My views on the controversy over the new Hitman trailer.

[ElPatron]

Not much of an analogy if there's no basis for it.

Yes there is.

Just because the same thing is portrayed in a different way doesn't mean that it is unacceptable.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Just because the same thing is portrayed in a different way doesn't mean that it is unacceptable.

But what is this allegedly "same thing" you are referring to? At no point did anyone other than yourself make an even tenuous connection between sexual violence and pornography. I certainly didn't. And while I'm aware that there is a certain overlap between the two in some very disturbing and repugnant parts of that industry, I wouldn't draw those comparisons in a general sense.

If you wish to disagree with my assessment of the trailer, that's perfectly fine. But I really can't see any basis for that particular simile.

 

[ElPatron]

Just because the same thing is portrayed in a different way doesn't mean that it is unacceptable.

But what is this allegedly "same thing" you are referring to? At no point did anyone other than yourself make an even tenuous connection between sexual violence and pornography.

I feel like casting a huge block of ballistics gel and just shred it to pieces with jacketed hollow points.

ANALOGY. THE COGNITIVE PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING INFORMATION OR MEANING FROM A PARTICULAR SUBJECT (THE ANALOGUE OR SOURCE TO ANOTHER PARTICULAR SUBJECT (THE TARGET), AND A LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION CORRESPONDING TO SUCH A PROCESS.

YES, I AM MAD. SO MAD MY FLOOR IS TURNING INTO LAVA. THERE WAS NO PART WHERE PORNOGRAPHY WAS COMPARED TO THE TRAILER.

10/10

You win, now PLEASE tell me you were not serious...

 

[Killspre]

I don't think its as big an issue today as you make it. Plenty of games have equal killing of gender in games these days. Games like Skyrim have you killing both genders out for blood or simple town folk, so as for the people who complain what games have they've been playing for the last 10 or so years. There are plenty of more controversial games than a fking trailer that shows BDSM nuns trying to kill Agent 47. My only complaint really is how weird and out of place it felt to me, I mean the Hitman games haven't been known for tits like Tomb Raider and this seemed outta place to me.

 

[LiquidGrape]

I feel like casting a huge block of ballistics gel and just shred it to pieces with jacketed hollow points.

ANALOGY. THE COGNITIVE PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING INFORMATION OR MEANING FROM A PARTICULAR SUBJECT (THE ANALOGUE OR SOURCE TO ANOTHER PARTICULAR SUBJECT (THE TARGET), AND A LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION CORRESPONDING TO SUCH A PROCESS.

YES, I AM MAD. SO MAD MY FLOOR IS TURNING INTO LAVA. THERE WAS NO PART WHERE PORNOGRAPHY WAS COMPARED TO THE TRAILER.

10/10

You win, now PLEASE tell me you were not serious...

Well that was embarrassing.

See, I understand the functions of analogy, but I will absolutely own up to the fact that I utterly mixed up my analogies and similes.
Up to speed now.
Still, with the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I maintain that the analogy lacks basis. Tangential pornography link aside and everything.

I questioned the trailer's conflating of sex and violence, and I simply fail to see an equivalent ethos in the particular mode of argument you cited.
I can see what you were going for with Silent Hill 2 acting as the 'artistic' and Hitman as the 'pornographic' equivalents respectively, but crucially, there was never a fundamental judgement of value assigned to the games on my part. Merely the execution.

And to me, that's where the analogy falters.

 

[ElPatron]

And to me, that's where the analogy falters.

Then I'll try to use another comparison.

There are rappers that talk about the problems of the gangster culture, and others that go all balls to the wall and glorify it - even glamorizing it, in some cases.

But I can't say that 50 Cent is not a valid form of music because I like Coolio.

Hitman games always portrayed those kinds of issues in a "neutral" way - it was up to the player to judge the situations that were presented to him. Now they focused on the sexuality to draw attention to the game - people who have never played Hitman would never guess there was a lot of sexuality in the series.

Now, 47 was acting on self-defense - how is that "worse" than him killing people for money just because of the outfits the girls were wearing? Or how is it bad just because they are women?

Because I couldn't associate the sexualization of the characters with the violence when I watched the trailer. To me they were very separate things, they weren't carrying extra magazines in their boobs, there weren't even small sidearms on the fishnet stockings.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Then I'll try to use another comparison.

The fetishisation of sexual violence seemed disturbingly apparent to me, in how the women were first introduced as little more than sexual objects to be ogled (disrobing, PVC gear, shots lingering on their anatomy) followed by their gratuitous deaths; portrayed in a way which emphasised 47's dominance and the women's "sexy" demise.
Even as they were being gunned down and strangled, the camera seemed intent on showcasing as much of their bodies as was humanly possible. In the trailer, even death was meant to be sexy.

The underlying context of it all (47 cornered and allegedly fighting for survival) is really irrelevant, because its visual content was so thoroughly removed from that scenario. It had one very blatant intention, and it made the most of it.

Again, the issue was never really that there are PVC nuns, or that women are being killed.
The issue was always that the trailer seemed to consider the combination titillating.

 

[rob_simple]

It may not be doing it worse then others but two wrongs don't make a right.
There is no point in this trailer where the designer was aiming at a tasteful presentation, sex and violence manipulation is all they went for.

And what exactly is the problem with a lack of 'tasteful presentation'? Not every game has to be a monument dedicated to good taste and realism; why can't we also have grindhouse style games that glorify guns, guts and tits, exaggerated to the point that no one would take it seriously anyway?

 

[ElPatron]

The issue was always that the trailer seemed to consider the combination titillating.

The combination is only in the eye of the beholder.

In Hitman games, mainly Blood Money, you get satisfaction in killing in the most creative ways possible - it's only normal for death to be sexy in this kind of game. In the Meat King's Party you kill a guy who was in bed with two girls.

I don't see the correlation between the leather/latex/PVC and objectification. To me, it displays dominance of women. Corsets, high heels and fishnets are obvious "femdom" items. In the Meat King's Party the objectification was a lot more obvious - they were using gas masks which dehumanized the girls - again, the game leaves it up to you to interpret the situation. Where they at that party because they enjoy it? Or are they prostitutes? Or are they just drugged up women who are victims of human traffic? We don't know. But I think that the trailer does not objectify women at all.

Again, 47's dominance. He was engineered for dominance is most aspects. His genes are superior to the average male and he was trained since he was a child to be a killer. Him killing women displays the dominance of superior genetics and training, not the superiority of males.

Just the fact that there is actually a hit squad composed entirely by women is supposed to empower them. They were fighting a human weapon, not a regular man. They can't be blamed for losing, the guy is a walking tank.

EDIT: point is, Agent 47 is supposed to be an freak created in a lab that almost touches the unrealistic. His gender is meaningless because if he was created as a female she would have so much testosterone she would probably have to wax her legs every week.

 

[Durgiun]

It's the Expendable Male thing all over again. Shit, as if I hadn't heard enough of it from various YouTubers.

But seriously, anyone who's dense enough to try and off 47 deserves to be removed from the gene pool. That kind of stupidity serves noone.

 

[Fishyash]

My god is this an awful trailer...

You know my reaction to that? I laughed. At a hitman trailer.

That trailer was so cheesy and silly I almost thought it was a parody. I cannot imagine explaining that scene to a friend with a straight face.

 

[Neverstop1987]

These are my thoughts. I've watched this trailer and I didn't enjoy it. I agree with the majority of points made in the IGN article most of us have looked over and I'm insulted that a marketing department would think this is best way to persuade me to buy a product.

When we think more about this situation though I become more upset. As far as I can tell this trailer is not representative of the game play of Hitman: Absolution. The game remains in the sneaky, hidey, disguisey - vein which fans of the series previously enjoyed. So why make an advert that doesn't show game play? Because it's been 6 years since the last Hitman game.

Who is really looking forward to this game who isn't a die hard fan of the series? And how do you get a lot of attention to your product? Get enough people to complain about it and get it on FOX news (specifically fox - largest viewership and one with an image tied to a right-wing sense of tradition and morals).

Once you've had your TV spot, where the advert will be shown again, and then the game play will be shown and maybe the previous games will be shown and plenty of people who otherwise wouldn't have known about your game have seen it now you can say you'll stop airing the ad knowing full well it doesn't effect the product you are launching in November. Also, now not only do you get points for having apparently listened to your protesters you also get to play off the danger-aspect of a game that was attacked by the media.

So marketing really isn't that hard, but sometimes it can be pretty darn evil.

 

[Thespian]

Personally, I think it's funny. And kind of entertaining. Cool? Eh, it's alright. Trailers always seem to do outrageous stuff and I feel jaded to it by now.

What I don't understand is that... Well, we've seen provocatively dressed women before. A lot. Worse than this. We even see them get the utter shit kicked out of them in fighting games.

So why is this a problem? Because of the nun thing? Reeeeally? Look, I don't think they're real nuns, if that helps. If it's because killing religious figures is wrong and shouldn't be portrayed as cool, that shouldn't be a problem since I honestly doubt they are actual nuns. Most nuns don't have RPGs.
So is it just the religious imagery? Grow up. That's being more immature than this trailer.

I like what people say about it being Tarantino-esque. If he did a big art-housey movie about this I bet everyone would eat it up.

The trailer isn't clever, or anything new... It's kind of annoying that YET AGAIN women in a combat role are immediately degraded by wearing tight clothing (and in such small portions, too!), but it's no more offensive than your run in the mill bullshit scantily-clad femme fatale.

But I don't think it's offensive. I think people THINK it is because of the fact that it's nuns, I guess.

Also what the OP said about killing women and stuff. That was very eloquently put.

[sub]actually I kinda thought that the fact that women were being killed here just the same as any bunch of assassins would be killed was sort of progressive in a really weird way[/sub]


EDIT: Oh and I'm totally unfamiliar with the Hitman series, so are we not supposed to be laughing at this? Because I figured it was consciously doing a very camp scene but playing it straight on purpose, Saint's Row 2-style. Is that not what this is? And shouldn't a stealth game be less full-on action?

 

[Neverstop1987]

Thespian I am afraid in my opinion you have missed the point.
The "sexy nun" costume is a recognized symbol of erotica. The trailer, which depicts a group of women being violently murdered by Agent 47 in graphic slow motion, associates sex with violence against women. It is not only offensive but also dangerous.

 

[Leg End]

*snip in the name of Poison*

OP, I think you need to watch dis first.

OT: The only thing controversial about it is how much they are driving the series into the ground.
Now, I think I'll go play Blood Money.

 

[GoaThief]

I've not had much interest in the Hitman series, even tried a demo of one of them (can't remember which, on Xbox 360 anyway) and thought it was pretty boring taking itself far too seriously coupled with clunky controls.

However, this trailer has interest piqued and if the theme carries over into the game proper I might well be sold. I also find it odd that people never really complained about killing presumably innocent people in Hitman. No, I'm not a knuckledragging misogynistic pig either thanks - this trailer is clearly camp or intentionally OTT entertainment with it's tongue planted firmly in cheek. It's nowhere near the borderline, insulting to intelligence Ghost Team 3 video with that blonde....

 

[Jumplion]

First sexualization moment is the first disrobe, at 0:42. The entire motion takes a little under one second. Follow-up of an ass shot. Likewise around a second in length. We'll call it two seconds for easy math. Crotch shot (and fishnets, which I honestly wouldn't have noticed were it not for doing this experiment) immediately following. Under a second. The subsequent footage has roughly twelve seconds of slow-down. The nose-breaking (which was highlighted in the original article), takes place in under half of a second. For those keeping score at home, that's two minutes and twenty seconds of trailer, and roughly three to three and a half seconds of that is intentionally sexually charged. And yet this is grotesque violence-porn? Fewer than four seconds with the vaguest of hints of sexualization and this is the straw the broke the camel's back?

Honestly NewClassic, I find that argument disgusting and extremely depressing coming from someone as intelligent as you, as if somehow the quantity of disgusting content is more important than the quality of it. It's like saying "Out of the Terabyte of storage the guy only had 4 pictures of naked children in illicit acts, so how is that child pornography?" or, a less extreme example, "Only 5 women are slapped compared to the hundreds of women in the movie (as background characters, etc...), how is that depicting violence towards women?"

This argument lacks context. The fact that these women are portrayed in a fairly sexual light while being brutally murdered, no matter how much of it was actually in the trailer, is just disturbing. If this was not attached to a Hitman game, instead an advertisement for a purposefully ludicrous game, the controversy might not be as prominent (though still unacceptable) because within the context of a Hitman game this goes extremely overboard. Yes, the other Hitman games dealt with sex and sexual themes, but not so much that this sort of thing would be the norm.

 

[robotam]

I posted my opinions on an other website so here's it copied and pasted:

This has apparently created some controversy. And I think I have come to the conclusion as to why.

People see this trailer as demonising bald people.

The trailer opens with a bald man in a Motel, washing what appears to be tomato ketchup, from his face and even arm. Everyone thinks this trailer implies that bald people are messy eaters who can't afford to stay anywhere other than cheap Motels. As some young ladies, come to spread the word of god, we see a bald man start to put on a suit.

Most people will definitely laugh at the hilariousness of a man who can't eat without spilling ketchup, wearing a suit. But then it shows that the clumsy oaf missed a spot of ketchup on the back of his head. I mean, what could he have been eating, the crazy bald psycho.

The young ladies have clearly realised that the bald buffoon has left some guns at the orphanage, where the children are likely to find them and could get hurt. So they make their way to the hotel to return them, but a hot wind is blowing and the nuns fear they may pass out due to the heat. So they do the only thing that could ensure their survival, they remove some garments. It is the only way to return the guns and save the orphans after all.


There is a close up of a coin in baldy's hand. Perhaps he stole it from the orphanage or thinks that the coin is sufficient payment for his Motel room. (IE: he's a thief or an idiot)

When the nuns arrive, one of the weapons goes off and a rocket is sent to Slaphead's Motel room. So not only did he leave weapons at an orphanage, the weapons where broken! The chrome-dome, annoyed at the room explosion, completely over reacts and a fight ensues. After the fight only ketchup guy is left. He then loads the guns into a car's boot. Ready to drop them off at another orphanage.



Personally I think people need to realise this idiot just happened to be bald and I doubt the developers meant this as an insult to the No-hair-bear community.

 

[Biodeamon]

people will find anything to ***** about these days if it will make them feel the least bit famous

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Honestly NewClassic, I find that argument disgusting and extremely depressing coming from someone as intelligent as you, as if somehow the quantity of disgusting content is more important than the quality of it.

This argument lacks context. The fact that these women are portrayed in a fairly sexual light while being brutally murdered, no matter how much of it was actually in the trailer, is just disturbing.

I guess my argument came across as speaking purely quantitatively, when the break-down was supposed to be more qualitative. Simply put, having anyone of any body-type in any state of dress implies a level of sexuality that is completely unavoidable. For everyone who gets turned on by fishnet, PVC, and rosary beads, there's someone out there achieving their jollies from conservatively-dressed librarians. This is the nature of human sexuality.

So when I'm trying to qualify a level of sexuality, it isn't the fact that sexually-angled highlights are only minorly occasional, it's more that I hardly saw them as sexual. To point, when I saw the trailer, I was surprised to find that there was meant to be any level of sexualization to it at all. In the same way that I can never imagine that the movie "Zombie Strippers" has anyone watching it for the titillation and more for the inexplicable oddity of the combination. I would be likewise confused if the assassins had been Chippendales dancers dressed up as PVC-leather eskimos.

So, in light of this confusion, I attempted to watch the video with sexualization in mind. And between the slow-motion emphasis on the guns, the overblown artsy pans on the weather, and the sharp cuts highly reminiscent of action movies, the only thing I got from the trailer was that someone tried to get the feel of a Tarantino flick, and did a reasonably decent job emulating it. I was no more sexually attracted to the nuns than I was Gogo from the first volume of Kill Bill. To me, I was trying to understand how the trailer could be attempting to combine sexuality and violence in a coherent package.

Instead, I saw what amounts to six or seven characters get killed advertising a game about killing people. Sex never really entered the equation for me, they were just strippers dressed like nuns who also happened to be assassins.

Had the trailer convinced me that I was meant to get some sort of sexual gratification from the fact that the assassins happened to be stripper-nuns, I could understand the argument. However, a few establishing shots of the general nun-outfitting never did that for me. I was no more aware of the fact that that was meant to be sexual than the close ups of Agent 47 wearing gloves or putting on his jacket or tie. It was clothing, there were characters, there was a fight.

From here, it seemed like people saw sex where I didn't. I tried to quantify some sort of sexualization from it, but the shots seemed more like establishing shots. This is Agent 47's costume, professional, distant, dark room; these are stripper-nun assassins, leather, fishnet, guns, bright outdoors. Contrast established, let's see what happens when one attacks the other.

So, perhaps it did quantify it a little, but I was looking for shots that would lead me to believe that it intended to sexualize, and short of some that could theoretically be taken that way, I didn't see it. Perhaps that was just me.

Instead of using the "It's only four or five images of child porn on a full hard drive" argument, I was more observing that the argument, to me, seemed more "There was sex in Goldeneye, so Goldeneye was clearly meant to be a porn movie." To me, more of the trailer visually, dynamically, and from shot-emphasis seemed like an action teaser-trailer, not a sexually-charged action title.

I couldn't understand how it was meant to be seen any other way. I still can't.