God of War Team "Pulling Back" From Violence Against Women

[The Wooster]

God of War Team "Pulling Back" From Violence Against Women

God of War: Ascension will feature a kinder, gentler, more gender-aware Kratos.

During the course God of War series, perpetually disgruntled anti-hero, Kratos, has butchered men, women, children, gods, myths and monsters, all in spectacularly gory fashion. It's to be expected that the upcoming prequel, God of War: Ascension, continues the series' gore-soaked legacy, but according to design manager, David Hewitt, the development team will be pulling a few punches, particularly if those punches are aimed at women.

"There are some things we've pulled back from," he told IGN. "I think where this has been an issue is with violence against women -- the team's pulled back from some of that and assessed that a little more carefully."

"There are certain things that carry has a different kind of resonance that we don't want to get into," he continued. "This isn't about statement-making in that regard. It's about fleshing out this character."

Kratos is no stranger to violence against the fairer sex. In God of War III he used a defenseless young woman as a door stop and broke an elderly woman's neck with one hand, and let's not even go into all the semi-naked Gorgons he's made shorter by unorthodox means. So why is Sony Santa Monica suddenly concerned about Kratos' attitude towards his female victims? It could be because the game features a younger, "more human" Kratos. One that doesn't have the blanket rationale of revenge to account for his gruesome actions. Or it could be because the recent bouts of controversy surrounding the trailers for Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution have turned the issue of violence against women into a maelstrom of bad PR that has developers fleeing for the hills.

The team also seems to be reevaluating the use of violence in God of War as a whole. When asked if there was a line they wouldn't cross in regards to Kratos' violent acts, Hewitt responded with the following:

"In fact the team has a set of rules that define those sorts of things very clearly. Where it shows itself is how the combat designers and animators have designed Kratos' moves. He's always leaning forward, he's always moving forward. He's seeking revenge and he's after his ultimate objective and he will tear through enemies -- rip them in half -- as quickly as he can. But there's not a lot of flourishes, there's not any kind of enjoying the moment. There's nothing about this that he's enjoying."

Source: IGN [http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/07/19/where-god-of-war-ascension-draws-the-line-on-violence]



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[Veldel]

Nooo don't tone down violence against woman I like butchering em almost as much as I like butchering children with plasma miniguns.

OT:Kinda suprised about this coming from GoW's development team.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

You mean not ripping the head off of Pandora immediately after rescuing her wasn't enough of a step in Kratos' character development?

I'm disheartened by this news. Not just because it means a very dramatic and pigeon holed adjustment in Kratos character, but because ultra violence is still fine when its a man doing it against other men... and aparently children.

Although I'm sure we might see Kratos become even cuddling to kids at a future date.

And then old people...

And then puppies...

Until we reach the point that instead of liberating your spine and using your skull at a talking puppet, Kratos will sit down with every opponent and talk out his differences with them.

Press A to empathize and B to apologize. QTE now involve descalating the emotionally charged situation with sunshine and rainbows.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I bet he's still plenty violent towards men.

He's freakin Kratos, he butchers everyone, it's part of his character. He is an equal oppurtunity psychopath.

 

[PureIrony]

I'm more concerned about the notion that a pre-parricide Kratos wouldn't enjoy fighting. I mean, I could see a younger version of the character as more cautious and pragmatic and a less brutal fighter than the rage fueled version we're acquainted with, but the idea of Kratos having the skill and status he does in the Spartan army, as a member of the Spartan army, and not at least taking pride in battle, just seems strange.

 

[Compatriot Block]

This is the wrong type of change, I think. Kratos has never given off the impression that he hates women in particular. He hates everyone equally.

I think that rather than trying to "protect" female characters in video games, designers should treat them exactly like they would a male character.

I can't blame them though, because lately if you have a situation that could be seen as unfair to women in your game you run a real risk of having a lot of negative public response.

 

[Sylveria]

Score one for gender equality huh. Just another case of the backwards sexism in gaming saying women need to be protected or treated more gently.

Like someone above me said, Kratos kills everyone and thing he comes across. It's not about men or women, he doesn't care. If he was blatantly misogynistic it would be another issue (I still wouldn't agree with it.. equality works both ways), but at least then there would be a reason other than "Oh there's a lot of sexism talk around lately, we better cut out the women violence."

Someone needs to make a game where it's nothing but a nun shooting super hot male rapists in the nuts with violent, brutal detail. Maybe then we'll have enough male exploitation and violence that people will say it's balanced out and we can drop all this "women are fragile flowers" bullshit.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

In a few years the only enemies we'll be able to fight in games are white males in their mid 20s to late 30s.

 

[frizzlebyte]

The way they talk, you'd think it's a bloody miracle GOW players don't have the urge to spontaneously rip all women apart at the gut or something.

On the other hand, I can't decide if it makes me a bad person to find their "solution" totally stupid on the grounds that I never found God of War's violence toward women to be that disturbing in the first place.

*minisnip*

...until we reach the point that instead of liberating your spine and using your skull at a talking puppet, Kratos will sit down with every opponent and talk out his differences with them.

Press A to empathize and B to apologize. QTE now involve descalating the emotionally charged situation with sunshine and rainbows.

That sounds like my light-side Consular Jedi in KOTOR, actually. Funny that.

 

[Beautiful End]

No, that's Kratos. He kills everyone just because they're in his way. Literally.

Even if this is a prequel where he still isn't as pissed as in GoW3, he has always been good ol' angry Kratos. Hell, that's the reason why he murders his family: He was blinded by rage and his thirst for gore and stuff. And that's why he gains his powers are Ares' servant. And that's why he kills Ares too.

I can't really picture him destroying an entire village, killing tons of men and then when he reaches a woman and a children, he goes "Oh, my apologies. Be on your way now while I murder the male members of your family".

Besides, we're used to him killing pretty much everyone by now. If this was a completely new game with new characters and all, then sure, don't start off with the wrong foot. But by now, it's a bit late for that.

 

[Scorpid]

Oh, god damn it. In other words "We've decided to use sexism to fight sexism".

Bingo.
"OH you're a woman. I'm sorry my lady let me hold the door so you can escape, I was going to use your corpse to solve a puzzle but don't worry about that gentle woman I shall find a man to unfairly murder instead." -Kratos <3

You know what really bugs me is that this seems insulting to gamers like they're saying we can't define sexism as anything but bad things that happen to women. I mean I understand their hesitance, the Lara Croft controversy was just people that were legitimately concerned about sexism not thinking about the context of what was happening in the trailer. SO I understood where they came from but I couldn't agree with them.

 

[veloper]

If the devs were so concearned about equality, they'd focus on giving the female NPCs an equal fighting chance against Kratos as the men.

This is the exact opposite. They're moving closer to the traditional role model. Makes sense too as the intended audience are men.

 

[dragongit]

So, no killing women, is this going to change the part of God of War, where he finds random whores and just shags the hell out of them? All while during the game he's on his rampage for the death of his beloved wife and child. You know, honoring their memory by brutally killing everyone around and shagging random women... wholesom family goodness God of War is.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

Violence against men = A-okay

Violence against women = omg sexist

 

[Tanis]

Sexism bro, not cool.

If you wanna get equal treatment you gonna accept the good with the bad.

When the ship is sinking you let the kids in the lifeboats first, maybe the pregnant chicks, but everyone else gets equal 'omg we're gonna die'.