David Cage tackles domestic abuse in latest Detroit: BH trailer.

[maninahat]

Pretty consistent for what I've seen of David Cage; which is to say, tone death, trashy, derivative story telling that makes way too big a deal about offering choices, all the while either failing to offer sensible choices (i.e, how can a futuristic robot have free will, but can't report to social services or the police?)

Do you want to play a video game where the resolution to the scenario is "And then they called the cops?" That's fairly dull and unexciting. Sure it's not realistic, but most of the shit that happens in video games is unrealistic.

It doesn't have to be realistic, the writers simply need a scenario where that plausibly isn't an option. Most thriller movies (including Hitchcock's) will at least offer some hand-wave reason as to why calling the cops won't work, help, or be desirable. If the game doesn't bother with that, it asks the audience to accept something that, on the face of it, is stupid and implausible. We're presented with a sophisticated, expensive looking robot housemaid that has no means to contact the authorities if it sees something going wrong? You need at least some built in reason for why the robot can't do the obvious thing, or alternatively, don't bother with this hamfisted scenario in the first place.

 

[Warhound]

Wow, that was like... soap opera or Hallmark-movie levels of bad.

It is so cliche it was like he used TVtropes to write each scene. It is like Cage went "Oh I saw single aggressive dad on a tropes page, lets throw that in there. Oh agrro dad hides a gun with (Booze or medication) thats a nice trope, add it in! Abusive daddy says 'I wuv you' after being abusive, I have seen that in every Law and Order SVU episode, make sure that gets put in!"

Cage should try to be a daytime TV writer, he would fit in because thats like, the only crowd who would find this deep or impactful.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

I'd accept this explanation for 99% of games, mainly because those games don't have a mouth breathing moron talking about how deep he's being in talking in such a serious subject matter while doing it with the subtly and grace of a drunk and horny rhino. Cage can't have it both ways.

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

?Thank you for calling 911, what?s your emergency??

?OMG a man just broke into my house, please help!!?

?...Ok we'll send a car over to your location ASAP. What?s your address??

?Oh, it?s 234 Baker St*. Please hur*THUD!*?

?Ma?am, you still there? Ma?am please respond...?

?.....?

Well, lesson learned. Never call the cops during a home invasion ever. Just Home Alone the situation.

 

[Hawki]

Well, lesson learned. Never call the cops during a home invasion ever. Just Home Alone the situation.

Steal your parents' gun, shoot the robbers, get sent to psch eval, then get put in a film with Elijah Wood that shows that you're still a psycho?

...what? That's what happened isn't it?

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Well, lesson learned. Never call the cops during a home invasion ever. Just Home Alone the situation.

And if you live in the boonies where the cops are going to take hours to arrive?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Well, lesson learned. Never call the cops during a home invasion ever. Just Home Alone the situation.

And if you live in the boonies where the cops are going to take hours to arrive?

...you call the cops and defend yourself best you can.

Better than just skipping to step two and not having a chance at backup.

I mean, we can invent scenarios where trying to call for help is useless, but at some point you're just screwed.

 

[Erttheking]

Well, lesson learned. Never call the cops during a home invasion ever. Just Home Alone the situation.

And if you live in the boonies where the cops are going to take hours to arrive?

There's a difference between a situation where calling the cops is an ineffective option and just saying never bother calling the cops ever.

 

[Zhukov]

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

Speaking as someone who has had to call the cops to intervene in a domestic violence situation, that's a pile of sloppy, steaming bullshit.

 

[Zhukov]

Bleh.

I have nothing whatsoever against games depicting domestic violence or other sensitive material.

But David Cage is not the writer you want doing it. He's not really a writer you want doing anything. He's a miserable hack.

That scene is what you would get if you typed "domestic abuse scene with android" into a script-writing algorithm. It's every cliche movie scene on the subject rolled into one. Because that's what Cage does, he just imitates medicore movies and gets away with it because the writing standards in games are so low that sub-par movie scripts looks passable when compared to the puerile shit that serves as writing in 99% of games.

Plus the scene doesn't even make sense. Why is a robot allowed to commit violence on its owner? Why can't it notify the cops?

Imagine how much more interesting and involved the scene would be if you had to work around the the restricions of the robot's programming to distract or defuse the abuser long enough for the cops to show up. Plus it would allow for a more nuanced exploration of the subject matter than "just shoot the arsehole".

 

[maninahat]

Imagine how much more interesting and involved the scene would be if you had to work around the the restricions of the robot's programming to distract or defuse the abuser long enough for the cops to show up. Plus it would allow for a more nuanced exploration of the subject matter than "just shoot the arsehole".

See, that would be a compelling story and game. You are designed so you can't act aggressively or disobediently against your owner, so its up to you to figure out a way to side step those limitations. The easy, straightforward options aren't there, so it encourages creative, quick thinking, and also raises an interesting philosophical point about whether we should deliberately design machines with the capacity to cause harm.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

Speaking as someone who has had to call the cops to intervene in a domestic violence situation, that's a pile of sloppy, steaming bullshit.

It must not have been that serious then. If someone is posing an immediate threat to your life, having viables means of self defense, whether through training or a weapon, will always trump waiting for the cops to show up. Most often they?d arrive ?just in time? to investigate the damage that?s already been done, unless you?re incredibly lucky to have one driving by at the time.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

The code has been revealed! How Cage's writing can be so infuriatingly poor is finally unveiled...at 25 mins onwards. Woolie is the sage I have been needing all this time.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Hopefully Cage tackles his poor writing skills next.

 

[Erttheking]

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

Speaking as someone who has had to call the cops to intervene in a domestic violence situation, that's a pile of sloppy, steaming bullshit.

It must not have been that serious then. If someone is posing an immediate threat to your life, having viables means of self defense, whether through training or a weapon, will always trump waiting for the cops to show up. Most often they?d arrive ?just in time? to investigate the damage that?s already been done, unless you?re incredibly lucky to have one driving by at the time.

Call my crazy, but I think he knows more about how serious it was than you do.

And do you have any sources to back this up? At all? Because it sounds like you're basing it all off of "because I say so." And I'm sorry, but I don't consider you to be an authority on the subject.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

Speaking as someone who has had to call the cops to intervene in a domestic violence situation, that's a pile of sloppy, steaming bullshit.

It must not have been that serious then. If someone is posing an immediate threat to your life, having viables means of self defense, whether through training or a weapon, will always trump waiting for the cops to show up. Most often they'd arrive 'just in time' to investigate the damage that's already been done, unless you?re incredibly lucky to have one driving by at the time.

That's... no, that's terrible advice. Unless you live out in the boonies where it'd take anyone 3 hours to get there, the best advice if someone is threatening your life is to contact the authorities and get the fuck out of there if you can. Escalating the situation with a weapon is just asking to turn the domestic violence into a god damn homicide, like... fuck.

Now, there can always be problems when contacting the police depending on the nature of the local department, but seriously, escalating the situation by fighting back with a weapon is the last resort, not the fucking go-to response. God damn.

 

[Zhukov]

Not to mention it?s pretty useless.

Speaking as someone who has had to call the cops to intervene in a domestic violence situation, that's a pile of sloppy, steaming bullshit.

It must not have been that serious then. If someone is posing an immediate threat to your life, having viables means of self defense, whether through training or a weapon, will always trump waiting for the cops to show up. Most often they?d arrive ?just in time? to investigate the damage that?s already been done, unless you?re incredibly lucky to have one driving by at the time.

Alrighty.

Before we continue, I have to ask, what is your experience in matters of self defense and violence, domestic or otherwise?

I realise that's a potentially very personal and sensitive question even on an anonymous forum, so if you don't wish to answer for any reason then say so and I'll drop it immediately.

For my part, I have witnessed multiple instances of domestic violence of varying degrees of severity, against family members, friends, housemates and complete strangers. In those instances where I was able I intervened, verbally, physically and by contacting the cops. I have several years of combative and self-defense training, predominantly of the unarmed variety, and I have had to employ that training roughly a dozen times (depends on what exactly counts, some incidents were defused just by verbal warnings and making it clear I knew what I was doing).

In short, I know all too fucking well what I'm talking about and I cannot but take exception to statements like "it must not have been that serious then".

Lastly, in any kind of violent situation in which you are trying to stay safe the first and best option is to flee if at all possible. It isn't sexy, it won't feed your ego, it doesn't make you look like a badass and it won't give you a fun story to tell, but it is 100% the pragmatic course of action.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I suppose I wasn?t clear enough. Call the cops all you want, but in the meantime do whatever you can to protect yourself. Because the attacker, you know, probably won?t agree to just sit back and wait along with you for them to show up. Fleeing the scene might not always be a viable option either, especially if you have loved ones in harms way. It?s a fact of human nature to want to protect those you love. Unfortunately adrenaline can cloud judgement, so it?s never as easy as it sounds.

Having said that, it seems that society has gotten to the point where we can no longer trust individuals as citizens enough anymore to take some responsibility for themselves in this regard. Everything automatically gets delegated to the ?authorities? because the media has literally convinced the populace that the tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners out there are all ?nuts?. Individuals weren?t always thought of as being this irresponsible or helpless, and there certainly aren?t enough cops to babysit every altercation.

 

[Naldan]

I find the depiction of women in this scenario very unsettling. Women, already abused by their husbands, parallized by the trauma they have to endure with the recurring danger of heavy physical and mental abuse, are depicted as life-less robots who are implied to have a choice in the first place, which also are described here as only to be solvable by varying forms of violence they are forced to perform themselves, as this is the only way to "Become Human", as in before that, they're inhuman appliances.

Honestly, I don't know how I should feel about this.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I find the depiction of women in this scenario very unsettling. Women, already abused by their husbands, parallized by the trauma they have to endure with the recurring danger of heavy physical and mental abuse, are depicted as life-less robots who are implied to have a choice in the first place, which also are described here as only to be solvable by varying forms of violence they are forced to perform themselves, as this is the only way to "Become Human", as in before that, they're inhuman appliances.

Honestly, I don't know how I should feel about this.

Cage comes off as awkward, and it probably doesn?t help if things get lost in translation due to differing cultural norms. I?ve never been to France so idk. But I think what he?s trying to do here is present a uniquely human situation of dysfunction and violence, and show how even a robot can learn to care about the victims enough; ultimately to make decisions as an emotionally affected human would.

In a weird way, he may even be trying to say that society has become so apathetic that a robot needs to show how to appropriately respond in these situations. Far too often we hear about women that remain in abusive situations for various (ultimately stupid) reasons. Maybe this game is partly aimed at empowering them, as encouragement to break the cycle.

But again, the awkward stigma which Cage?s previous work has somewhat inadvertently/unintentionally created that may be the biggest hurdle.

 

[Erttheking]

I suppose I wasn?t clear enough. Call the cops all you want, but in the meantime do whatever you can to protect yourself. Because the attacker, you know, probably won?t agree to just sit back and wait along with you for them to show up. Fleeing the scene might not always be a viable option either, especially if you have loved ones in harms way. It?s a fact of human nature to want to protect those you love. Unfortunately adrenaline can cloud judgement, so it?s never as easy as it sounds.

Having said that, it seems that society has gotten to the point where we can no longer trust individuals as citizens enough anymore to take some responsibility for themselves in this regard. Everything automatically gets delegated to the ?authorities? because the media has literally convinced the populace that the tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners out there are all ?nuts?. Individuals weren?t always thought of as being this irresponsible or helpless, and there certainly aren?t enough cops to babysit every altercation.

...What the hell are you talking about? You said it was pointless to call the cops. Not "in the meantime you have to do something" you said it was pointless, end of story. And here's a suggestion. Take your loved ones and run with them.

I wouldn't talk about media coloring one's perception if I were you. You have a very unsupported view of how how to respond to a violent situation. And I doubt you have first person experience to back it up. And yes, you should call the cops in violent situations because cops are infinitely more well equipped to deal with these situations than you or I ever will be. I don't know why you think there being tens of millions of guns removes the need to call cops, but as someone who has had to call the cops multiple times on his crazy ***** sister, your approach? It doesn't work. At all. If I had taken your advice, I would've gotten my skull cracked with a frying pan.