
So Yahtzee's ultimate opinion on the whole GG issue and everything surrounding it is... "who cares", apparently. Can't say I disagree.
I think thats his opinion on everything....
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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To be honest I stopped taking the idea of the moral censorship of games seriously back when "Night Trap" was the big controversial game for reasons I never fully understood, it apparently got brought before the Senate and everything.

My other go to example is of course the whole ridiculous "Hot Coffee" thing, which while bi-partisan heavily involved Hillary Clinton https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2005/07/senator-clinton-burned-hot-coffee-proposes-grand-theft-free-speech which is a big part of why I have such a hate-on for her and will do everything I can to oppose her. This is also why the Statue of Happiness looks like her not that Rock Star will officially confirm it (for lack of a death wish) https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AotII0VMgBQXdjvOyYH6n8ebvZx4?p=Hillary+Clinton+San+Andreas+censorship&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-exclusiveBkt&fp=1

Then of course we have manhunt http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/19085/sen-clinton-other-politicians-challenge-esrb-concerning-manhunt-2/


From this we can pretty much deduce Hillary Clinton gets around, being pretty much a proponent of trying to have the USA outdo Australia in terms of video game censorship, but that this has been going on pretty much forever, and will likely never go away as long as there are crazy politicians who want a boogie man.... and of course I expect to hear more about it, above and beyond "Hatred" if Hillary decides to use the issue to again try and rally bi-partisan support either during her election campaign or afterwards. Of course this all predates her... so, I imagine someone else will pick up the torch when she's gone.

As far as "Hatred" goes I personally didn't buy it, not because of the content, indeed I love ultra-violence and fairly "dark" material, but because to me it didn't seem particularly good. It seemed to have very little going for it other than a gun slinging rampage, like someone tried to make a video game out of a certain Uwe Ball movie. People used to joke about stuff like this in video games going back to things like "Ikari Warriors", making elaborate jokes about how "well what if this isn't what it appears, and these two guys are on a murder rampage, I mean we have no real context for the bad guys being bad other than the implication that they are because we're shooting them", or even going so far as the whole farce about them being angry golfers (given how the guns were drawn) on a rampage with the national guard trying to stop them from tearing apart Hawaii.... it's like someone made a top down shooter, made the joke a reality, and then said it was something special. It's not even unique, because we've already seen games where your on what amounts to a malevolent murder rampage, pretty much any sand box RPG that lets you kill NPCs does this rather well and actually makes it a little more disturbing and visceral since the option is there, but it's not the implicit purpose of the game.

I'll also say that "Hatred" isn't even that offensive, I mean "Ethnic Cleansing" is offensive (people always forget that one), as pathetic as it was "Custer's Revenge" was offensive, various columbine themed FPS mods were going out of their way to be offensive, and of course we have "Mohammad Sex Simulator 2015" which exists for no other purpose than to be antagonistically offensive (yes it exists). As a result I don't really see the appeal, I mean nowadays if your going to be shocking you have to try harder, there are coders who make offensive video games pretty much for free (doing it for the lulz) that arguably push the envelope further than Hatred ever conceived of... I've never really understood why it got so much attention... even more than "Super Columbine RPG" (yes it exists) which despite how it sounds is actually a pretty balanced analysis of the entire situation, making points about both sides, having briefly gotten it's 5 minutes of exposure after being rejected from contests due to it's content, by people assuming it was something it wasn't, that might even be the actual previous champion for internet outrage.