Stormcleod wrote...
Nautica773 wrote...
Ozymandias23 wrote...
In that mission we were presented with a scenario where a ship had crash landed, the captain had separated out the female crew members and placed them in a camp. He then gave these women to his officers to be used
as play things. The idea was horrific. Perhaps Bioware feel that the suggestion of rape is suitable content for their ‘dark and edgy’ video game but I don’t. It was uncalled for and I found it sickening and disturbing. For me it evoked parallels with some of the atrocities carried out in ‘camps’ across Europe during World War 2.
This feeling continued into Subject Zero’s loyalty mission where we’re provided with a story about the abuse of children. Children bought or stolen, ripped away from home and family, transported to a facility in crates, half starved and experimented upon, injected with substances to see what effect it would have. The parallels with history are hard to ignore. The children of Bullenhuser Damm, brought from Auschwitz to Neuengamme for experimentation. Is this really suitable for inclusion in something that is supposed to be a source of entertainment?
I remember watching the E3 reveal trailer and Derek Watts, the art director, talking about how nasty ME2 was in parts and asking his colleagues ‘have we gone too far?’. Well my answer would be yes, you did.
I also wanted to comment quickly on this.
I would have to say, if you actually felt sickened by these moments, then they were expertly crafted. They were suppose to be horrific moments, situations meant to invoke feelings of disgust in the player. Frankly, I felt they were a little weak myself, but it seems that for some people they were a success.
If you can't explore these issues in art, where can you explore them? You say they have no purpose in entertainment whereas I believe they are the sole reason for entertainment. Otherwise, you get soulless media with no real intrinsic value.
Everyone needs to remember the simple fact that the the game is a MATURE rating. This game is for an adult that can realize and cope with the facts that real life is not pretty and it is not a fun place. Almost everyone out there has had the nastiest, ugliest parts of life and society invade their perfect little happy world at some time or another and it is in that moment that you realize that life is not pretty and sweet. Yes, I agree that ME2 does have its faults just the ME1 had its faults, but come on. If you felt sickened by some of the moments in the game then you must have also felt other feelings in other parts of the game. That is what they are trying to give the gaming community, a game(s) that envoke these feelings and the whole gambit of other feelings along with them. We have grown up playing games and we expect the companies and games to give us a whole life experience. With all the good and BAD moments. Without the bad moments in life, how can you feel that the good moments in life are good. I hate to say it but the bad moments in life is what defines and makes the good moments all that much sweeter. If you can't handle a game showing the ugly side of life then, in my opinion, you really haven't lived. I agree with some of the statements made, I myself can't agree with hitting a woman for any reason but life and death, but that doesn't change the fact that many, many men all around us hit and beat women for no reason at all. That is life and we have to deal with it and try to make choices in our own life to change and reflect our views. The game gave u a choice just like life. So it all boils down to what choice did you make at that instance. Did you hit the woman, did you save the person, or did you like many others take the other path. I end it with that for the simple reason it is a matter of choice to each person. And just for kicks I thought the game was great for the 2nd part. Can only hope that Bioware and the team combine and refine everything from both games to give us a fantastic ending to this great trilogy.
I’m replying to your post but my comments are not directed solely at you but are a response to many of the points raised in this thread.
In the UK Mass Effect 2 is rated as suitable for 15 year olds, not an age where one could be considered an adult. However that is an issue for the UK ratings system.
Yes life can be unpleasant at times, horrible things happen to people, sometimes through no fault of their own. Life teaches us this lesson time and again through our own experiences and the experiences of loved ones. I would agree that encountering the difficult side of life gives us a fuller appreciation of the good times, of the things that make life worth living.
However I am not, as some of the posters in this thread have suggested, hiding my head in the sand, trying to avoid or deny the unpleasant side of life. Quite the contrary, I am looking clearly at the content of this game and seeing the parallels with REAL LIFE events that Bioware seems to have used as inspiration for achieving their goal of creating a ‘dark and edgy’ universe.
We’re introduced to a character, Subject Zero, who has been abused, experimented upon and forced to fight like an animal against other abused, starving children. Still a child, we’re told she fights and kills to obtain her freedom, escapes on a ship only to be ‘used’ by the crew. As an adult, with her shaven head and futuristic barcode tattooed onto her scalp, she has become just as brutal as her captors; she has become someone who perpetrates violence and abuse upon others.
There was a time in history when human beings were treated like cattle, had numbers tattooed onto their skin and as I sit here, a few days after the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, I find the manner in which this content was dealt with in Mass Effect 2 offensive.
Events like this should be explored so that we always remember, however the manner in which it is explored is just as important. If you look to the past you will find that Bioware have used one of the greatest tragedies in human history as source material for creating a dark, gritty game and for no other reason that I can see than a cynical attempt to attract a certain demographic and generate sales.
Add to this the portrayal of women in Mass Effect 2 as play things, objects to be used and abused when opportunity permits and the more subtle negative portrayal of homosexuality and I find myself playing a game that treats serious issues in a manner I find unpalatable. In my opinion this is a game with practically no plot that has cynically used real life issues to pad a weak story and to artificially construct a dark, gritty environment for financial gain.
Needless to say all of the above is my opinion, the impressions I formed when playing Mass Effect 2.
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