"Forced Castration" Coming to Age of Wushu

[Evil Moo]

That's actually quite interesting, as weird as it is. This sort of player centric world building is exactly the sort of thing MMOs would excel at over any other type of game. I'd like to see this sort of thing happen more often, though perhaps in a less unpleasantly themed way, maybe you could even have people hired by the developers to start their own clans and events in such a way that players would then self perpetuate the content and have it evolve according to their actions.

 

[mooncalf]

After careful consideration... I find this absolutely hilarious.

 

[stormeris]

I wasn't a big fan of MMOs anyway, but, Jesus, isn't this a little overboard? I have a feeling they're just doing this nonsense for the shock value, more publicity and other crap.

Not a fan, not a fan.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

All the people who think that this is too dark for a game, please, play some Dwarf Fortress.

 

[Lieju]

I have however to wonder, how much the outcry is lessened by the fact that it is done to males.....

I dunno, I'm hearing a lot of outrage on this thread, for example. And I suspect most of the boys/men having issues with this don't ever have to face the threat of castration in real life...

I don't have a problem with this. For one, it's one MMO, if you want one where you can play a male character without this threat, there are plenty to choose from.
And secondly, it's not exactly the ability to go cutting the junk off of noobs, it sounds like doing it is not simple and your victim needs to be on a high enough level.

And of course you can choose to do this.
Can female characters even join this group?

 

[stormeris]

All the people who think that this is too dark for a game, please, play some Dwarf Fortress.

It's not TOO DARK, it's just distasteful and completely unnecessary in my opinion.

There are other ways of showing EVIL without chopping other people's dicks off xD
Though i can see a lot of feminists loving this game feature...

 

[Darks63]

Two thoughts went through my mind while reading this article.

1. "Why would they do this?"
2. "I guess they can forget about teabagging him afterwards."

Was this actually a big thing in China back in the day? I'm curious as to if they can at least try to hang onto the pretense of "historical accuracy", or if this is just some weird take on the "nutshots" in Combat Arms.

Oh yes. Household guards and some generals too. Being castrated was sort of like... marrying the Emperor as a dude. It was the ultimate pledge of loyalty and trust.

An Emperor liked the idea of castrated generals because it meant a coup in an attempt to establish their on dynasty was essentially impossible. This allowed for generals to be granted incredible powers and responsibility without the concern of revolt.

It also kept the imperial wives/harem safe from the sexual advances of men other than the emperor.

OT: Bah you have been able to castrate and blind enemies in CK2 since the Legacy of Rome DLC this ain't all that shocking to me.

 

[james.sponge]

Fun idea, now they should add Armless Dragon clan that hunts adventurers and bites off their arms permanently

 

[LordMonty]

This world is intresting and strange at times... this is a bit of both. Let it be as it is, but please note in the annuals of video games 'WTF' next to this video game.

 

[Iron Criterion]

...My god.

Looks like, they want the D.

 

[bliebblob]

Sexual subtext aside, I don't know where I stand on this.

The optimist in me is saying this is neat! Imagine if other games did this! Like you could be a vampire in elder scrolls online (which I'm sure will be an option in some way at some point) but there would be no clear indication (like a little symbol above your head or whatever) and you could stealthily turn others somehow.

But the realist/pessimest in me knows for a fact that you can give an mmo community anything at all, and they'll find a way to grief with it. And finding a way to "misuse" a mechanic like this wouldn't even be a challenge.

Do you need to get forcefully and uncosentually sexually violated to become a vampire? Also its the whole gang violation stuff forced upon players who dont want to have their characters violated in tht way that makes it more then just a bit icky.

If you want to chop your junk off.. go ahead not my business... but if you and four of your friends decide to go around chopping other guys junk off for shits and giggles? Yeah... no... such behavior should not be encouraged.

Also becoming a vampire is considered "cool" and "disirable" by many.

Getting your junk cut off in what amounts to a gang rape event? Yeah no...

Seriously i can not believe the amount of thumbs up this idea gets on these boards. With all the bullshit that games are allready blamed for do we really need to support this kind of idea too?

Also it really surprises me that the chinese goverment lets this get through.. considering that they even fought a massive legal battle against WoW and most western MMOs and/or making it very hard for them in general.

There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding going on here. What I'm saying is that I like the idea of something permanent and not necessarily desired happening to your mmo character. Like a scar for losing a duel, or something more complex like the vampire idea. Even if it could easily become a griefing tool.

What I am not saying is that I like this particular implementation of the idea. After having read the wikipage on the kidnapping mechanic someone posted earlier, it's become clear to me they're going for a surprisingly gnarly vibe. The kind where majorly getting d*cked over is very much part of the game, kind of like EVE. That's really not my thing, so I won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. However, I also don't think it's correct to condemn them for making such a game either. Not as long as it's properly marked as 18+ and all that jazz. Which makes me want to quickly address something about your post that stood out to me.

Namely these parts right here:
"If you and four of your friends decide to go around chopping other guys junk off for shits and giggles? Yeah... no... such behavior should not be encouraged."
"With all the bullshit that games are allready blamed for do we really need to support this kind of idea too?"

First you imply violence in games, especially sexual violence, is a bad thing that should be stopped. Almost going so far as to equate fantasy violence to real violence.
Then, just a few lines later, you argue that violent games being blamed for all sorts of bad things (I assume you mean school shooting tragedies etc.) is bullshit. Yet within the same sentence you also strongly imply game developers should comply to the demands of those claiming a link between those tragedies and gaming, simply to avoid their indignation.

So basically: which is it? Are you OK with violence in games or not? Either answer is fine with me BTW, I'm not demanding a reply or anything.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Yeah, no. I imagine if the genders were swapped this would have gotten a completely different response. This is just griefing taken to the next level. No thanks.

 

[waj9876]

Does this actually affect the character in any way? Do you have to join the clan if you don't want to?

If this negatively affects the character in any way, even if they turn down the invitation, then I can bet they'll be removing this soon.

 

[Sectan]

ALlowing players to force permanent world change in the game, thus giving more fredom? 100% behind this even if i dont play this game.

Both getting your bits chopped off and getting a sword through your chest are awful, but the sword through the chest is just violence with a quick stab stab done. whereas the castration is borderline and probably crossing over into torture territory. And it takes a pretty eh..."Different" kind of mind to torture someone compared to just killing them.

How it works in an MMO I guess we'll see. Although if somebody ever told me castration was a mechanic in an MMO I'd probably look for a reason to politely get to the other side of the room as fast as possible.

ALL violence is torture unless it resutls in death, in which case its murder.
you cant just slap someone and brush it of "its just violence".

I'm going to have to disagree with you. A good amount of people here would have no qualms with shooting a Russian in CoD or Battlefield, even it if just included shooting him in the leg to stop him from running, but I doubt very many people would want to torture that same NPC. Torture involves intent to cause pain to someone in a state of helplessness and has little to no justification, whereas violence has some sort of motive to it other than simply causing pain regardless of how shitty the motivation is.

Torture is violent, but not all violence is torture. Punching someone in the face is completely different than say...tying someone down and punching them in the face. I guess the only real difference is intent.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

What a bizarre idea. Oh well, if people are having fun chopping dicks off online, then who cares? It's not like we're all saints here. We have all killed thousands upon thousands of men, women, animals, etc, in videogames.

I play Age of Wushu now and then, even though I don't like the mechanics, the combat, the lack of interaction between players (from my experience anyway). I just fuck around admiring the view, doing a little quest here, a little quest there. I just can't help it, the game is huge and packed with truly beautiful locations. I just wish I could enjoy the rest of it, and not only just the visuals.

Good thing I play a female character, though.

 

[KOMega]

I like this idea. And before people get all fired up, I like the game mechanic, not the castration bit.

What I'm saying is that I like the idea of something permanent and not necessarily desired happening to your mmo character. Like a scar for losing a duel, or something more complex like the vampire idea. Even if it could easily become a griefing tool.

What I am not saying is that I like this particular implementation of the idea. After having read the wikipage on the kidnapping mechanic someone posted earlier, it's become clear to me they're going for a surprisingly gnarly vibe. The kind where majorly getting d*cked over is very much part of the game, kind of like EVE. That's really not my thing, so I won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. However, I also don't think it's correct to condemn them for making such a game either. Not as long as it's properly marked as 18+ and all that jazz. Which makes me want to quickly address something about your post that stood out to me.

I think it is supposed to be a greifing tool of sorts. Like minor faction based objectives that sorta matter, rather than "oh we must fight you because you picked a different faction color on character creation".

Also, I trust that the gaming public is smart enough or at least has enough common sense to not have this effect their real life behavior, which seems to be the central problem with a lot of people talking about it here.
If there are idiots who will be influenced to go out and actually castrate people out in the streets because of this game, I highly doubt they were sane and well-adjusted people to begin with.

 

[Strazdas]

I'm going to have to disagree with you. A good amount of people here would have no qualms with shooting a Russian in CoD or Battlefield, even it if just included shooting him in the leg to stop him from running, but I doubt very many people would want to torture that same NPC. Torture involves intent to cause pain to someone in a state of helplessness and has little to no justification, whereas violence has some sort of motive to it other than simply causing pain regardless of how shitty the motivation is.

Torture is violent, but not all violence is torture. Punching someone in the face is completely different than say...tying someone down and punching them in the face. I guess the only real difference is intent.

you completely missed the point. Shooting him in a leg IS torture.

Torture is the practice or act of deliberately inflicting severe physical pain and possibly injury on a person

Violence is deliberate physical pain (severity can be discussed, i admit).

Capcha: we go forward
i sure hope so.

 

[Lightknight]

Wow, that'd certainly make for an interesting "And that's when I got out of an MMO" story.

This is, remarkably distasteful. A lot of PR though.

 

[Thyunda]

Wow, that'd certainly make for an interesting "And that's when I got out of an MMO" story.

This is, remarkably distasteful. A lot of PR though.

Eunuchs were real people in the setting. What exactly is distasteful about this? Or...or is this too mature a subject for videogames to depict?

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Virtual gang genital mutilation
Dark places that developers going to