A step too far for games

[gmloki]

The Christmas issue of PC Zone reports that Replay Studios is developing a game called surviovor. Suprisingly enough no publisher will touch it with a 10 foot cattle prod.

Essentially it is a third person disaster simulator based around such human tragedys as Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Tidal waves. Just to add to the shock and awe there are scenarios based around The Titanic Sinking, The Twin Towers (Ala 9/11), Hiroshima Blast Zone and the Paraguay Mall Blast of last year. It would appear the options are to save as many as possible or become a maniac kill all around you to ensure your own survival

IMHO I think the real tragedy lies in the fact that the devlopers are cashing in big on some pretty poigniant tragedy. It can be argued that it is no different than the realism presented in Call of Duty etc. That said I think it crosses the line on what is bad taste. I sincerely hope this project never see's the light of day

 

[nath]

I honestly don't see why it crosses the line of bad taste. How can it be worse than reinacting world war 2 - I don't imagine you have to kill anyone in that game, unless perhaps you have to take out a granny who got the last 6 pack of bottled water.

 

[Bodhi]

Sounds like the best game ever tbh

 

[Wij]

Doesn't offend me but I find it hard to see how the gameplay would pan out.

 

[dysfunction]

The Christmas issue of PC Zone reports that Replay Studios is developing a game called surviovor. [snip]

...or become a maniac kill all around you to ensure your own survival

Thats the option I'll take thanks...

 

[nath]

Oh yeah, must have skimmed past that bit.

Well, like GTA you can kill loads more people than you need to - is that bad taste?



Well, I guess it probably is - great game though.

 

[Cyfr]

Like nath mentioned, theres WW2 games, battlefield vietnam, how are they any different really...

 

[babs]

It's already been done with Zettai Zetsumei Toshi where you had to escape an Earthquake and the sequel Itetsuita Kioku Tochi pits you against freezing conditions and flooding.

 

[Gef]

There is no moral difference at all between this and a war re-enactment game, appart from the fact that it has been widely accepted that its fine to cash in on wars. Its just because its the first of its kind I guess. There are people dying in Iraq right this very minute, and you can bet your ass as soon as its over we'll have "Big Guns: The Battle for Bahgdad" or something .. how right is that?

 

[JBP|]

well i can only hazard a guess that its "bad taste" because of the office block having a plane flown into it scenario

to me its sounds like quite a fun game

and at the same time will teach you a valuable lesson should you face such a reality (or maybe not)

 

[Tom]

Its 'bad taste' because its recent history. Nobody really minds people playing the role of Vlad the Impaler, but then again nobody knows anybody who suffered under his thumb, because it was fecking ages ago!

 

[Sar]

WWII, Korea & Vietnam all have living survivors & veterans - nobody's classed any games based on those human tragedies as being in bad taste.

Maybe with the exception of Shellshock Nam though.

 

[Oli7er]

Death is NORMAL, you WILL die, people are not important, if the population rises at the rate as it is rising now, we will exhaust the planet and kill EVERYTHING, i dont care about the stupid american halfwits spending all their life at their TV and making up lines for bad and good taste. People are ANIMALS, instinct driven like any other. Face it.

 

[nath]

Ignoring previous silly post - there are actually games based on recent conflicts in Iraq - there is a game called Back to Baghdad as far as I recall, and there's one where you're supposed to hunt Americas Most Wanted. I don't see this survivor game being any worse taste than anything else.

 

[Catsby]

Catsby suspects that games that peddle themselves based on such events will simply be terrible games with controversy thrown in as a marketing ploy.

P.S. Surprisingly few of Catsby's colleagues have dropped dead infront of him today.
Catsby likes to think of a cup of coffee as normal. Death should not, in Catsby's opinion, be categorised with coffee (As Catsby suspects this may be bad marketing).

 

[caLLous]

As has been mentioned, games based on world wars are plentiful... I doubt any of the game-playing war veterans (if any of 'em do) think it's acceptable or morally right, but to more recent generations it's just a game where you kill anonymous enemies.

Having said that, there was a turn-based strategy world war 2 game released a couple of years ago (I can't for the life of me remember what it was called and it's pissing me right off). A friend of mine's uncle was in ww2 and he (my friend) saw on the website that the developer was trying to make it as authentic as possible by adding actual squadrons to the game as they were in real life. He sent the guy an email detailing his uncle's squadron and it was put in the game. His uncle was dead chuffed to have his name and squadron (exactly as it was back then) in the game.

Anyway, I'm gonna go and set someone on fire and put them out with my own piss in Postal.