Gaming's Image
It’s necessary to parse the Hatred Greenlight controversy
without any sort of overly emotional sensationalism. Valve's suspension and
ultimate reinstatement of Hatred on their Greenlight service deserves scrutiny because it reveals a lot about the gaming industry. Furthermore it’s worth examining whether or not Valve has any sort of
abstract responsibility or duty as a private company towards fringe media like
Hatred. I can only speculate on why Valve originally pulled Hatred beyond their
explanation. If they pulled it due to the public outcry as an exception to how
they normally do business, I would be comfortable to say Valve was complicit in
the censorship advocated by puritans online. I have heard countless calls of
removing Hatred based on it being abhorrent, it making games look bad, and that
it comes at the worst possible time in games by being in close proximity to
alleged death threats made by gamers against critics and developers. These
calls think it fair to seek to pressure others to not purchase and sell the
game based on public relations. A Polygon article on gaming’s perception said,
“Gaming has a public relations problem, one so deep that parents fear the hobby
will ensnare even their adult children. Games and gamers are regularly judged
in ways that are totally unacceptable for any other modern artistic medium.” I
think that estimation is fair, but framing a perception issue as a public
relations problem suggests that the author thinks it’s right to use propaganda
(the mean name for public relations) to manipulate others’ opinions towards gaming.
Propaganda’s purpose is to get the reader to do something. In the case of
Hatred, that was exclusion via the heckler’s veto in order to make gaming look
more appealing to mainstream culture. I think criticizing the game is fair. I
personally agree that Hatred is abhorrent and would not want to play it. But
calls for and acts of exclusion are all forms of censorship by critics and companies
alike.
The possibility that Valve had pulled Hatred as a business
decision offers a contrast to my original speculation. They stated, “Based on
what we've seen on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam.” They
justify pulling the game because it is not in line with what they seek to sell.
Valve’s message has been criticized as hypocritical, citing the current sale of
Postal 1, the obvious inspiration for Hatred. Exploring this criticism of Valve
requires that I do close analysis of Postal 1 and the Hatred trailer. If Hatred
is more extreme that Postal 1, I’m comfortable speculating that their refusal
to sell it was in fact a business decision in line with how they normally
conduct themselves. Their original decision would lack both in hypocrisy and in
capitulating to histrionic cries, but it would have still been censorship via
the heckler’s veto. Valve had sought to avoid the criticism of having Hatred sold on their service. In order to stem any controversy, they pulled the game, effectively suppressing the game on their service and relegating its sale to much smaller distributors and the developer's site.
As a business, Valve can sell what they please. I’m happy
they put the game back up because exclusion has real consequences on how much
freedom developers feel they truly have over the subject matter of their game,
no matter how terrible. Destructive Creations, the developer of Hatred stated,
“These days, when a lot of games are heading to be polite, colorful,
politically correct and trying to be some kind of higher art, rather than just
an entertainment – we wanted to create something against trends.” Making a
horrific and uncomfortably violent game as an affront to politically correct
trends is a statement. And excluding a game seeking to make others
uncomfortable is also a statement, one saying that some art or entertainment will
not be tolerated by the gate-keepers of the most popular digital distribution
service in gaming. That in itself is awful, regardless of the games
availability on other services. It is perfectly legal to exclude as one sees
fit, but I do not think it’s the right thing to do in the medium.
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| "Hey, I'm just exercising my 2nd amendment rights" |
Go Postal
Examining Postal 1 reveals whether or not Valve’s decision
was hypocritical. Postal features the same isometric view and mass murder of
civilians as the objective. While a lot of Postal 1 is unsettling, it contains
tons of tongue in cheek humor. The humor is extreme, but effective nonetheless.
The player controlled Postal Dude wears a trench coat and spits out
condescending one liners. “Don’t be a sissy” and “Let’s blow something up” are
among his repertoire as well as “Only my weapon understands me.” His appearance is terrifying and
resembles the stereotypical representation of a mass murderer while still
having an air of being ridiculous and non-sensical. When he guns down an enemy,
they drop and spin around in a circle with their feet as a pivot. The death
animation along with the low resolution graphics and muddy art keep the game
from being as disturbing as say Mortal Kombat 1-3’s realistic digitized
sprites. Furthermore the civilian enemies attempt to defend themselves by
firing guns and throwing grenades at the player. This lowers the extremity of
the violence as the enemies provide some resistance rather than just being
fodder for the player. I would argue that the whole game’s aesthetic and design
suggests the developers sought to find a range between tongue in cheek “Ha ha”
humor and genuinely disturbing material.
The voice acting follows suit, careening between funny and
uncomfortable. Many times the enemies gunned down shout in a goofy yelp,
suggesting that the characters are rednecks. These shrieks are silly and can
elicit a chuckle. Civilians yelling “Ow, my leg” with even delivery and
“Hay-elp (help)” are some of the funnier ones. But there are some horrifying
and unsettling death shrieks too. When knocked to the ground and waiting to be
finished off, some male characters repeat “Kill me now” in a hopeless manner.
Some female characters in the same state shriek “Help! I can’t breathe.” What
makes these lines so difficult to bear is that they’re delivered in a serious
manner and escape any sort of caricature of human suffering. It sounds much like
a human that was gunned down and thus elicits levels of discomfort.
Before each level are entries from the Postal Dude’s diary.
The entries continue the theme of humor and shock. My favorite humorous entry
says, “Life is cheap-- death is free! Act now! Supplies are limited (Offer void
in Arizona).” Most are silly like this throughout the game. Conversely, the
more disturbing entries resemble the talentless ramblings of mass killers. The
twisted attempts at imagery and metaphor heighten the discomfort when reading
them. The best example: “I am the celestial gardener, policing the planet of
the stink weeds and poisons which leak out even through the cracks in the cold
asphalt sidewalks of the city of Sin!" This entry establishes the motive
of the Postal Dude. His mission is to cleanse, police, uproot. He elevates
himself with moral language, but his aim is subverted throughout the game with
humor. A particularly disturbing yet subverted entry comes near the end of the
game: “Black leather smoke coils up my nostrils tingling with death's surprise.
Human remnants cling to my clothing like bloody briars as I continue to wade,
hip deep in flesh, bone and viscera. Bad neighborhood coming up!" The
majority of the entry consists of harsh and sophomoric imagery, reducing human
remains to an annoyance and a hindrance to the Postal Dude’s clothing and
movement. Yet the entire passage is subverted by the conclusion in which the
Postal Dude seems to be excited about entering the ghetto, calling it a bad
neighborhood as if he is a suburban housewife. The final sentence functions as
a dumb non sequitur, standing out in comedic contrast to the horrifying imagery
before to create tension.
The sound design in the game offers sparse but ambient
effects in between the cacophony of screams, gun fire, and explosions. The guns
and explosions are dull and lack any sort of punch making them completely
forgettable. The finisher move in the game, wherein the Postal Dude executes a
gunned down enemy by shooting them fatally, is preceded by a digital low-end
brass sound effect going *dun dun*. It alludes to the Jaws theme, defining the
Postal Dude as a predator who partakes in killing innocents. Each level intro
offers churning and psychotic industrial sounds as the player reads the diary
entries. These ambient tracks are very disturbing and lend to a feeling of
schizophrenia while reading the sillier ones. Several levels contain blaring
repetitive sounds that create a sick feeling as one plays. The first level has
a chilling wind that overtakes all other sounds, defining the level as an
oppressive wasteland. The air force base level has an alert horn blaring
constantly throughout, lending quite a dangerous and eerie feeling to the level
as a whole. The use of sound effects as ambient music placed very high in the
master mix lends to the disturbing side of the game’s personality.
All these aspects create an incredibly ambivalent game.
Although the violence, shrieks, and ambient cacophony of sounds make the game lean
more as an uncomfortable experience, it still is balanced by goofy caricatures
of violence and one-liners. If Postal 1 exists as evidence of Valve’s hypocrisy,
then Hatred must resemble it closely. Hatred must match the ambivalent tone as
well as presentation and justifications for violence. If it doesn’t, then Valve
is exonerated of claims of hypocrisy.
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| "It's funny. Because it's not." |
The Hatred trailer contains a cutscene as well as several
bits of gameplay. Analysis will be pure speculation on the final product based
on what the developers themselves have chosen to show the public. As such, I
will compare the game to Postal, looking for similarities and contrasts. In the
trailer, we witness the Hatred Guy’s motivation and his execution of it in some
early gameplay footage. Much like in Postal, he seeks to murder civilians
because of a deep-rooted misanthropy. He refers to everyone in the world as
insects saying, “I just fucking hate this world and these human worms feasting
on its carcass.” The statement contains the same ugly and bad metaphors that
demonstrate the character’s stereotypical hate and tortured expressions. Unlike
Postal, the Hatred Guy explicitly refers to his mission as a “genocide crusade.”
Although this does elevate the extremity of the game’s goal above Postal 1, it
does so in name only. Both games feature genocidal vocabulary. The Postal
Dude’s diary entries always allude to his mission of cleansing and genocide via
its reference to humans as insects or a pile of decapitated remains. As far as
character design, the Hatred Guy dons a floor length black trench coat and
sports long black metal hair. He is a stereotype of an abhorrent mass murderer,
but does not fall into the caricature that the Postal Dude does, who sports odd
looking glasses, a cross and smiley face pin. The seriousness of his
presentation lends to the dark tone of the game.
The gameplay likewise defines civilians as the enemy. The
player runs about shooting at enemies at a much brisker pace than Postal.
Explosions abound allowing the player to take out multiple enemies at a time. Executions
also make a return, allowing the player to kill downed enemies by either
stabbing them, shooting them, or clubbing them viscerally with one’s weapon.
The executions themselves are much more detailed and grim than Postal’s,
featuring up close looks of terror. Here is where Hatred is vastly different
from Postal 1. Whereas Postal 1 contained tongue in cheek humor, Hatred does
not. In fact it amps up the extremity and excises any sort of humor that bought
some balance to Postal’s fringe elements. None of the civilian enemies in the
trailer are armed. They don’t stand their ground and attempt to defend
themselves. As the player approaches and guns them down, they run away
shrieking. The only enemies that provide any sort of defensive resistance are
police officers who will stand and fire back at the player. This key difference
is the root of the discomfort others feel when watching the trailer.
The sound effects and music in the trailer are horrific,
much like the worst sounds in Postal. People beg for mercy, shriek, and cry in
pain as the Hatred Guy enacts violence. Executions feature grimey sound effects
such as blades going in and out of flesh. The voice acting is clear and never
caricatures, opting instead to horrify the player. Targets begging for mercy
abound as the Hatred Guy finishes them off and their bodies go limp covered in
blood. The score is churning heavy metal that intensifies the feelings of
horror as machine gun chatter pounds the player’s ears, heightening the
brutality and horror.
The tone and presentation contrasts Postal 1. Aesthetically
Postal 1 achieves an industrial look with goofy caricatures and harsh ambience.
Hatred instead opts for death metal darkness and realistic representations of
people. The serious tone of Hatred is why it affects people so much. Hearing
one liners and silly cries of pain in Postal deadens the game’s horrid
atmosphere and mass murder. Hatred offers no such solace. As such, Valve’s
allowance of Postal 1 was not a precedent, making comparisons between Postal 1
to Hatred a false equivalence. The games are similar, but ultimately Hatred’s
tone and goal of mass murder of unarmed civilians has no peer. Their decision was
not one of hypocrisy, but one of business. I don’t think Valve gave into
criticism as much as they were drawing a line in the sand with Hatred on the
wrong side.
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| "The right which would be translated in latin by the word 'vas,' meaning sacred duty" |
Valve's Responsibility
I’m happy that Valve reinstated Hatred. Moral panic and
exclusion is normal, but art and entertainment exist for their own sake and
many times challenge the norms in existence. Was Valve’s decision censorship?
Of course it was. Was it brought on because of the massive puritan campaign Hatred?
I don’t think so. Valve sent a message by restoring Hatred on Greenlight, one
saying that even games with fringe themes will be tolerated and sold. The reach
and magnitude of Valve as a distributor affords them a responsibility to
dictate what is and is not acceptable to be sold. Their responsibility ideally
involves selling products no matter the themes and making sure they work
properly in order to protect the consumer from predators. Of course we have a
long way to go concerning that. The ideal would be how Netflix treats film,
allowing sexually explicit films such as Nymphomaniac, Blue is the Warmest
Color, and Shame as well as violent media such as Only God Forgives, Reservoir
Dogs, and Killing Them Softly.
The systems within Hatred have existed in many games. But the surface the developer chose in order to revolt
against politically correct trends has drawn ire from many. It is exceptional
in just how uncomfortable it makes people. Adrian Chmielarz, a game designer
who directed Bulletstorm and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, spoke succinctly in an interview on video game violence and how Hatred approaches it differently. He stated,
“Violent video games satisfy the desires we don’t admit having, but being able
to find an excuse for all the murder keeps us believing that we’re still
rational, decent human beings. That we’re actually doing ourselves a favor, letting
off steam in the most harmless way possible.” The excuse he speaks of is how
games contextualize their violence. Postal does so with humor and by giving the
civilian enemies weapons with which to fight back. One does not seem as cruel
in the quest for catharsis when one kills another who fires back. But Hatred
does not do this. Chmielarz continues, “Games like Hatred remove the veil.” One
has no justification for shooting the civilian enemies. They do not fire back
and in fact run away. The game revels in just how out in the open its horror
and misanthropy actually is. The game is dark and playing it requires one to
revel in harsh fantasy. Playing Hatred will be a horrid but ultimately
victimless act. It’s one that should exist on Steam and I encourage you not to
play it.
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