Taboos in Video games

[Orcboyphil]

I've just been playing DA:O and something occured to me. Theres a point in the game where one of your decisions can lead to the death of a child, with you potentially being the exucuter. What really got me thinking was this is extremly rare in compter games. You can wade through gore and stalk and kill but you can't do it to children, or the disabled. In fallout for example, you can shoot up the kids in Megaton and the only ill effect seems to be they run away screaming. Heck you can shoot them with the MIRV and they don't even get a mild suntan. I understand why game designers shy away from this aspect of gameplay, no company wants to be known for a child killing sim. But there are also taboos in gamming that are far less sensible.
For example, sex, in the GTA games you can hire hookers and beat them to death, but when they get in you car for a little hanky panky, the cam suddenly moves to under the car and all that happens is it shakes in a very Carry On manner. Games also seem to have the most chaste strip clubs in the world, you can blow away all the strippers and run around like a maniac, but they never remove there tops. Mass effect has a very controversial sex scene, where you get to see hot alien... umm sideboob I can understand where the publishers are comming from with Americas increasing prudish attitude towards nudity. Look at a seventies explotation film compared to the equivlent noughties remake and you'll find the seventies had a far more liberal view when it came to nudity.
Another big nono in gamming as well seems to be drugs, Fallout 3 was censored because of Drug use for example. But this really dosent make sense. We've all seen Train Spotting and cocaine snorting is rather common in films and on TV. So why was Fallout censored?

Thats just a few thoughts to hopefully get this topic rolling. So what other examples do you know of and what other lines do games refuse to cross?

 

[Meggiepants]

It's not really so much a line they refuse to cross, as the ratings fallout. I'm sure that if they go too far, they will be rated AO, and whereas some parents are fine with purchasing an M rated title, AO is akin to X rated for some reason. I know, the difference is vast, and perhaps we need an X type rating in gaming ratings to help differentiate, but I think that's why a lot of games toe the line.

I'm fairly positive Rockstar would cross plenty of lines if they thought they could do it and still be as profitable.

 

[icyneesan]

I'm fairly positive Rockstar would cross plenty of lines if they thought they could do it and still be as profitable.

I'd totally get a game that pushes every single boundary and causes mass controversy. Do it Rockstar! Take my money!

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Can't really think of any others but I really want the child killing taboo to be lifted because they piss me off in every single game they're in.

 

[Meggiepants]

I'm fairly positive Rockstar would cross plenty of lines if they thought they could do it and still be as profitable.

I'd totally get a game that pushes every single boundary and causes mass controversy. Do it Rockstar! Take my money!

I'm sure they will. We might have to wait a little bit for people to get comfortable with the idea that games are just as much for adults as kids, but remember, at one time all T.V. land bedrooms were shown with two beds. Even married couples couldn't sleep in the same bed according to our censors.

So if you wait a bit, I'm sure Rockstar will make something just for you.

 

[CalCD]

Theres a time and a place for these things, and you dont really need them in games like GTA 4 since it doesnt advance the gameplay in any way or improve the story - it may improve immersion, but its also slightly gratuitous if it doesnt have any relevance to the actual game.
If the game had starred a character who was a callgirl, or something, it would make sense to have nudity in it to improve the experience, but otherwise you're not really missing out on too much.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

 

[Lightslei]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

 

[icyneesan]

I'm fairly positive Rockstar would cross plenty of lines if they thought they could do it and still be as profitable.

I'd totally get a game that pushes every single boundary and causes mass controversy. Do it Rockstar! Take my money!

I'm sure they will. We might have to wait a little bit for people to get comfortable with the idea that games are just as much for adults as kids, but remember, at one time all T.V. land bedrooms were shown with two beds. Even married couples couldn't sleep in the same bed according to our censors.

So if you wait a bit, I'm sure Rockstar will make something just for you.

Hell if rockstar doesn't do it, ill just learn flash, and make my own. Then get it on Newgrounds and appear on Fox News

 

[Macgyvercas]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

 

[Ildecia]

can i please vandilize things that are real-world marketing?

I don't remember the exact game yahzee was reviewing, but he said that he hated that he couldn't break and wreck havoc on Pepsi-branded items. Can we please do that

AND go mass murdering anything with sentient thought; regardless of age, gender, profficiency, importantness, or relevance to reality?

 

[Lightslei]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

To be honest, I'm not sure. Another idiot giving us more press and proving that it's a self-defined moral obligation that isn't backed by science may end up doing more good than harm in the long-run. Of course that's only one scenario. Perhaps it'd be good to break one taboo at a time slowly and then start piling them?

can i please vandilize things that are real-world marketing?

I don't remember the exact game yahzee was reviewing, but he said that he hated that he couldn't break and wreck havoc on Pepsi-branded items. Can we please do that

AND go mass murdering anything with sentient thought; regardless of age, gender, profficiency, importantness, or relevance to reality?

Unless you would like to be locked in a room with white walls, No.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

Yeah, if I remember correctly, the headline was "SEXbox?" Seriously, nearly everyone will have sex somewhere in their lifetime. Why is seeing the a tiny bit of it bad in a video game?

 

[ANImaniac89]

by Taboos in gaming I assume that you are talking about main stream video games

Sex is taboo
Drugs are to an extent
Race issues can be
Violence towards younger people
Some sensitive real world events like 9/11, Columbine, Assassination of real world leaders

 

[Macgyvercas]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

To be honest, I'm not sure. Another idiot giving us more press and proving that it's a self-defined moral obligation that isn't backed by science may end up doing more good than harm in the long-run. Of course that's only one scenario. Perhaps it'd be good to break one taboo at a time slowly and then start piling them?

However, we shouldn't let Fox get wind of this if we do try to break stigmas. Their bile machines would paint us in such a negative light that I can't imagine we would easily be able to break out of that image (Fox is full of crap, but a lot of people do listen to them).

Although, if Fox went crazy enough with it, people might see it for the hateful garbage that it is. So it could go either way, but it's on the edge of a knife.

 

[Irridium]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

Yeah, if I remember correctly, the headline was "SEXbox?" Seriously, nearly everyone will have sex somewhere in their lifetime. Why is seeing the a tiny bit of it bad in a video game?

Because it will turn children into perverted rapists and will crush their fragile innocence. Don't you watch the news?

 

[Macgyvercas]

Very few game developers are willing to risk to negative press killing children in game would surely generate.

I think you could in Fallout 2 and no one complained about that much. But then, this is 2010 and times of changed.

Honestly, I think the press would sell more of the game. "They can't be serious, let me check this out"....


Perhaps we need to stop isolating the target market of people who play videogames?

True, it would sell more (see the reporting on sex for Mass Effect), but the negative press would surely turn more people against video games, and we don't really need that, do we? We might come across another Atkinson or Thompson.

Yeah, if I remember correctly, the headline was "SEXbox?" Seriously, nearly everyone will have sex somewhere in their lifetime. Why is seeing the a tiny bit of it bad in a video game?

Because the media has the false impression that video games are for kids only, and disregard the fact that the average age of gamers in Australia is 30 and the average in the US is 34 (at least according to the sources I found)

 

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

It's not really so much a line they refuse to cross, as the ratings fallout. I'm sure that if they go too far, they will be rated AO, and whereas some parents are fine with purchasing an M rated title, AO is akin to X rated for some reason. I know, the difference is vast, and perhaps we need an X type rating in gaming ratings to help differentiate, but I think that's why a lot of games toe the line.

I'm fairly positive Rockstar would cross plenty of lines if they thought they could do it and still be as profitable.

Whoa whoa whoa X rating? Slow down buddy, us Aussies are having a hard enough time trying to get an R18+ rating.

 

[triggrhappy94]

look at what happened with Hot Coffee in San Andres. Some bad press changed its rating and condemmed it for those under the age of 18, who have parents who care about that kind of thing. Game developer stay away from the super bad press that comes with child murders and what not (unfortunately), even being able to play as the Taliban can cause problems (I actually think there should be a game that has a Taliban campaign); not to be confused with sightly contraversal but skippable content, that causes press to pay attention but not a all for banning, like in MW2. Getting an AO rating or even getting ban is damage sales, so developers stay away from it.