Have you been offended by the content of a game?

I've been offended by how fucking terrible some games are. I was also a little offended at how slapdash and cheap GTAV's handling of its torture sequence was.

@pistolpackinpoet: Just like every violent and brutal Movie or video game like Gears reinforces the american stereotype? If someone has already prejudices against something, they should really stop talking about stuff they mostly do not even understand. Again it is not against you but in general how I feel about these topics.

@generic_username What about very brutal and violent games or movies in front of your family? Are you ok with that?

I think that certain content is offensive to me because it feels, at least from my perspective, to only exist for shock value. As a whole, entertainment within the last 5-10 years seems increasingly shock-oriented. I think a creator has the right to make art as they see fit, but I'd argue that in many cases it doesn't add anything meaningful to the movie, song, or game. It creates controversy that will draw more people to that content because of the scandal, sure, but it doesn't actually add to it.

I'd rather enjoy media that is trying to say something meaningful with its subject matter than just being shocking for the sake of it. It's offensive when you're just trying to offend me, I guess.

Art doesn't offend me.

@falserelic: I have a somewhat funny story about this. I was with you in people overflowing the whole racism thing, and I bought. Playing it i was having fun with it tell I got to like the middle portion of the game, and most of the antagonist were people dressed up as Zulu warriors sacrificing cops to alligators. I still keep playing without batting an eyelid and my dad walked in saw. He saw what was i playing and just walked off and said the game was fucking racist. I was about remark it wasn't, but one of the warriors came out of nowhere and threw a spear at me. I wasn't per say, but I grew some respect for the people who said fuck that game.

Oh god, please don't let me stay lumped in with that statement. The word "anime" was thrown in there to be clear about what I was talking to, not to specify that a man fucking a horse was fan service of a different subset.

I need to read my posts a few more times before actually publishing them.

No, I am absolutely not okay with that.

(Apologies for the double post, I responded to the above before seeing this one.)

The only thing that comes to mind is the ending of The Witch's House, a Japanese indie game. That ending was almost distressingly disturbing to me, and I actually couldn't sleep the first night after witnessing it because of how fucking horrid and sadistic it was. I can think of it now just fine, but for like a MONTH after the fact, I tried to purge the damn thing from my mind and never think about it. It's just a really, really, really damn sad HUGE downer ending that just ruined my week.

I wish I were being hyperbolic about it, but man, it seriously did mess me up for a while.

@random45: I googled that ending and by quick watching through it I guess it was meant to be utterly disturbing. So I guess that is exactly what the creator had in mind with your ending.

@generic_username Ok then never mind. You are then "just" a person with a moral standard. Nothing wrong with that. If you had answered yes then it would be a whole different story. I can totally respect that view than^^

I can't recall a time where I was ever offended by a game I played. I'm much more offended by the actions of people than by any form of entertainment. At least if your playing a game or watching a movie and something offends you it can be turned off.

Actively offended by the content of a video game? There have been plenty of times that I've found some things to be questionable or tasteless, I'll admit, but actively offended by something in the game itself (and not anything surrounding it)? Not much comes to mind. I'm sure it's happened. Would my disgust at the way the plot of Far Cry 3 plays out count? Also I never played Homefront, but the idea of "Press X to Hide In Mass Grave" seems borderline offensive.

If nothing else, I'll bet that something in The Stick of Truth will probably fill that role, but that's South Park; I expect to be offended.

Wow, I played a good amount of that game at release before getting super bored/annoyed and this is the first time it even occurred to me that people would find a way to be offended by that. I could launch into a number of reasons getting upset about that is silly, but I'd rather not ruin this thread.

I'm trying really hard and I can't think of a single thing. Huh. There might have been something small, but nothing comes to mind. I was raised Jewish, but I learned to take that stuff in stride after the kids in elementary school found out. You can say I... wore it on my sleeve.

Oh! Yeah, I remember now. Postal. Nothing specifically was offensive, but the way the game was just such a complete steaming pile of shit, and conducted its "wit" in the laziest way possible... it was just gross. I have no problem with piss. Or shit. Or Nazi jokes. Whatever. But when you just sit there and roll as many controversial subjects as you can into atrocious gameplay, then I get sick to my stomach. The only worthwhile thing to come out of that game is the eventual TANG coverage of the eponymous movie.

No, nothing offends me in any media because I'm an adult and I can handle things.

People who get "offended" are weak if you ask me, I'm sorry.

@development: This was a HUGE upset back than. Killing black zombies in a country like Africa was really racist for many people including the press of course^^

Never have been offended by game content or anything really. Too easy going maybe?

Wha...D:? You take that back , Im offended by this >:3

Basically, games break-up with me constantly.

Why can't I quit you.

The way religious people are portrayed in some games is exasperating. I wouldn't say I'm offended by it, because it's all so predictable. To offend, I think, requires some element of surprise.

Then again, the tendency of anime fans to talk about the standards of "Japanese culture" as if it begins and ends with their dumb cartoons never fails to be offensive, no matter how many times I see it.

(I'm well aware of Super Columbine Massacre, ZOG's Nightmare and shitty H-games. I'm not counting them intentionally. Whenever this discussion comes up, I have to dismiss sub-Flash levels of production value. Otherwise we'd be here all day)

The only recent game that was flat out offensive was probably Call of Juarez: The Cartel. Screwing up subject matter as deadly serious as the War on Drugs and human trafficking is fucking inexcusable. The developers were either incompetent, or just didn't care.

Intellectually offensive? I have to give it to God of War 3. Forget the Devil May Cry reboot, Kratos is still the poster child for what a 12-year old would call an "edgy" antihero. This is a main character who basically throws a violient temper tantrum against his father for more than THREE games.

@jerseyscum: Yeah lets just talk about your problems after all that happened to him and what he did. I am pretty sure that works out fine XD

What do you mean by this? If you mean how they're usually portrayed as being either horrible, murderous monsters or some sort divine warrior who won't shut up about how much he loves God like, say, that one party member in Diablo III, then I totally agree.

I don't really understand why it's so rare to find a person in a video game who's religious, but also fucking kind of normal.

I always felt the Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld quotes in Modern Warfare 2 really turned me off because they are usually meant for quotes to inspire you to PUSH ON.

I don't get offended easily and I'm not an oversensitive pansy, so no.

@crithon: Wait. I got another one: Oliver North voicing himself in Black Ops 2. The scumbag who sold missiles to Iran and illegally funneled the money to Nicaguran terrorists and coke traffickers is now doing voice acting work. Great.

I was deeply offended by every second of Resident Evil 6. What a pile of shit

Nope.

I will never be offended by anything in media unless it is somehow directly aimed at me. Fair enough some people will be, but i'm not in a position where something a video game character says will get me riled up.

I didn't get past the opening of DmC. "Offended," though? Not really.

Never. Plenty of eye-rolling though.

@gunslingerpanda: You missed out on such a great game...

Take back what? The part where I insulted Valkyria Chronicles, or the part where I brought up the Holocaust?

@steadyingmeat said:

Yep, that's what I was getting at.

The reason is probably that most games don't address religion head-on, so most characters are left ambiguous and could believe anything. Which is fine, but it only makes it more childish when they throw in some fanatical minor character and call it a comment on religion.

@video_game_king: Valkyria Chronicles you infidel heathen from the moon >:3

@starvinggamer I could have sworn I wrote this yesterday but playing as Delita would make FFT so much better; though it would probably also change the gameplay quite a bit. Paradox Interactive needs to make an FFT/Vagrant Story/FFXII political simulator.

I don't know if I'd necessarily say "offended," but parts of Duke Nukem Forever, like the alien rape humor, were shockingly tasteless and not even particularly funny to boot.

Yeah, it's really odd seeing the attempt at defending a culture turned into this weird, one-dimensional view of people. It's kind of hard arguing with those guys, as they are convinced that they are standing up for an entire culture, but to act as though anime epitomizes Japanese culture is really disturbing. Sure, there are certain things that are only in anime because it's Japanese, but that doesn't mean Japan can be summed up entirely by anime.

I am an anime fan myself, but I don't even begin to think I have a grasp on actual Japanese culture. It's the equivalent of some white guy visiting Japan, only going to Akihabara, and then coming home to tell stories about how Japan is exactly how they imagined it. It's not reality, it's a small section of reality that is specifically designed to cater to their tastes.

No, because I'm not a child. Grow up and don't take things so personally people, they clearly didn't make it to offend you (because you're not that special).

Yay for people conflating "I have never been personally offended because of a game" with "I'm not offended by games because i'm not a stupid child". I think a lot of you should try and be a bit more considerate of people feeling like groups they identify with are being belittled or mishandled, especially if you're a straight white dude who has never actually suffered from that kind of ignorant prejudice. "I'm not a thin-skinned pansy" only goes so far when the most you've been through is being called a nerd on the playground.

Seriously you guys, fuck Flower.

I cannot recall ever being "offended" by a game, no.

Don't act like on, then.

I'm not sure if offended is the right word, but I can't watch Patrick's Binding of Isaac stuff because I think it's gross looking. Also that style of game doesn't do it for me.

EXACTLY!

There are plenty of terrible things in the real world to find offensive. I tend to stay away from any work of fiction that I think is too "heavy". Why spend my leisure time doing something I know is actively going to bum me out?

This is the thing that immediately sprang to mind when I said yes.

Yeah, this is the only thing that sticks out in my mind. The "concentration camp" scene in particular was super gross, but that game has deep issues portraying war in general.

Or keeping its Nazi mythos straight.

There was an artist that tied up a dog and let it starve to death in an art gallery because no one have the balls to saved it. That was his piece.

@jerseyscum: yes, there's a bit of like immature sense of "Edgy realism" with these designs. "It's so dangerous that we need just as dangerous as the bad guys." Like in Black ops 1, I felt like my skin crawl in the cuba levels, compared to Metal Gear Solid - Peace Walker where you pretending to be Che Guevara, and over throwing Banana Factories in order to upgrade mother base in order to sell Magazines of your exploit to upgrade your killer robot division. It's a weird Capitalism simulator in between Central american political history, that game made me happy like learning the culture.

Hmm, I'm really trying to come up with something that I feel offended me. Probably not, seeing as I take offended to mean feeling insulted to some degree or another. I've been unsettled, disturbed, disgusted, annoyed, depressed, infuriated, scared, and embarrassed by games, but not insulted. Wait, I was slightly insulted that Lego Marvel Super Heroes wouldn't let me turn off hint pop-ups, and they never fucking stop showing up. I get it, Storm can put out fires, you taught me that 20 minutes ago, stop fucking telling me!