Would You Play a Well Crafted, Morally Reprehensible Game?

I already have, it was called Hotline Miami. I think it's morally reprehensible to murder people horribly, even if they are drug dealers, pimps or gangsters, but I loved that game. I played the Thieves Guild and Assassin's Guild storylines in both Skyrim and Oblivion, and both of those have you doing horrible things to people, and in those cases you rarely know whether they are good or bad people, you just kind of have to go with what the game is telling you. GTA also has you doing morally repugnant things, but that is also something I have played from time to time.

I guess it's a matter of degrees. I have no issue with the stuff I just mentioned, and I could probably be pushed further along that moral continuum if the game does a good job of making it intrinsic to the story and has you questioning yourself and what you are doing, but there is a place where I would stop. I have never had the desire, for instance, to play the Manhunt games. I gather that it would be too far for me, and I am okay with skipping those titles. I also wouldn't want to play a game that incorporates things like rape or torture, especially if the games don't properly address what you are doing. I think GTA V almost went too far, and I just watched my husband play it, but I think it had a point in the end and I think it was successful. I was supposed to feel like I was doing something very, very wrong. I can certainly understand if someone else found it too much, though.

The thing is, I know that a game is just that, a game. It's fake, not real and it should have no real lasting effect on my. However, I also know that games do make me feel emotions, sometimes quite strongly, even if i logically know that it is just a game and has no basis in the real world. My ability or desire to play games depends much more on if I can handle what it does to me emotionally and whether it has that lasting impression on my psyche. Most games don't, thank goodness. Some games cross that line for me or come very close. As someone who tends to lose myself in games, I can get in the head of the character and disregard my moral compass for a time. But if I don't like the actual feeling of doing it, I will not want to continue. I will have to push back against my own reaction. Much like the torture scene in GTA V, you have to do something that makes you feel like a piece of crap, but you can push past it if you realize that there is a point to it and there is value to what you are doing in the end.

In the end, it's like reading a book like Lolita or American Psycho. You obviously don't necessarily sympathize with the protagonist, you may even hate them and everything that they do, but the point of the work is to make you feel something, anything, even if it is something bad. We can't just have fun art. We also need the art that makes us feel like a piece of crap and question ourselves and where we are.

No. GTA is pretty close to this already and I don't play that.

No, why would I? Kinda surprised to see the poll results here. It's the internet, but I expect more from GB.

When in doubt, what would Ryan Davis do?

I think almost everyone here has already played some sort of morally reprehensible, but largely well done game. Stuff like GTA is pretty popular after all.

Full priced games with microtransactions. Can't get any more offensive than that.

Possibly? I mean I think its actually neat when games can make me uncomfortable. Granted Id like them to actually do something meaningful if they are going to venture into taboo territory. If its just literally shock value shlock like playing a FPS where your a KKK member gunning down black people then no but also that isn't even offensive to me because its being so goddamn blatant about trying to be offensive that Its not even worth paying attention to to be offended.

I mean hell GTA V really disturbed me in a lot of ways but I was sort of thrilled that it did it in a way that didn't seem like it was solely for shock value.

Yep, bring it on. I have no limits when it comes to created non-real entertainment.

@brodehouse: You should definitely, definitely steer clear of the writings of Marquis de Sade. There's a reason sadism was named after that guy. Ugh, I wish I could erase the small bit of it that I read from my memory.

Depends what it's about butyes, there is a point where content actually matters to me more than mechanical fun.

I would

Im sorry to say ... but dark skinned in general D: , I know is wrong and all , but just cant relate really. I mean I can appreciate well done characters regardless of skin color etc. (CJ from GTA San Andreas or Sazh from FF XIII) , but it is harder for me to enjoy the games.

Im sorry to say ... but dark skinned in general D: , I know is wrong and all , but just cant relate really. I mean I can appreciate well done characters regardless of skin color etc. (CJ from GTA San Andreas or Sazh from FF XIII) , but it is harder for me to enjoy the games.

Edit: Maybe part of my upbringing , but from were Im from skin does still have wrong connotations in the social strata Im in (this is in Mexico and more to the point , Guadalajara) and add that that many of my bad experiences in life has been with people with said skin does not vodes well , of course I never generalize but maybe is a subconcious thing :/

Nah don't say sorry when it's because of past personal experiences, I understand
and think you are brave for just saying it =).

It's only natural that you have to be able to relate in some way to a character.
But if you had bad experiences to a certain skin color, of course it's going to affect you.

I think the mass population has already replied to this when the one mission in CoD popped up. The one you even had an option to skip. The airport one? Where you had to take down civilians? They complained about that mission.

They also complained about the terrorist issue in GTA 5 where you had to torture that one guy. I mean, games that are rated M are getting slammed for moral reprehension already.

I seriously doubt they could handle a game about rape over here. That's probably always going to remain in other countries besides America. And I can't blame them, I'm not too fond of those games about rape/torture either. I think it's pretty jacked that people get off to that shit.