please let me explain
About a week back, Ben sent me a message over Steam with a link to a game on Steam Greenlight called Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme, disgusted and confused. Then, I looked at the top banner which boasted: "This game has been Greenlit by the Community! The community has shown their interest in this game. Valve has reached out to this developer to start moving things toward release on Steam." My first impressions were Why and How. It was obvious that we had to play the demo at our about-yearly reunion at Mark's. We've watched universally panned movies and played questionable games; let's add to the list, why not.
Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme is about men who get turned into women and the wacky adventures that ensue, presented in the form of a graphic novel. The demo available on Desura speaks for the game. I didn't like the game, Ben didn't like the game, Mark didn't like the game; let's just leave it at that. If the game had a message to convey, the developers failed monumentally at delivery. But I don't want to discuss the the merits/demerits of the game, rather what we can learn from a game like this from a consumer vista.
This game raised $27,000 from a goal of $5,000 on IndieGoGo and is now asking consumers for $24.99 on Desura for the full game. I've already commented on the content of the game, but here's a different perspective: the developers have shown with full transparency what the game is and how the end product will look. It is completely up to the buyer's decision ("is the game worth $24.99?") and there are people out there who say "Yes, it's worth it." Those people then fork over $24.99 and then ogle at women with crude anatomical deformities- and they're happy for doing so. Or they should be, otherwise I have no idea why anyone would hand over the money for something like Gender Bender. The point is, the developers have fairly shown what the game is without concealing any of its apparent flaws. From there, it's all fair game for the consumer; it's a practice that should be praised.
Now, is it business ethical to ask for $24.99 for a game of Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme's quality? I feel that if you're going to be buying a game like Gender Bender, $24.99 is a complete scam when content of equal or greater integrity is floating out around the internet for free (what I'm really trying to say is that porn is free on the internet). Chances are, if you've found Gender Bender, you can find better (or worse) for free. With that, it's your own fault for buying the game.
Scrolling through Gender Bender's Greenlight page, you'll find a majority of people commenting that the game is offensive and/or should have never been brought to Greenlight or even created. Controversial and offensive games are not something new; they've been around since the early days of video games. Just about any game you can think of probably has some speck of controversy brought forth by someone nit-picking the game. While Gender Bender isn't the Citizen Kane of video games, it certainly isn't the Ethnic Cleansing (a game where you kill ethnic minorities) of video games either. The game certainly isn't a step forwards in the depiction of women and transgendered people in video games, but I don't think it's necessarily a step backwards either.
If you don't like the game, don't buy the game. It's a simplified demonstration of the power of consumer efficacy within the video entertainment industry. The games that we buy say something about us and also sends messages to the developers within the industry. Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme is easily passed off as just some offensive game that boils women down into objects, but the way we handle and respond to games like these also say something about us as consumers. We have all the right and ability to voice our satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the game just as much as the developers have the right to make the game in the first place. Our vote with our Steam wallets will send them a clear message.
No comments:
Post a Comment