Author's Note: The title of the video game to be discussed in this blog entry has been censored by my own choice. I did it because I want at least the titles of my blog entries to be Safe for Work.
If you've been paying attention to games media lately, you may have heard of a game seemingly designed to offend. This game, a first person shooter in the style of old arcade games like Boot Hill, is called Kill the Faggot. (I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my LGBT readers who have just read that word.) The title of the game may be offensive to sexual minorities, including homosexuals and bisexuals. However, the existence of the game raises a few powerful questions: what does it mean to be offended, and does being offended have any meaning?
Let's talk about the game itself: it's shit. Pardon my language, but as far as games go, and according to the footage I've seen of it, the game is nothing to write home about as a product. You control a cross hair, as a slew of homosexual and transgender stereotypes run across the screen. You shoot those to earn points before time expires. If you shoot a straight person, you lose points. That's it. The camera stays static, staring into a very bland background of your choice: street, or warehouse. This type of game has been obsolete for decades. To make it worse, not only do the transgender targets ALL look the same (a big man wearing a teddy), but their sprites have ZERO animation! Unacceptable
But that's not what offended people, no. What offended many people, and still offends, is the subject matter. It's that the game's goal is to murder homosexuals and transgenders. Now, this can be seen as offensive for a slew of reasons, but let's focus on the bare bones: it's a game whose goal is to murder people who are sexual minorities. The question, though, is thus: is that a bad thing?
There have always been violent games; in that regard Kill the Faggot is by no means exceptional. But the target of its violence, however, is what causes the uproar. In video games, however, you've always been able to kill many kinds of targets: game animals, fantastic animals, all manner of people, etc. And though there has always been an uproar about violence in gaming, there hasn't been a game that's been this upfront about killing a specific target since Ethnic Cleansing, a game about killing racial minorities in America.
For those not in the know, Ethnic Cleansing is a First Person Shooter released for PC by a company called Resistance Records, a record company that specializes in releasing White Nationalist music. White Nationalism is notifiable for its racist behavior against non whites. A parallel can be made between Ethnic Cleansing and Kill the Faggot: Both games are considered offensive for their subject matter, and both are considered terrible products disregarding their subject matter.
However, the major difference lays in the why the games were made. Ethnic Cleansing was made to spread the basic message of Resistance Records (whites rule, kill all non whites), whereas Kill the Faggot was made to offend. Randall Herman, creator of the game, claimed in an interview that he made the game "not to attack homosexuals" but to "offend people who are easily offended".
What does it mean to be "offended"? I consulted a dictionary, and the definition given to me was "to feel hurt, upset, or angry". Now, why would anyone be made hurt, upset, or angry about a video game that's about killing gays and transsexuals? Well, it may have to do with the unfortunate history of homophobia that the world has experienced, and continues to experience to this day. There are many countries where it is still illegal to be in a homosexual relationship, where the punishment is death. Even in the West, where many have learned that LGBT people are no different from straight and cisgendered people, there is still a lot of homophobia. There are still too many people willing to beat up gays for being gay, too many parents willing to drop their children onto the street just because they confided in them they were homosexual. It still happens.
It's easy to see why anyone would be offended by the game's subject matter, but the question remains: does it matter? That's a heavy question, and one that I'm afraid will cause quite the uproar.
I don't think I need to explain the side that justifies the offense, but what about the author's point of view? The author had stated that too many people get offended too easily and too quickly over the most trivial thing. A quick look on social media would validate this point of view. We are much too quick to react emotionally; that's what allows "click bait media" to flourish. Many people are very quick to yell out "that's offensive!" or any variation of the term. We're seeing it right now in gaming and other forms of entertainment, most recently with the new Avengers film.
People were very quick to judge Joss Whedon's treatment of the character Black Widow as "misogynistic" because her character arc was based around her budding romance with the Hulk, how she sees herself as a monster, and because she needed to be rescued once. Because of that, many people, including some feminists, got offended, called Whedon a misogynist, and (coincidence or not) Whedon quit Twitter. Were they right? No. Simply put, they got offended over nothing, because Black Widow was never portrayed as any less capable than any member of the team (which included a modified super soldier, a man wearing the greatest weapon in the history of mankind, and a fricking GOD). She was portrayed as a human being, with her own worries, her own emotional baggage, and her own weaknesses. So what happened? Either people were deliberately looking for something to get offended by (very likely), or they ignored the bigger picture and focused solely on what offended them (also likely).
How does this tie to Kill the Faggot? Well, we need to look at the bigger picture. The developer of the game sought to offend. Mission Accomplished. But what did they get offended by? A crappy video game with a horrid premise. One that got pulled from Steam in 2 hours. The game won't be commercially available anytime soon, if ever. In effect, everyone won: the developer offended the easily offended, and the offended got an offensive game pulled out of circulation.
At the end of the day, though, the question remains: does being offended mean anything anymore? Does yelling "this upsets me" instill upon society any sense of obligation? Consider the current resistance to "political correctness". Has being PC truly gone mad?
We grow so weary of offending, that some of us seek to purposely offend. Why? It ought not matter who we offend, right? "Say what you mean and mean what you say, for those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind"- isn't this a good maxim to live by?
Most likely the real problem is that we are too afraid of other people's anger; we don't want to make others angry at us, we want to avoid problems. This is normal; angering the wrong person can cost you a job opportunity, a hot date, or even a bloody nose. And because PC talk is geared to not offend minorities, we use it in this seemingly false notion that we do not wish to upset minorities. But the truth is, we often forget why we don't want to upset them. And forgetting this is part of what leads to a backlash against political correctness.
Taking care not to offend someone is supposed to be based on respect, not fear. It's supposed to be "I don't want to use the word 'faggot' because it's an awful word invariably tied to the abuse suffered by the LGBT community at the hands of intolerant monsters" or "I will never use the word 'nigger' because that word is forever tied to the disgraceful history of systematic abuse suffered by the black American community at the hands of racists". But these days, it's more like "I can't say 'nigger' or 'faggot' cuz it ain't PC and I could get sued or fired." And why? Because when people say "that offends me" what they really mean is "that angers me, change it or suffer consequences".
Apologies for using the N word.
And therein lays the reason why people seek to purposely offend: it's a type of dare to these people, to see just what consequences there'll be. In a strange twist, being un-PC has become an act of rebellion, a giant middle finger to a society that has let itself be ruled by fear rather than by compassion. That helps explain the creation of this game: it's a giant middle finger to a society that has stopped caring about why anyone would be offended, just that they might be offended.
What did Randall Herman really accomplish, if anything? He made people mad. Why they got mad, even they might not know. Maybe the man helped expose just how thin skinned many people are. Maybe he helped show the limits of what is tolerable in Steam and video games, the thin line between free speech and hate speech, and just how little people are willing to tolerate homophobia. Maybe the man wanted to show just how ridiculous people can get over nothing. Maybe this whole debacle was an invitation for us all to calm down and talk about what real homophobia is like and why a crappy game with no hope of ever making a profit doesn't really compare to the hate and vitriol that the LGBT community continues to experience on this day and age, and many people failed miserably to see it as such. And in the end, there's really not much else to say. Mission Accomplished, Randall.
If you've been paying attention to games media lately, you may have heard of a game seemingly designed to offend. This game, a first person shooter in the style of old arcade games like Boot Hill, is called Kill the Faggot. (I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my LGBT readers who have just read that word.) The title of the game may be offensive to sexual minorities, including homosexuals and bisexuals. However, the existence of the game raises a few powerful questions: what does it mean to be offended, and does being offended have any meaning?
Let's talk about the game itself: it's shit. Pardon my language, but as far as games go, and according to the footage I've seen of it, the game is nothing to write home about as a product. You control a cross hair, as a slew of homosexual and transgender stereotypes run across the screen. You shoot those to earn points before time expires. If you shoot a straight person, you lose points. That's it. The camera stays static, staring into a very bland background of your choice: street, or warehouse. This type of game has been obsolete for decades. To make it worse, not only do the transgender targets ALL look the same (a big man wearing a teddy), but their sprites have ZERO animation! Unacceptable
But that's not what offended people, no. What offended many people, and still offends, is the subject matter. It's that the game's goal is to murder homosexuals and transgenders. Now, this can be seen as offensive for a slew of reasons, but let's focus on the bare bones: it's a game whose goal is to murder people who are sexual minorities. The question, though, is thus: is that a bad thing?
There have always been violent games; in that regard Kill the Faggot is by no means exceptional. But the target of its violence, however, is what causes the uproar. In video games, however, you've always been able to kill many kinds of targets: game animals, fantastic animals, all manner of people, etc. And though there has always been an uproar about violence in gaming, there hasn't been a game that's been this upfront about killing a specific target since Ethnic Cleansing, a game about killing racial minorities in America.
For those not in the know, Ethnic Cleansing is a First Person Shooter released for PC by a company called Resistance Records, a record company that specializes in releasing White Nationalist music. White Nationalism is notifiable for its racist behavior against non whites. A parallel can be made between Ethnic Cleansing and Kill the Faggot: Both games are considered offensive for their subject matter, and both are considered terrible products disregarding their subject matter.
However, the major difference lays in the why the games were made. Ethnic Cleansing was made to spread the basic message of Resistance Records (whites rule, kill all non whites), whereas Kill the Faggot was made to offend. Randall Herman, creator of the game, claimed in an interview that he made the game "not to attack homosexuals" but to "offend people who are easily offended".
What does it mean to be "offended"? I consulted a dictionary, and the definition given to me was "to feel hurt, upset, or angry". Now, why would anyone be made hurt, upset, or angry about a video game that's about killing gays and transsexuals? Well, it may have to do with the unfortunate history of homophobia that the world has experienced, and continues to experience to this day. There are many countries where it is still illegal to be in a homosexual relationship, where the punishment is death. Even in the West, where many have learned that LGBT people are no different from straight and cisgendered people, there is still a lot of homophobia. There are still too many people willing to beat up gays for being gay, too many parents willing to drop their children onto the street just because they confided in them they were homosexual. It still happens.
It's easy to see why anyone would be offended by the game's subject matter, but the question remains: does it matter? That's a heavy question, and one that I'm afraid will cause quite the uproar.
I don't think I need to explain the side that justifies the offense, but what about the author's point of view? The author had stated that too many people get offended too easily and too quickly over the most trivial thing. A quick look on social media would validate this point of view. We are much too quick to react emotionally; that's what allows "click bait media" to flourish. Many people are very quick to yell out "that's offensive!" or any variation of the term. We're seeing it right now in gaming and other forms of entertainment, most recently with the new Avengers film.
People were very quick to judge Joss Whedon's treatment of the character Black Widow as "misogynistic" because her character arc was based around her budding romance with the Hulk, how she sees herself as a monster, and because she needed to be rescued once. Because of that, many people, including some feminists, got offended, called Whedon a misogynist, and (coincidence or not) Whedon quit Twitter. Were they right? No. Simply put, they got offended over nothing, because Black Widow was never portrayed as any less capable than any member of the team (which included a modified super soldier, a man wearing the greatest weapon in the history of mankind, and a fricking GOD). She was portrayed as a human being, with her own worries, her own emotional baggage, and her own weaknesses. So what happened? Either people were deliberately looking for something to get offended by (very likely), or they ignored the bigger picture and focused solely on what offended them (also likely).
How does this tie to Kill the Faggot? Well, we need to look at the bigger picture. The developer of the game sought to offend. Mission Accomplished. But what did they get offended by? A crappy video game with a horrid premise. One that got pulled from Steam in 2 hours. The game won't be commercially available anytime soon, if ever. In effect, everyone won: the developer offended the easily offended, and the offended got an offensive game pulled out of circulation.
At the end of the day, though, the question remains: does being offended mean anything anymore? Does yelling "this upsets me" instill upon society any sense of obligation? Consider the current resistance to "political correctness". Has being PC truly gone mad?
We grow so weary of offending, that some of us seek to purposely offend. Why? It ought not matter who we offend, right? "Say what you mean and mean what you say, for those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind"- isn't this a good maxim to live by?
Most likely the real problem is that we are too afraid of other people's anger; we don't want to make others angry at us, we want to avoid problems. This is normal; angering the wrong person can cost you a job opportunity, a hot date, or even a bloody nose. And because PC talk is geared to not offend minorities, we use it in this seemingly false notion that we do not wish to upset minorities. But the truth is, we often forget why we don't want to upset them. And forgetting this is part of what leads to a backlash against political correctness.
Taking care not to offend someone is supposed to be based on respect, not fear. It's supposed to be "I don't want to use the word 'faggot' because it's an awful word invariably tied to the abuse suffered by the LGBT community at the hands of intolerant monsters" or "I will never use the word 'nigger' because that word is forever tied to the disgraceful history of systematic abuse suffered by the black American community at the hands of racists". But these days, it's more like "I can't say 'nigger' or 'faggot' cuz it ain't PC and I could get sued or fired." And why? Because when people say "that offends me" what they really mean is "that angers me, change it or suffer consequences".
Apologies for using the N word.
And therein lays the reason why people seek to purposely offend: it's a type of dare to these people, to see just what consequences there'll be. In a strange twist, being un-PC has become an act of rebellion, a giant middle finger to a society that has let itself be ruled by fear rather than by compassion. That helps explain the creation of this game: it's a giant middle finger to a society that has stopped caring about why anyone would be offended, just that they might be offended.
What did Randall Herman really accomplish, if anything? He made people mad. Why they got mad, even they might not know. Maybe the man helped expose just how thin skinned many people are. Maybe he helped show the limits of what is tolerable in Steam and video games, the thin line between free speech and hate speech, and just how little people are willing to tolerate homophobia. Maybe the man wanted to show just how ridiculous people can get over nothing. Maybe this whole debacle was an invitation for us all to calm down and talk about what real homophobia is like and why a crappy game with no hope of ever making a profit doesn't really compare to the hate and vitriol that the LGBT community continues to experience on this day and age, and many people failed miserably to see it as such. And in the end, there's really not much else to say. Mission Accomplished, Randall.
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