For those unaware, the impending release of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number began with some controversy. Back in 2013, an early demo of Hotline Miami 2 saw players navigate a tutorial as the pig butcher, murdering many on their path to the final room. Upon entering the room, players are presented with a woman tied to a chair, and the game commands, “Finish Her.” The butcher walks up to her, drops his trousers, and a director from the side of the screen shouts, “Cut! Pig Man, well done, but don’t be afraid to be rougher. And you there, Blondie, you need to work on your femininity. Act more helpless and scared. You know, more girly.”
This scene of course raised some outrage in the gaming world. Fans of the series called it nothing more than a shock tactic, and a cheap thrill. In response to the controversial scene of sexual assault, Dennton Game’s Dennis Wedin stated in an interview with PC Gamer:
“We were really sad that some people were so affected by it, because maybe they had been through something like that of their own. Maybe they had a terrible experience of their own that was triggered by the game. That was not intentional at all. We didn’t add the scene just to be controversial. There is a meaning to these two characters. There’s a lot more to them than just this scene. We removed it from the demo. We’re going to work with it, see if we can fix it. You get a bigger picture when you play the whole game, which is lost in the demo of course.”
In the same interview with PC Gamer, Jonatan ‘Cactusquid’ Söderström, co-creator of the game was asked whether this controversy had any sort of impact on the game. He responds, “No. Not really.”
Wedin goes on to add, “At the start of the game, there’s an option to choose whether you want the game uncensored or not. It was stupid to have it in the demo, looking back. It doesn’t really work if you can’t continue playing and see how it works.”
Of course, taken out of context, anything could be offensive. But should these gray-areas and the hesitancy surrounding them shape the creative vision of a game? Dennaton Games proved themselves plenty capable of delivering a thought-provoking message with finesse and subtlety by delving into extreme subject matter, namely hyper-violence, in the original Hotline Miami. This next title is likely to prove no different, yet people were hesitant.
What if Hotline Miami 2 had given in to these worries? What if these criticisms shaped the final vision of the game, altering the artistic intent and creative freedom Dennaton Games sought to share?
There seems to be a demand among gamers and critics today that video games are capable of being so much more than entertainment. Games like Gone Home, The Walking Dead, and even Hotline Miami provoke catharsis from the audience or even enlightenment. Yet, while we encourage games to push limits, the industry is too often up in arms at the first sign of offense.
Art is offensive. Plain and simple. If you encounter a piece of art that offends you, ask yourself why it offends you. Does the offending work have something to say that you understand, but don’t feel comfortable consuming? That’s okay. There is a difference between this and mindless offense. Be mature enough to recognize the distinction, and know that sometimes the offending, artistic material isn’t for you.
The community shouldn’t demand the creator change their work simply because of public reaction. Keep in mind, shock value for the sake of shock value is wrong and cheap. It is easy to horrify someone with a rape scene or decapitation in any media, but using those moments to enlighten your audience is where an artist’s talent is tested. Strong medicine may be uncomfortable to take, but in the end one is better off.
Offensive art is not limited to video games. How would classic film or literature fare if creators succumbed to the censors and critics who felt outrage over the subject matter these works of art presented? How much different would films like Birth of a Nation be if they didn’t focus on the atrocious acts committed by the Ku Klux Klan? Do we pretend that racism in America never happened? No. The film serves as a staunch snapshot of American history.
How about the rape scene in A Clockwork Orange? If removed, the scene where Alex is tortured and conditioned to abhor violence loses all significance. The audience is supposed to have conflicting feelings about torturing a rapist. We’re uncomfortable because we’re witnessing the dehumanization of a human being who minutes before had raped and murdered an innocent woman.
In one more case, let us imagine Requiem for a Dream without its final act. We see the cost of living a life fueled by drugs, and it ain’t pretty. The final act is horrifying. We witness an amputation, imprisonment, and a woman turned prostitute. Thanks to the offensive content of the film, the anti-drug message of the film is read loud and clear. Sure, there is more to the film than that, but you get the gist of it.
Aside from the disturbing content some games present, another point of controversy in contemporary game development is choice of protagonist gender and ethnicity. It is easy to see that a large cast of white males make up a distinctly large portion of game protagonists. But in the end, it’s all about numbers. Publishers are afraid to take risks for fear of alienating their target audience. Yet, this superstitious ideology does more harm than good. Video game marketer Chris Wright relayed the plight of the developer, and responds to a change in the industry in an interview with CNet:
“AAA games are now so expensive to develop and launch, and must sell so many copies to break even, that it’s of critical importance that they are as inclusive as possible and do not exclude large portions potential audience, especially when there are so many alternatives to choose from. In my view, it’s more commercially risky to exclude the very significant female audience than it is to risk alienating some of the less progressive audience.”
Women over 18 are now the fastest-growing gamer demographic, making up 38 percent of Xbox Live users in the US and 50 percent of Nintendo users. Keep in mind these numbers are slightly out of date, but the rise of women in gaming is growing stronger and stronger.
In these cases where choice of protagonist comes down to a target audience, developers should be encouraged to take a chance on different characters, whether they be non-white females or any blend other than the traditional white male. This same problem comes in in Hollywood all too often. When screenwriters introduce their character, they’re allotted a few words to describe the individual. In many cases, none of those words pertain to the aforementioned traits, unless they specifically contributes to the work in some shape or form. For example, a film about the black man’s struggle during the 60s better not star a white man, but a film about being the the best downhill skater in all of San Francisco could star just anyone.
There is, however, a case to be made for games that require certain gender roles for their theme, and in doing so, should avoid public outcry in the name of artistic power. Sometimes a game’s themes or tale demand a starring male, or other popularly represented demographic.
Take for example The Last of Us. Imagine the roles of Joel and Ellie were reversed. A mother who lost her son is tasked with escorting a young orphan boy across the country in the hopes of developing a cure for mankind. It would result in a completely different game thematically, particularly regarding the roles of patriarchy in wasteland America.
(Caution for those who have yet to play The Last of Us, as this article will delve into some spoilers for the game.)
Before we analyze the outcome of events in The Last of Us, one must first look to the time period in which Joel was raised. Joel was born sometime in the mid 1980s and grew up in Texas raising his younger brother Tommy. Coming from such a strong, conservative upbringing in Texas, it’s safe to assume that Joel had a more traditional idea about his role in society.
After having his daughter Sarah at a young age, Joel felt his only role in life was to build a life to afford his daughter the life she chooses. And at the beginning of TLOU, we see that Joel is on his way to doing just that by starting his own carpentry business. Yet, unfortunately, tragedy strikes when the outbreak begins, causing him to lose his daughter in the process. Fast-forward twenty years, and now Joel has had time to brood in turmoil over his failure in life, the loss of his daughter, and failure as a father to protect her.
After being introduced to Ellie, Joel does his best to keep her at a distance. But Ellie’s personality remind Joel of his daughter Sarah so much that about two-thirds of the way into the game, Joel sees her as such. He sees Ellie as a second chance to make-up for his failure as a father, yet this in turn clashes with Ellie’s personal sacrifice as a grown woman to save humanity. Their conflicting goals can be the subject of various scholarly works, that sadly this article has no time to delve into. This character dynamic, however, did stem from the gender of Joel, his traditional views on gender roles shaping his actions and reactions throughout the game.
Yes, there are issues in game development that need to change. Shock value for the sake of being deemed “edgy” and the stereotypical white male protagonist are but a couple of the major weaknesses that plague video games. There are instances however, where these overused tropes are used with artistic merit, and in turn, prove to show that the medium of video games are capable of eliciting catharsis for players everywhere. We must first learn to not be offended by the works that attempt to say something profound about everyday life, and only then will we reach a golden-age of narrative driven games with thought-provoking messages.
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