'Hatred' for PC just released an extremely controversial, internet exploding trailer

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

A new trailer seems to be storming the internet. A game trailer was released recently for a game called Hatred.

The name of the game is simple. Mass murder. As far as I can see it, your only goal is to walk around and kill men and women who are begging for their lives. That's it.

The trailer has largely been downvoted. Epic Games has asked for the Unreal Engine 4 logo to be removed.

People against it: They say it's crass, brutal, completely unnecessary. They're preparing for the storm of news outlets who are looking for one more excuse to blame violence on video games. Finally, a shooter that will be everything the media at large actually believes shooters to be. You can't even justify it with "you're saving the world from aliens/zombies". It's just violence for the sake of it.

People for it: They say calm down, it's just a game. Fiction is fiction. This is technically the type of thing you can already do in Grand Theft Auto games, while admitting that it's not the point of GTA and other games of the same ilk.

What are your thoughts? Me personally, I haven't put a lot of thought into it. I'm not vehemently against it, but it's not something I'll pick up, either. I find that most character driven games I buy have some sense of a moral compass and a progression toward something that matters.

18+ trailer for violence and maybe an f-bomb.

[Vyk]

I don't think they expected it to be a success. I saw an article on Polygon about it. And most of the comments I read for their facebook post on said article were parroting some thoughts I'd mostly agree with. This is how 80% of people play GTA. There are people who enjoy violence and video games in general as just a simple video game to goof around in. They don't consider NPCs representative of real people. They're computers. So they have no problem killing them without any remorse. I don't think anyone who enjoys this game is really any less of a person. I don't think the game should be banned from being sold or released the way some people seem to think it will. I even seen the old argument about violence in games causing violence in life. Even annotations saying "Well it may not happen to normal people but this will affect those with mental issues". Sorry. But those people are already affected by whatever is affecting them

I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Not because I agree with anything about it, I don't want the game, and I don't support what it stands for. But I support its right to exist. And if there's even the slightest chance it has an effect on people, I would imagine it'd be more positive than negative. People who enjoy that kind of violence and may also cause violence of their own, obviously need some sort of outlet before they actually do cause something. And this may be their catharsis. Just like I'd rather deprive/depraved and disturbed guys watch their rape fantasy porn rather than go out and actually rape chicks. I'd rather potential murders play their murder simulator to get off rather than go out and actually murder people. So in that way I'm glad this game exists and maybe there's a slim chance it'll do some good in the world

For me however. I would probably feel sick and dirty to play it or watch it being played. But to each their own I suppose..

[Slothy]

I'll say what I told a friend of mine when he linked me to the Polygon article and I saw just how irrationally butthurt people are over this: I know what I'm adding to my Steam wish list.

Honestly though, to call this a murder simulator is no less absurd than calling GTA a murder simulator. Just because killing is the goal does not mean the term simulator is appropriate. Hell, if anything given the gameplay footage, I'd say it's the exact opposite of a sim. So what we essentially have as far as I can tell is a game built around the idea of going on a rampage in a sandbox game. That thing everyone who's ever played a sandbox game has probably done every single time they sit down to play one. Sure it's not the sole point of the game in those, but they still let you do it and I've yet to meet someone who doesn't. So should I really feel bad about a game dispensing with the pretense and just being about something most people have enjoyed previously? Because I don't. And I don't consider it something worth getting bent out of shape about. Hell, I'd say if some of the people, the writer of the Polygon article for example, were really that disgusted by it then the responsible thing to do would have been to not write an article about it. Let it just fade away into obscurity, not give it more publicity.

So I'll say what I generally say about silly controversies like this: don't like it? Don't buy it. It's that simple.

[Old Manus]

Looks like a load of cynical bulltrout to me. I'm sure some people will weigh in with some beard-stroking nonsense about 'profound social commentary' and the fact people will buy it is some kind of self-fulfilling cultural performance art, but it just reminds me of that whole airport sequence in one of the Call of Duty games - what better way to guarantee sales than to heap it with controversy (or in this case, take that controversy to its logical conclusion)? It looks like the kind of 'cool idea' I might have thought up when I was in school. Furthermore, I have a feeling that any fuss that is made will mainly be about 'people making a fuss' (similar to the whole 'racism row' that didn't actually happen over RE5). It just all sounds a bit dumb, really. I wonder what the 'freedom' reactions would be like if the goal of the game wasn't to slaughter civilians, but to sexually assault them instead...

[Pheesh]

All I can say is that there's no way this game is making it through the Australian ratings system.

[Vyk]

@Manus: There are hundreds of Japanese games already out for that fantasy, and loads of westerners hunt them down for just that reason. Nobody stops them. But I'm sure Steam would get in a huge pile of trout if they started selling them

[Bolivar]

Intrinsically, I don't think there's anything wrong with this. Weird stuff comes out in media all the time, this simply signals the diversity in gaming right now.

Instrumentally, these guys are not doing the industry any favors. The mainstream media has already caught wind of Gamer Gate. In an era where the journalists latch onto sensationalism to combat their diminishing ratings, these guys are serving a story to them on a silver platter. Between Gamergate, this, and all the stories of school shootings and police brutality, a lot of parents are going to make the unfortunate but completely understandable decision that they don't want their kids gaming. And that really sucks.

[Slothy]

Honestly, I don't think we have a lot to worry about from parents stopping their kids from playing games because of this stuff. We live in a time when the average age of gamers is over 30, and a sizeable chunk of the people popping out kids these days are gamers, or were at some point. The days where parents are going to attack all games because of the content of a few is, if not gone, at the very least quickly diminishing. There is no existential threat to gaming here.

[Pumpkin]

I really don't like this idea so it certainly isn't for me. Do you know how I play GTA? I steal cars and proceed to drive around the city obeying all traffic laws for a few hours. I'm not even joking, that's how I play the game. This game makes me a little bit sick but um

I guess if some people want to play it, its their money.

As a parent, if my son wanted this game (when he was older than 5 obviously) I would probably ask him why he wants to. Maybe open the way to communication about it. Or maybe he'll just scoff or eyeroll at me. I mean I play games where you kill people, it happens in FF games, I'm basically commiting mass genocide in spoilers in caseXenoblade but I know why I play those games and the main motive is not "to kill things". So I would want to hear his thoughts about why the game appeals to him, which I'm guessing would probably be along the lines of "I get to shoot things". But who knows!

[escobert]

I used to do the gta killing sprees. But, that trouts boring now.

I actually had someone call me a vegetarian liberal asshat on the DayZ forums because I said I don't kill animals in game unless I actually need the meat. I just can't bring myself to kill things needlessly anymore, regardless if it's real or not.

[Psychotic]

Much ado about nothing. Bet the game sucks anyway. It'll be Manhunt all over again.

I - and I assume others - like rampages in sandbox games because it's not the aim of the game. It's emergent gameplay where we use the tools provided to make our own rules. Somehow making me do it to complete the game doesn't seem quite as fun.

[Slothy]

vegetarian liberal asshat

That is the most hilariously stupid attempt at an insult I've seen in a while. I'd like to meet this person so I can laugh at them in person.

[Vyk]

I don't think a game like this is intended for underage consumption anyway. To me it's the video game equivalent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or House of 1000 Corpses. Just violence for the sake of violence in an entertainment medium. People of age have a right to feel entertained by it, and therefor have a right to seek out that entertainment. For whatever reason. No skin off my back. But I agree. I hate GTA games for various reasons, but I've had the random rampages on Saints Row. Tossing sticky satchel charges onto random pedestrians and laughing at the calamity that ensues. Then you load an old save and go back to doing missions and playing the game how you're supposed to. At best, mayhem is just a bonus game, or as Psy said, in some cases not even intended, but completely possible, when just doing your own thing. I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if people were begging for their lives, and the point was to kill them anywayAs stated, I don't like GTA games, but when I found out about an interactive torture scenario in V I was a bit more put off. Seeing clips of it made my gut wrench. It's also why I can't watch things like Reservoir Dogs. But that sort of thing has always been in entertainment. And people have existed that have always enjoyed it

[escobert]

vegetarian liberal asshat

That is the most hilariously stupid attempt at an insult I've seen in a while. I'd like to meet this person so I can laugh at them in person.

You'd have a field day on those forums.

[Spuuky]

vegetarian liberal asshat

That is the most hilariously stupid attempt at an insult I've seen in a while. I'd like to meet this person so I can laugh at them in person.

Don't worry, they'd be very quick to threaten to find your house and kick your ass for being such a broccoli-eating, socially-conscious butthead.