Won't SOMEONE think of the children?

So Duke Nukem Forever actually got made. Yeah, who saw that coming? In true Duke style, the adverts are a cacophony of explosions and smut:



(By the way, NSFW. Like you needed to be told).

That isn’t the exact one that I’ve seen on TV, but its close enough. Strippers! Violence! Explosions! Lesbian schoolgirls! It’s like they WANT to cause controversy!

Oh, here we go again. We’ve seen this so often now. There always seems to be a game that is corrupting today’s youth. The obvious example that springs to mind is the Grand Theft Auto series. What with all the shooting, carjacking, and prostitution, hell, it would look like a crime simulator to a non enthusiast or concerned parent. And of course, there was the ‘Hot Coffee’ palaver. Bloody hell.



Let’s not forget Resident Evil 5 either. Do you remember all the bleating about racism when it came out? Apparently it’s racist when you have white guys shooting African zombies, but not Spanish ones. Who knew?

GTA and Resident Evil seem almost kid friendly when compared to some other titles. Ethnic Cleansing, anyone? Muslim Massacre? Oh yes, they exist. They may not be made by actual game developers, but they exist and would (hopefully) offend anyone who came across them. And of course, there was the Columbine mod for Half Life. How classy.

The most recent game to not only court, but pretty much BEG for controversy was Dead Space 2 with their ‘Your Mom Will Hate This’ campaign. If you want to punish yourself, here’s the ad:



This was so pathetic for so many reasons. EA may as well have rolled over, yelling ‘PAY ATTENTION TO OUR GAME! PLEASE!’ Also, as many, many people have pointed out, they were marketing an M rated game to teens. Who was brain dead enough to green light that rubbish?

A lot of controversy probably stems from the fact that gaming is still seen as a kid’s pastime, rather than something adults can enjoy. When something extra violent or sexual comes out, there’s inevitably outrage as the game in question is seen as something that’s encouraging kids to go hurt each other. SIGH.



The worst example though is Six Days in Fallujah. When the game was announced, there was all round wailing as commentators believed that it was a game that made light of the horrors of war. If anyone had bothered to investigate, however, they would have found out that Atomic Games, the developers, had been working the US Marines for training software. The battalion they were working with had gone and participated in the Battle of Fallujah, and when they came back they actually asked for the game to be made, to highlight their experiences. This was revealed by the company president, Peter Tamte, and listened to by no one. It occurs to me that no one would have batted an eyelid if this were a film or TV documentary. Is the act of playing as a soldier yourself really going to dilute the experience so much it would become a simple shoot ‘em up, rather than a serious narrative?

This is why the ad campaign for Duke Nukem Forever worries me. Duke Nukem is dumb and flashy, and has never pretended to be anything but. That’s fine, there’s plenty of room for games like those. But the problem is video games are too easy to pounce on as ‘evil’ and ‘wrong’, so games like Six Days in Falujiah never get a chance. This is another case of waiting for the rest of the world to catch up to gaming as a medium, sadly. Oh well. I’m off to play God of War. It’s ok, I won’t go and slice up a minotaur afterwards. Promise.