Poll of the Day > Feminazis and SJWs have censored Dead or Alive 6

(+) Yeah! (+)

They should censor the women out completely and just have you play as clothes

That way everyone is happy
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Nightengale posted...

That's not censorship that's a design choice to sell more copies to make money. Censorship is putting something in and then taking it out. That is money talking. It's about money.

Self-censorship is bad.
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I_Abibde posted...

I have been a fan of Dead Or Alive since the original (20+ years ago, at this point), and I find this disappointing. The series has always been a blend of fast-paced game mechanics and sex appeal. If you tone down the sex appeal, you get ... Tekken, but faster (and less juggle-happy), to be honest, and Tekken started sucking for me after Tekken 5 (except for Tag Tournament 2).

The only things Dead or Alive and Tekken really have in common is that they're both 3D fighting games. The actual mechanics of the two are quite different.

Hop103 posted...

Nightengale posted...

That's not censorship that's a design choice to sell more copies to make money. Censorship is putting something in and then taking it out. That is money talking. It's about money.

Self-censorship is bad.

An yet, this post of yours wasn't just a non-sequitur composed of a string of vulgarity, you hypocrite.
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Greenfox111 posted...

"I play DOA because of the fighting game mechanics, not the tits"
"They censored the tits!!'
Seriously guys its not hard to find porn online

Sigh at me i dare you

*sigh*
You basically asked for this. lmao

DoA desperately trying to convince people that it's a legitimate fighting game franchise.

FrozenBananas posted...

I like my fighting games to have boobies AND good stories AND mechanics. Is that so difficult?

Play Soul Calibur then.
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Zareth posted...

DoA desperately trying to convince people that it's a legitimate fighting game franchise.

FrozenBananas posted...

I like my fighting games to have boobies AND good stories AND mechanics. Is that so difficult?

Play Soul Calibur then.

Soul Calibur is all about dat ass, DoA is all about dem boobs. Huge difference.
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And Soul Calibur has not had a good story since SC2, IMO.

... yeah, I'm not bitter or anything ...
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adjl posted...

knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.

For you maybe. I enjoy being titillated while playing a game and am not embarrassed by it at all. Furthermore being titillated while playing a game isn't the same thing as porn, and therefore telling someone to just look at actual porn isn't... at all a sound argument in the slightest. In fact, the existence of such media as DoA on devices where porn is easier to access should be such a huge red flag that there's more/something else going on.

There's some subtlety and contextuality to it all; that there's a huge difference between seeing Kasumi's bare tits presented in some overtly sexual context* and the suggestive thrill of seeing a bit of her panties at certain angles, and generally when engaged in something fundamentally unrelated to some voyeuristic pursuit of seeing her panties. That's the thing. I guess you could say it's about establishing the right conditions to see something you (for lack of a better word) "shouldn't". That's really different from porn.

*(which I'll define as covering everything we'd both call overtly sexual, and nothing that at least one of us wouldn't)
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I don't have a dog in this fight because I don't play DoA, but I don't like when things are censored just because of fear of backlash. It is a little bit different if it happens before the game is ever finished though.

adjl posted...

If the only purpose of DoA is to provide extremely weak softcore porn, then DoA is a pathetic excuse for a game series whose primary purpose can be completely replaced by any number of free websites.

Greenfox111 posted...

"I play DOA because of the fighting game mechanics, not the tits"

These are both faulty premises from the start. It shouldn't be too difficult to comprehend that people like more than one thing about a game. Take away or tone down one of those things and of course people are gonna be upset.
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Greenfox111 posted...

"I play DOA because of the fighting game mechanics, not the tits"

I actually play it for both.
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keyblader1985 posted...

I don't have a dog in this fight because I don't play DoA, but I don't like when things are censored just because of fear of backlash. It is a little bit different if it happens before the game is ever finished though.

I think it is more annoying in this case because the actual creator of the game was admit about NOT censoring himself when all this started. In fact he was one of the people that felt we needed more of it just to spite the people who were complaining.

That said, like I said before I don't think this trailer screams "censorship", although it does feel weird that male characters are shown more in a game where there are 3X as many female characters. Or even that male characters are not fighting female characters. I hope fighting games haven't gotten to THAT point, that would piss me off to no end.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

There's some subtlety and contextuality to it all; that there's a huge difference between seeing Kasumi's bare t*** presented in some overtly sexual context* and the suggestive thrill of seeing a bit of her panties at certain angles, and generally when engaged in something fundamentally unrelated to some voyeuristic pursuit of seeing her panties

That's the thing, though: Games and anime and the like that are known for their fanservice typically forego subtlety in favour of "HERE HAVE SOME BOOBS IT'S TECHNICALLY NOT PORN BECAUSE THEY'RE PARTIALLY COVERED." I get what you mean about the distinction between the titillation of catching a bit of cleavage and actually watching porn, but me, I don't find it particularly titillating to see the cleavage of a character who's very transparently been designed to show a lot of cleavage. There's no careful opportunism there, it's just showing the player some boobs, which puts it into a weird middle ground where it's not as good as porn is if I just want to be shown some boobs, and it's just cringy if I don't want to be shown some boobs.

In reasonable doses, fanservice can indeed be fun, and its market appeal is understandable. The nature of relying on any single aspect for market appeal, however, is such that it turns into an arms race of sorts. Each competitor has to increase their emphasis on that aspect a bit more with each iteration if they want to have an edge over the others. In the case of sex appeal, that risks abandoning the necessary subtlety and pushing it over the line between titillating and cringy, which is exactly what's happened with many series that have a reputation for fanservice. To that end, periodically toning down the fanservice to the point where it's actually fun and not just watered-down porn seems reasonable to me.
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adjl posted...

I get what you mean about the distinction between the titillation of catching a bit of cleavage and actually watching porn

You might understand intellectually that some nebulous distinction exists but the rest of this post doesn't give me the sense that you've really gotten your head around it.

adjl posted...

I don't find it particularly titillating to see the cleavage of a character who's very transparently been designed to show a lot of cleavage. There's no careful opportunism there, it's just showing the player some boobs, which puts it into a weird middle ground where it's not as good as porn is if I just want to be shown some boobs, and it's just cringy if I don't want to be shown some boobs.

Okay.... This is what I'm saying above. That addresses why you might think to tell someone to "just use actual porn". What you're not addressing is how that sounds to someone who doesn't see it in those terms to begin with.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

adjl posted...

I get what you mean about the distinction between the titillation of catching a bit of cleavage and actually watching porn

You might understand intellectually that some nebulous distinction exists but the rest of this post doesn't give me the sense that you've really gotten your head around it.

adjl posted...

I don't find it particularly titillating to see the cleavage of a character who's very transparently been designed to show a lot of cleavage. There's no careful opportunism there, it's just showing the player some boobs, which puts it into a weird middle ground where it's not as good as porn is if I just want to be shown some boobs, and it's just cringy if I don't want to be shown some boobs.

Okay.... This is what I'm saying above. That addresses why you might think to tell someone to "just use actual porn". What you're not addressing is how that sounds to someone who doesn't see it in those terms to begin with.

"I enjoy being titillated while playing a game and am not embarrassed by it at all."
Bruh. Seriously shut the f*** up. You cannot defend an argument on one side and then proceed to say "YEAH I GET RANDY WHILE I PLAY AND I DONT F***ING CARE WHO KNOWS." You sound like an idiot.

Weirdly, I don't think any "feminazi" or "SJW" I've ever talked to was against porn.
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shadowsword87 posted...

Weirdly, I don't think any "feminazi" or "SJW" I've ever talked to was against porn.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/155020228272067/about/
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shadowsword87 posted...

Weirdly, I don't think any "feminazi" or "SJW" I've ever talked to was against porn.

There's basically two schools of thought, and they both have a point. One school says that society's attitudes toward sexuality are oppressive, particularly to women, and that it should be up to the individual how they express themselves sexually within a framework of consent.

Another school of thought views certain depictions of femininity as both coming from, and reinforcing oppressive ideas about women, and their place in society. A lot of porn is, after all, about women who exist to serve men, and is made that way by men, for the gratification primarily of men. This is of great concern to feminists from this school of thought.
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Revelation34 posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

Weirdly, I don't think any "feminazi" or "SJW" I've ever talked to was against porn.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/155020228272067/about/

1. I deleted my facebook a bit ago (it was just negativity), so I can't actually check out that page.

2. That doesn't mean I have actually talked to them, like actually talking more than just screaming past someone on the internet.

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

Another school of thought views certain depictions of femininity as both coming from, and reinforcing oppressive ideas about women, and their place in society. A lot of porn is, after all, about women who exist to serve men, and is made that way by men, for the gratification primarily of men. This is of great concern to feminists from this school of thought.

That means they should look up other types of porn then!
There are plenty of stuff where women demean men.
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shadowsword87 posted...

1. I deleted my facebook a bit ago (it was just negativity), so I can't actually check out that page.

2. That doesn't mean I have actually talked to them, like actually talking more than just screaming past someone on the internet.

You can bring it back temporarily if you want. They've also show pictures of themselves publicly vandalizing.
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shadowsword87 posted...

That means they should look up other types of porn then!
There are plenty of stuff where women demean men.

For starters, maybe no one should demean anyone. But looking deeper porn with women dominating men is still reinforcing a male-centric view. The women in these videos primarily exist to gratify men, just in a superficially different way.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

The women in these videos primarily exist to gratify men,

Citation needed.
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Revelation34 posted...

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

The women in these videos primarily exist to gratify men,

Citation needed.

Get a load of this guy. He doesn't think the guys in those videos are way more interested in getting spanked than she is in spanking them.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

Revelation34 posted...

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

The women in these videos primarily exist to gratify men,

Citation needed.

Get a load of this guy. He doesn't think the guys in those videos are way more interested in getting spanked than she is in spanking them.

Some women are totally in to dominating men though

Thats pretty common knowledge
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Mead posted...

Some women are totally in to dominating men though

Thats pretty common knowledge

Here's the thing though, and this is where it can get really counter-intuitive. My GF is a domme, and she's done scenes involving financial domination, where she demands a certain sum of money from a (consenting) sub or else. These are very tricky situations because if she ever relies on this as a source of income then the power dynamic shifts at its most basic level. She at all times has to have the ability to say "no" without risking an eviction, or the question of who has leverage over who gets complicated.

And so going back to the perspective of the female performer, she's meat. She's replaceable. She may appear to be in charge on the camera, but if she doesn't do what sells (in other words what the male audience or male client demands) she's out of a job. So we're back to square one, the standard porn dynamic. The fact that she's holding the whip is irrelevant.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

Okay.... This is what I'm saying above. That addresses why you might think to tell someone to "just use actual porn". What you're not addressing is how that sounds to someone who doesn't see it in those terms to begin with.

The line is going to be drawn in different places by different people. I'll give you that. Conceptually, though, there will always come a point where fanservice crosses the line from being an exciting bit of unexpected sexiness to being watered-down porn, regardless of where a given person draws that line. Seeing a bit of cleavage on a prostitute on a street corner is very different from seeing a bit of cleavage when a coworker bends to pick something up, simply because of how much more unexpected and opportunistic the latter is. The former? If you want to see it, you can see it any time you want, because it's predictable and not at all hard to get. Just like porn.

Revelation34 posted...

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

The women in these videos primarily exist to gratify men,

Citation needed.

Femdom porn is made primarily with men who like being dominated in mind, not women who like dominating. If you want to demonstrate this for yourself, see how many videos you can find of solo men being submissive to a camera that they pretend is female (the gay stuff is still looking to appease men), versus how many videos you can find of solo women being submissive to a camera they pretend is male. You can also compare how many 2-player femsub videos focus the camera on the woman versus how many femdom videos focus the camera on the man.

As a whole, the porn industry is very much catered toward men. This isn't really a secret (on the flip side, erotica tends to target women). There are a growing number of sites out there that are more dedicated to female sexuality, but even then that often just ends up being targeted to anyone with a fetish for women genuinely enjoying themselves (which most often means men). It's the main reason I lean more toward amateur stuff these days: you're more likely to find people who don't care about who their audience is there and just want to show off their sex lives. It feels much less staged, and much less "we're doing this because we know a statistically significant number of men want to see this." That's hardly a guarantee, given the number of programs out there that compensate amateurs based on their view counts, but it's at least a step in the right direction.
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adjl posted...

The line is going to be drawn in different places by different people. I'll give you that. Conceptually, though, there will always come a point where fanservice crosses the line from being an exciting bit of unexpected sexiness to being watered-down porn, regardless of where a given person draws that line. Seeing a bit of cleavage on a prostitute on a street corner is very different from seeing a bit of cleavage when a coworker bends to pick something up, simply because of how much more unexpected and opportunistic the latter is. The former? If you want to see it, you can see it any time you want, because it's predictable and not at all hard to get. Just like porn.

I have my boundaries for sure. In practice, discussing this in terms of boundaries doesn't really make sense. It's more like different positions on a Cartesian plane with porn in one corner and DoA in another. Maybe if you take a rather compressed or even one dimensional view of it, it could look like they inhabit the same space, but they don't.
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adjl posted...

As a whole, the porn industry is very much catered toward men.

Video porn*

Erotica is almost exclusively female.
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The discussion here is going to unexpected places. Interesting.

I feel like the methods of the groups in the topic titles need to change. Instead of trying repeatedly to change or destroy things they dislike, why not create things they do like (and leave everything else alone, since there is room enough in the entertainment world for all of it)? This always boggles my mind. ... Then again, I suppose it takes less energy to complain endlessly than it does to actually "be the change you want to see in the world".
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[D]ead [O]n [A]rrival.

Sell a game based on tits and ass. Libs screech about muhsoggyknees and objectification. Tell libs to go fuck themselves as they wouldn't have bought it anyway.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

adjl posted...

As a whole, the porn industry is very much catered toward men.

Video porn*

Erotica is almost exclusively female.

I mentioned that in literally the next sentence. "Porn industry" also typically refers exclusively to the industry of producing videos and photos, with erotica being lumped under the umbrella of books.
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adjl posted...

knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.

I've haven't really played the DOA games, but couldn't that argument apply to anything?

I mean let's change the argument of sexual content to violence.
Why should you care about violence/gore in games such as Doom, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, The Last of Us, GTA, etc. if you can find that type of content in other forms of media?
People would be pissed if any of those franchises actively tried to tone down the violence for future installments...

Just saying...

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

adjl posted...

knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.

For you maybe. I enjoy being titillated while playing a game and am not embarrassed by it at all. Furthermore being titillated while playing a game isn't the same thing as porn, and therefore telling someone to just look at actual porn isn't... at all a sound argument in the slightest. In fact, the existence of such media as DoA on devices where porn is easier to access should be such a huge red flag that there's more/something else going on.

There's some subtlety and contextuality to it all; that there's a huge difference between seeing Kasumi's bare tits presented in some overtly sexual context* and the suggestive thrill of seeing a bit of her panties at certain angles, and generally when engaged in something fundamentally unrelated to some voyeuristic pursuit of seeing her panties. That's the thing. I guess you could say it's about establishing the right conditions to see something you (for lack of a better word) "shouldn't". That's really different from porn.

*(which I'll define as covering everything we'd both call overtly sexual, and nothing that at least one of us wouldn't)

I'd be embarrassed to admit that, tbh.
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Xfma100 posted...

adjl posted...

knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.

I've haven't really played the DOA games, but couldn't that argument apply to anything?

I mean let's change the argument of sexual content to violence.
Why should you care about violence/gore in games such as Doom, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, The Last of Us, GTA, etc. if you can find that type of content in other forms of media?
People would be pissed if any of those franchises actively tried to tone down the violence for future installments...

Just saying...

That's check mate. Regardless of what type of content it is, a franchise needs to stick with their guns to the very end. By not doing so, they are basically shooting their own feet.

But then again, I'm not quite sure if that's what's happening with DoA 6 at all.

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

Get a load of this guy. He doesn't think the guys in those videos are way more interested in getting spanked than she is in spanking them.

"Citation needed."
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I wouldn't be surprised since DOAX3 never made it to the west.

Why is it whenever a sexy game is toned down, peoples Solutions they suggest are "just watch porn lol"

Why does the only form of provocative material I expose myself have to be in the form of porn?

It has gone from cringy nerd porn to a more serious fighting game. In some instances, I agree that SJWs ruin things. DOA will be better for these changes.
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Sasamichan posted...

I wouldn't be surprised since DOAX3 never made it to the west.

Not officially, but it was fully subtitled and easy to import (and fun, too, IMO).
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I_Abibde posted...

Sasamichan posted...

I wouldn't be surprised since DOAX3 never made it to the west.

Not officially, but it was fully subtitled and easy to import (and fun, too, IMO).

Sorry, it's not fun when my favorite English VA (Christine Cabanos) isn't doing her character. It's one of the reasons why I dropped my preorder for Atelier Lydie and Suelle.

VixYW posted...

TigerTycoon posted...

Golden Road posted...

Mead posted...

As far as I know only weaboos play those games so inocurr

Us weaboos are playing Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, get it right.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/0/03/Mai_Natsume_%28Story_mode_artwork%2C_normal%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20161012200650

This character is a boy that was magically transformed into a girl.

Sure, skip the part when he was banned from his family because of the accident and was trying to turn back while strugling to hide the truth from others, and the fact that his sense of taste got so twisted in the process that he can barely eat like a normal person anymore. Not a fan of the character in particular, but giving half information is a low move.

I have never heard of this game before, but feel the need to give it a shot.
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I_Abibde posted...

The discussion here is going to unexpected places. Interesting.

I feel like the methods of the groups in the topic titles need to change. Instead of trying repeatedly to change or destroy things they dislike, why not create things they do like (and leave everything else alone, since there is room enough in the entertainment world for all of it)? This always boggles my mind. ... Then again, I suppose it takes less energy to complain endlessly than it does to actually "be the change you want to see in the world".

The issue is with the broad trends, not individual products, and that's impossible for a single group to change on their own. That takes cooperation from a large body of creators who need to be convinced that their message is the correct one. We're talking about social and political activists, not necessarily artists and programmers, so it isn't entirely reasonable to expect them to have the time and/or skills to do so.

And just as they aren't necessarily artists and programmers, they aren't necessarily consumer advocates trying to change the medium for those who want certain options as consumers; they're complaining to change a social climate they feel is reinforced culturally (and video games are part of culture). I think this is one of the biggest points of confusion as gamers are generally accustomed to seeing complaints as an attempt to change the supply of something toward a particular consumer preference. That is not what's going on here, at least not primarily (I don't want to give the impression that there's no consumer demand). So it doesn't make sense to crowed fund development of a game, because that doesn't achieve the real world goals which, remember, involves getting a large enough body of developers to see things a certain way.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

... involves getting a large enough body of developers to see things a certain way.

Thank goodness most Japanese developers do not care what niche audiences in the U.S. have to say.
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I_Abibde posted...

Thank goodness most Japanese developers do not care what niche audiences in the U.S. have to say.

In this case they wouldn't even be an audience since the SJWs would never play the games in the first place.
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Xfma100 posted...

I've haven't really played the DOA games, but couldn't that argument apply to anything?

I mean let's change the argument of sexual content to violence.
Why should you care about violence/gore in games such as Doom, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, The Last of Us, GTA, etc. if you can find that type of content in other forms of media?
People would be pissed if any of those franchises actively tried to tone down the violence for future installments...

Just saying...

Yes and no. The key thing that differentiates fanservice like this from something like violence is that it's nothing more than gratuitous eye candy. Violence very often enables gameplay that isn't really possible otherwise, as well as being an essential atmospheric and story element. A horror game without the fear of death isn't much of a horror game (I know this is an oversimplification of a genre that's more nuanced than people give it credit for, that's not the point here), and realistically depicting violence instills the fear of death in a way that not much else can.

Sexual content, on the other hand, does pretty much nothing for gameplay (and I say this having played several Illusion games). It can certainly contribute to the story by developing characters and their relationships, so I'm definitely not going to say that no game should have sexual content ever (even if game sex scenes tend to be awkward and cringey), but not gameplay. Fanservice is also very distinct from story-significant sexual content. Fanservice is there purely as eye candy. It doesn't develop anything, it's just "here, have some random boobs while you play." As I've said before, that can be fun when there's some degree of subtlety to it, but when it's so overt as to be watered-down porn, it makes more sense for an audience that wants that to just go for actual porn.

One of the better examples of sexual content done well is Bayonetta. Bayonetta is an intensely sexual character, but that's her character. It makes sense for somebody with Bayonetta's personality to dress like Bayonetta does. That makes her sexualized behaviour consistent because the character has some degree of agency in it (at least, as much agency as any fictional character has). That's very distinct from the innumerable examples of female characters who are't particularly sexually expressive except for their short skirts and plunging necklines. That sort of sex appeal is just blatantly tacked on as eye candy.
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adjl posted...

As I've said before, that can be fun when there's some degree of subtlety to it, but when it's so overt as to be watered-down porn, it makes more sense for an audience that wants that to just go for actual porn.

I agree with some of the stuff you said, but this still applies to other things such as gore.

You don't need intense violence and gore for gameplay purposes. They could easily tone the gore down in most games and it wouldn't affect the gameplay. Just look at how brutal some of the executions are in the games I mentioned. They could easily replace those brutal animations with less gruesome ones.

The overt amount of gore and violence in games serves no purpose when people can easily find that stuff in other forms of media.
There is a reason people use the words "gore" and "porn" together. (Gore porn)

Xfma100 posted...

adjl posted...

As I've said before, that can be fun when there's some degree of subtlety to it, but when it's so overt as to be watered-down porn, it makes more sense for an audience that wants that to just go for actual porn.

I agree with some of the stuff you said, but this still applies to other things such as gore.

You don't need intense violence and gore for gameplay purposes. They could easily tone the gore down in most games and it wouldn't affect the gameplay. Just look at how brutal some of the executions are in the games I mentioned. They could easily replace those brutal animations with less gruesome ones.

The overt amount of gore and violence in games serves no purpose when people can easily find that stuff in other forms of media.
There is a reason people use the words "gore" and "porn" together. (Gore porn)

It does, and I do actually feel that gratuitous amounts of gore doesn't really have any place in most media. The whole concept of gore porn doesn't exactly speak to good mental health in the people who actively seek it out. In the case of horror games, having a shocking amount of gore contributes to the atmosphere, but as happens with fanservice, relying on shock value like that is going to be prone to gradual escalation as people get desensitized.

Realistic violence? Sure. Exaggerated? Eh.
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adjl posted...

Realistic violence? Sure. Exaggerated? Eh.

Couple quick examples jumped out at me that corroborate this.

The torture scene in GTA V makes me uncomfortable. Mowing down endless thugs? No prob! Gratuitously torture one dude? Please, no. Make it stop!

The x-ray kills in Sniper Elite never cease to entertain me, but the fact that I'm popping scumbag Nazi skulls probably helps assuage my guilt.

Recently, with the new God of War, encountered a "wulver" (basically a werewolf), and pulled off a finishing blow that was so spectacularly violent that I just about giggled when I saw it. But once I'd done this particular move three or four times, I almost felt bad for the poor creature that was going about its day, trying to devour Kratos' guts.
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I don't care for excessive violence either, with very few exceptions (like Mortal Kombat where it's tongue in cheek). But I don't advocate for getting rid of it, judge others for liking it, or tell them to watch a snuff film or something. And in actuality I probably should, since excessive violence is objectively harmful to those involved and serves no purpose in real life, unlike sex.

But I know it's just entertainment; some people like it and some don't. I just ignore it and live and let live.
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adjl posted...

Sexual content, on the other hand, does pretty much nothing for gameplay

Depends on the game. I could give examples but... it's not a good idea to do it here. Just keep in mind that they exist.

Far-Queue posted...

The torture scene in GTA V makes me uncomfortable. Mowing down endless thugs? No prob! Gratuitously torture one dude? Please, no. Make it stop!

That's actually one that I don't object to at all. Torture's always going to be an uncomfortable subject for any non-psychopath, but depicting it isn't necessarily going to be gratuitous. If a torture scene will contribute to the story, then there should be a torture scene, much like there should be a rape scene if a rape scene will contribute to the story, or a child/animal abuse scene, or a drug overdose scene, or graphic depictions of what it's like to live with severe mental illness. Stories can be disturbing and uncomfortable, and it's okay to feel disturbed and discomforted by them. That's just part of art.

Of course, there will inevitably be instances where such disturbing scenes are put into games not because they contribute meaningfully to the story, but because the publisher wants the free publicity that comes with controversy (No Russian being one of the more notorious examples). That's getting more toward gratuitous territory, but that's really to be expected so long as people continue giving controversial things enough attention for controversy to be profitable.

keyblader1985 posted...

I don't care for excessive violence either, with very few exceptions (like Mortal Kombat where it's tongue in cheek). But I don't advocate for getting rid of it, judge others for liking it, or tell them to watch a snuff film or something. And in actuality I probably should, since excessive violence is objectively harmful to those involved and serves no purpose in real life, unlike sex.

But I know it's just entertainment; some people like it and some don't. I just ignore it and live and let live.

It goes back to the cultural shift thing that somebody (PO maybe? I can't be bothered to scroll up) mentioned earlier. Should we - as a culture - really be okay with the idea of people being entertained by and enjoying depictions of gratuitous extreme violence? Or is that something we should discourage? Censorship is not an effective way to effect such a shift (at least not without taking it to extremes that limit free thought), but I do think it's important to keep having these conversations. That's how cultures change.
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