to tell it straight, I'm trying to build a wall

(Continued from part one.)

Picking up back on January 19th, here's dogui's decision on the game:

It's a great concept for a game. But there's a difference between commercial entertainment games and a contemplative deep art game with a message. Acclaimed games like Passage or The Company of Myself aren't on Steam or any store because they're just not games meant to make money. It's a matter of context, not quality in itself.

That's not entirely true, dogui. My Steam game collection, for example, contains a game called The Path (which, when it premiered in 2009, was also controversial because of its themes of child abuse and rape). And there are other games that have been dismissed as 'walking simulators' or, as you put it, 'just not games meant to make money'.

Here's the thing. All game designers want their games to sell, sure. But if your key criteria for approving games is, will this become a Triple-A title? You're using the wrong criteria for game criticism.



From Havok006 on the 19th:

What is wrong with you Indie developers. Call me old, but when I play games, I play games to escape harsh realities. Not live in it. I also notice you guys are obsessed with rape lately.

Yes people in real life get rape, and it is sad and a horrible thing.

But do we really need that crap for entertainment??

Call me old, but games are supposed to fun and play characters you care and root for to escape reality.

Even when you play a Female Protagonist, their supposed to usually be a bad ass that know one will dare get on thier bad side. Like Samus from metroid, and other famous heroines.
Where you have fun playing and even forget you are playing a female character cause you are having funning.

So, you don't mind playing female protagonists as long as they're active and "bad ass" and you can forget they're actually female? Because you're "having funning"?



So Bayonetta's not for you, then.

My other problem is that whole line about developers being "obsessed with rape". When did that happen? Yes, there are games that feature rape as a concept, for good or ill. It's definitely a choice for us as players as to whether we want to accept those themes. It doesn't mean they're bad games because they feature traumatic themes. If lack of trauma was a solid criteria in determining good, playable games, survival horror would never have caught on as a genre.

From THE SKELETON KING:

Do the right thing for your game. Abort it.

See, and here all Steam is asking is whether you are interested in the game, or not. The messages you leave go directly to the game developers, so was this really necessary? It's a game full of harsh moments, even genuinely gut-wrenching ones, and your total message back was "abortion is the right thing to do"? Really??

(Continued in part three.)