For many, violence and digital games are inextricably linked. If you think about it, violence has been present in digital games since the early 80s when the user was trying to kill aliens in Space Invaders!
Today, with the spectacular improvement of graphics to almost photorealistic levels, there are many who express strong concerns about violence and its depiction in digital games. However, until now, perhaps under pretense, violence was part of a thematic framework. Whether when you as a user took on the role of a police officer as in LA Noire, or when the violence was completely “cartoonish” (Carmageddon series), or when you were a warrior ( Call of Duty, Medal of Honor) or when you were the savior of the galaxy (the RPG trilogy Mass Effect).
The creators of the new digital game Hatred (the title is eloquent: “Hatred”), however, do not adhere to any pretense at all, as there is no “thematic framework” or story, no attempt to save the planet from some threat. In the wake of the successive tragic shootings with deaths in schools and universities in the US, the psychopathic “hero” (he cannot be described as an anti-hero either) indulges in a bloodbath for absolutely no reason!
“I hate this world (…) My whole life is just cold and bitter hatred, and I have always wanted to die violently… This is the time for revenge and no life is worth saving. And I will put as many as I can in the grave. The time has come to kill, and the time has come to be killed… My personal genocidal crusade begins here,” says the “protagonist” who kills unsuspecting passersby (women, the elderly, police officers) in dozens of gruesome ways for absolutely no reason.
Many say that the game by the (completely unknown) studio Destructive Creations, with the controversial trailer that has caused a stir in the US with… 1 million views and almost 32 thousand “likes” (!), is actually a clever advertising ploy for the studio to attract publicity for its creation, which does not exceed mediocrity. But it also brings back to the surface an endless debate about the limits of provocation in a game (or even in a movie or a song) and when they are exceeded.
Source: skai.gr
