by Matt » Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:14 pm
Re: Crossing the line
I remember a while back SergeantMkIV stirred up a bit of controversy when he announced some Brutal Doom gore based on photos of real-life dead people, so that can reasonably be expected to be a line there. Respect for family and loved ones left behind and all that.
Personally, it's when the author starts celebrating violence against real people and either
a) it's not intended to be a joke, or
b) it's intended to be a "joke" but it's obvious they're just using that as an excuse to be seriously nasty to people who don't deserve it or can't effectively (including culturally, without being casually, systemically dismissed by the mainstream) fight back.
DN3D crossed that line with the alien rape stuff. (Might have been on this side of the line if the objective was to rescue people but as far as I could tell it was always just "oh look, bewbs ::fap:: ::destroy::"... and the mutilated corpses in the console versions was even worse for the
connotations. (None of this, I should stress, has anything to do with nudity.)
Hypothetically a Wolfenstein mod where you played the enemy and there was a bonus level mowing down comical Jewish stereotypes would cross the line in similar but non-sexual ways. Well, let's be fair to DN3D, it wasn't anywhere that bad. More like, you're still Blaskowicz on the side of the not-more-evil guys, but the huge pile of corpses in the concentration camp you stumble into is full of dead people who look like comical Jewish stereotypes and when you hit the Use key B throws money at them to "honour" the dead. And the corpses can be gibbed. And the gib sprites are really hairy in some places and one of the gibs is a big hook nose--okay I'm going to stop right here.
Excessive cruelty to helpless opponents is there as well. (I find that Brutal Doom does not, despite having an
explicit "cruelty bonus", do this - either an opponent is an actually useful human shield or your "cruely" is, ironically, putting them out of their misery!) Hypothetical example: Guy drops weapon and surrenders, you burn him to death with flamethrower.
As for mere visual gore, facial/skull/teeth stuff always squicks me the hell out though it's not usually a dealbreaker.
tl;dr who and why are the biggest things, the rest is just meat
Re: Crossing the line
I remember a while back SergeantMkIV stirred up a bit of controversy when he announced some Brutal Doom gore based on photos of real-life dead people, so that can reasonably be expected to be a line there. Respect for family and loved ones left behind and all that.
Personally, it's when the author starts celebrating violence against real people and either
a) it's not intended to be a joke, or
b) it's intended to be a "joke" but it's obvious they're just using that as an excuse to be seriously nasty to people who don't deserve it or can't effectively (including culturally, without being casually, systemically dismissed by the mainstream) fight back.
DN3D crossed that line with the alien rape stuff. (Might have been on this side of the line if the objective was to rescue people but as far as I could tell it was always just "oh look, bewbs ::fap:: ::destroy::"... and the mutilated corpses in the console versions was even worse for the [url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/pickton/story.html?id=8a511737-41f5-4364-85ff-757ead93067a]connotations[/url]. (None of this, I should stress, has anything to do with nudity.)
[s]Hypothetically a Wolfenstein mod where you played the enemy and there was a bonus level mowing down comical Jewish stereotypes would cross the line in similar but non-sexual ways.[/s] [u]Well, let's be fair to DN3D, it wasn't anywhere that bad. More like, you're still Blaskowicz on the side of the not-more-evil guys, but the huge pile of corpses in the concentration camp you stumble into is full of dead people who look like comical Jewish stereotypes and when you hit the Use key B throws money at them to "honour" the dead. And the corpses can be gibbed. And the gib sprites are really hairy in some places and one of the gibs is a big hook nose--okay I'm going to stop right here.[/u]
Excessive cruelty to helpless opponents is there as well. (I find that Brutal Doom does not, despite having an [i]explicit[/i] "cruelty bonus", do this - either an opponent is an actually useful human shield or your "cruely" is, ironically, putting them out of their misery!) Hypothetical example: Guy drops weapon and surrenders, you burn him to death with flamethrower.
As for mere visual gore, facial/skull/teeth stuff always squicks me the hell out though it's not usually a dealbreaker.
tl;dr who and why are the biggest things, the rest is just meat