Slashdot Mirror
Violent Video Gaming Comes To the Wii
TuringTest writes "In an attempt to bring the Wii closer to the hardcore gamer's taste, Sega is preparing to release MadWorld, a violent 'hack and slash' game. This has brought attention from family-conscious lobbies: 'The decision to release a violent game on a console which has based its reputation on family fun has shocked anti-violence pressure groups. Mediawatch-UK, Britain's longest-running pressure group campaigning for decency in TV, films and games, said MadWorld will "spoil" the Wii.' The game features black & white cel-shaded graphics, except for the blood blobs which are in brilliant red. MadWorld is announced to be released in early 2009."
Did they get Frank Miller to direct?
1) are Hitman and Manhunt non-violent games?
2) I want this
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
This will be quite a change from the very non-violent and family friendly Wii games like "Resident Evil 4", "Alone in the Dark" and "Bully".
How could such a thing happen?
Ummm, did anyone play Manhunt 2 for the Wii? I actually had to get rid of it after I was done because it was causing genuinely violent thoughts in my head.
slice dice and blood splatter with a goofy lightsaber, and you have to "jerk off" the wiimote to rebuild your charge? I think adult on wii has already been done.
meh
WII Release Date: Nov 13, 2007 (US).
If this doesn't qualify as violent, I'm not sure what does...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Here's a crazy idea: so then they don't have to buy it.
I mean, it's not like they were tricked by some game presented as "Princess Peach Pony Adventures" rated E and discovered a secret level which involved skinning people alive. They know from the start it's a violent game, Sega makes no secret about it, and if their console is really for "family fun" and they have kids... don't buy it.
Crazy talk, I know.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Clearly they missed the (re)release of RE4 for the Wii last year, where one can be beheaded by a chainsaw, among other family friendly things.
Come on people. Really?
I can't wait to see what can be done with vibrating and location-sensing functions of the controller once I strap it on a little differently from usual.
How dare they attempt to make more money by attempting to appeal to a different segment of the market! Just because all of the games released up to the now have been family-friendly, does not mean that there were NEVER any plans to release any other type. That sort of thinking will limit your income possibilities.
Bearded Dragon
Let's see. The Wii is available for purchase to most any and all age ranges. There's plenty of family friendly shows on television as well as shows designed for more mature audiences. Do these mature-rated shows ruin all of television for everyone else? I didn't think so.
If you don't want to play a shooter type game on the Wii...then don't purchase it.
I sort of see the whole "Violent games on the Wii" issue as the video game violence debate in sandbox mode:
It used to be that people were fine with violence in movies (after a while). But then games came along. Interactive violence.
Now, the new and unspoiled ground is the wii (even though there are already violent games on the wii that have gotten a "T" rating). People are used to seeing wii as a friendly console and as such they don't want that image destroyed. They don't care about the fact that they don't HAVE to buy it, it's their own fantasy they want to maintain.
Heck, I can buy Viva Pinata for my 360 period, and then call it a family friendly console. Hypocrisy is the name for this "debate".
Oh, wait. That's what puberty did.
Just wondering, do 'controversial' companies sponsor these lobby groups (and maybe even help write the press releases) as a free publicity stunt? I'd be somewhat surprised if they didn't.
Then don't buy it.
If you don't like it, then don't buy it.
Problem solved.
Oh no! A game I'd never buy will SPOIL my console!!!!!1
Attention "decency" advocacy groups: People would listen to you if you actually made some sense.
Stacked up against Manhunt 2 I can't see how people are saying *this* will ruin the family friendly nature of the Wii.
Oblig. Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/02/
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
If you're so afraid it's going to corrupt your pure gaming system, then just don't buy the damn game. Just because it's released doesn't mean anyone is forcing you to buy it and/or play it.
In the meantime, stop trying to deprive the rest of the world of options we desire.
It's not like there aren't other games rated M on the Wii. No More Heroes is the first that comes to mind. There's also the Resident Evil series, I think Godfather and Scarface were ported over, etc.
From the video, the only unique thing about this game is the decision to make everything black and white but for the blood, which is bright red. Fewer colors is now a feature!
Overall, a pretty lame publicity grab. "Our game is so hardcore your mom won't let you buy it!" What they don't say is "Our game is so boring you won't play it after the novelty wears off and you've shown it to all of your friends."
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Just don't spend the $50 on the game? Who's responsible for YOUR kids? Maybe families want to slash together.
Porn has been made, now my DVD player is ruined... RUINED!!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
"spoil" the Wii.'
Call me stupid, but aren't you supposed to get permission (licensing rights) from Nintendo first (logo's, usage etc) before you develop a game?
Just wondering, since I have no idea how that works
Knows everything about nothing and nothing about everything.
This is not TV. This is not even a cable channel that comes as part of a premium package. It's still a game that must be purchased separately. I don't see what the big deal is.
The thing is, who cares? We can piss-off these anti-violence people all we want, and what are they going to do about it?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
To give you an example from gameplay, we have a scene where you can pull a street sign from the ground and shove it into a enemy's head. However, I thought that it is much more fun to stab someone with a sign that actually has some sort of meaning as opposed to a knife. We tried the idea out, and the reaction amongst the team was so positive, I knew this was the way to proceed.
Well, the anti-violence pressure groups obviously need add to their idea of "family fun" that according to Sega "it is much more fun to stab someone with a sign that actually has some sort of meaning" (from the official game website linked in TFSubmission).
first we learn that apple is going to die from competition and now the entire wii platform is now ruined because of some cheap third party game. who knows, tomorrow microsoft may just lose half it's marketshare to amiga.
We already went through this with Manhunt. Unfortunately that probably means that in order to cater to the whiners the violence will be nerfed.
1. The game console is not your babysitter. If you have the time, patience, and dedication to screen every byte of a game for sanitary access to your babies' eyes, more power to you, but assuming that every household and every console owner is like you is both arrogant and ludicrous.
2. You have the option of not buying the game, and enforcing it by saying "No" to your child if s/he begs for it, and punishing the child if s/he obtains it behind your back. But use the opportunity to tell him you don't want the child to become desensitized to violence (or whatever) if you can, as a flat refusal will only encourage the child to disobey you. Play with your kids! I hear Smash Brothers Brawl is a blast.
3. The gaming industry, even Nintendo, has never been a "safe haven" for children from the very beginning; Nintendo, to my recollection, never marketed the Wii as a family-only console (just family-friendly). The only "safe haven" parents do (and should) create is in their homes, hopefully more as a real plan and practice rather than an illusion in their heads.
To summarize: Wishing something were true has no effect on reality.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
How on earth can this possibly "spoil" a console specifically conceived and designed to have a broader-based appeal than to just traditional gamers? Did Ward and June Cleaver think that this meant all games would be family friendly (read: having appeal to only the by 3-6 year old demographic)? I assume that "traditional gamers" who may like their content a little more on the... ahem... "mature" side are included in this broad base of appeal.
If anything, the progression of some violent games to the Wii console represents a step toward the realization of broad-based appeal rather than spoiling the console.
Some people haven't accepted the fact that adults play games. Remember those cute little cartoony games that your little kid played on the NES? Well, he/she's 20 now, and an adult. He or she still likes to play games. Developers see this fact, and design games with a realistic and mature environment. Don't like it? Get over it. You don't get everything your own way in life; hopefully your grown-up children have learned differently.
"Consider for one moment that in Manhunt 2 you can, Wii remote and nunchuk in hands, use a pair of pliers to clamp onto an enemy's testicles..."
Google it.
WiiMurder! Video games will at last be murder simulators outside of the crooked minds of sensationalistic journalists and "think of the children" politicians!
How can these people complain. Being cartoon graphics (cel-shaded cartoons) then how can the Wii not be its best home? The XBox 360 and the PS3 fight it out for realism, the Wii wins on fun and cartoon.
If only these people could complain about something more worthwhile, like the fact that the real problem is the badly brought up children and not the game.
...is the fact that the "concerned publications" printing stuff never mention that the Wii can be set so that it will refuse to play this game.
The other is this quote, "I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification," is coming from that pressure group which has not played the game.
For those of you that don't know, this is the same group of people that created Okami. Which is proof enough to me that this game is capable of being more than just shock violence. I don't see why this game is something that isn't capable of having a brain.
Here's an excerpt:
"The challenge that must be addressed, surely, is how to release the secular stranglehold on prime time television and radio and bathe in the light of Christ programming that occupies the screen in most households most nights of the week." GROAN.
I've listed some more information about it on bitburo.net. I hope the BBFC doesn't take this whackjob seriously.
Violence isn't even a problem. Sex and violence is a problem. Horror and violence is a problem. Violence with a graphic, realistic portrayal is a problem. (When I say problem here, I'm talking about it being a problem for some people, not necessarily meaning that it is a problem per se or that I personally have a problem with it.)
Just violence though? Please. My Wii came with a boxing game. Boxing is a violent sport. Super Mario Galaxy? You kill things by jumping on them and hitting them. How is that not violent?
Strangely, violence and disturbing content is not always a problem though: see any SpongeBob game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(film) This looks a lot like the above Renaissance movie which looked amazing!
Yes, I am one of those dirty filthy casuals that plays games to *gasp *horror* *shock* enjoy them. I tend to like the games that have innovative and fun gameplay. Unique visual audio styles are a plus.
Perhaps I'm just too old for the current definition of hardcore games and hardcore gamers but what I don't really get is how the number of pixels pushed or the volume of blood makes a game for the hardcore gamer.
I'd expect the hardcore gamer to want intricate and complex yet responsive control schemes that reward having faster-than-framerate reactions. Requiring six liquid cooled video cards just to render the game on its lowest setting or requiring a TARDIS built into the circulatory system of every mook to handle the amount of blood they spray when killed doesn't mean its "hardcore" to me. It generally says its cheaper to hire graphic designers than it is people capable of putting together a solid game.
Of course I was waiting for a thinkofthechildren or thinkofthewiis tag for this story :P
-Reed
Just like letting gays get married will somehow ruin marriage for everyone else. Having a violent video game on Wii will ruin it for everyone. (as if Manhunt 2, Call of Duty 3, etc weren't already on the Wii).
There is a certain personality type that wants to "protect" the lifestyles of other people by projecting their own values onto the rest of the world. And they believe they cannot be happy until everyone else shares their world view.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Imagine the Wii hardware addons that might come out of this:
Wii Truncheon
Wii Dagger
Wii Battle Axe
Wii Whoopass Stick
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
By kicking up a ruckus and causing a news story, they've given the game free advertising and guaranteed that the kids they want to protect...will only want this game even more.
Overall, a pretty lame publicity grab.
If anyone's making a publicity grab, it's the Daily Mail. The last we saw them on Slashdot, they had come up with a dubious iPhone Nano rumour. They're making a reach for online marketshare by coming up with nonsense and starting storms in teacups, basically taking their approach to newspaper sales but applying it their website. This is a publication which runs features demonising games at random intervals because it gives them something other than Jews, gays and foreigners to attack. They are the ones who probably egged Mediawatch into it in the first place.
Publisher-mandated coverage of the game in the UK peaked a few months ago when it was an Edge cover story. If they are deliberately courting controversy, they've done a poor job of it.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Apparently not SEGA.
I'm not a big Wii fan and part of that is due to the fact its games don't interest me. However, I don't like that hardcore gaming is being equated with violence (and inevitably, sex). The Wii does come across as sort of a child-centric system to me but adding titles with blood won't necessarily make me think of it as more mature and won't make me think of it as 'hardcore'.
Personally, I don't think it gets more hardcore then Civilization. There's very little, if any, blood in the game but it's the complexity of the gameplay and the dedication one has have for it that makes it something of an elite gaming experience. If we 'hardcore' gamers don't demand complexity and innovation in games then all we're going to get is Halo/GTA clones.
A game which starts out with the F bomb being dropped followed by two decapitations with blood spurting everywhere all in the first 5 seconds of the game.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
While I do not enjoy violent games the notions that this game will "ruin" the wii is absolutely absurd. Will users of the wii be forced to play the game? Of course not. If you dont like the game dont play it.
Whoever modded parent 'funny' hasn't heard of Dark Room Sex Game[No images, mostly SFW], playable with wiimotes and computers with blue tooth. It's obviously not a Nintendo title. But if there were games similar to this for the console itself, there would be a fair amount of money to be made.
What's the value of information that you don't know?
Ah, of course. They're more of the sex, violence, and horror style of games. You can do you violence and sex without the horror, and we can do you violence and horror without the sex, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But you can't have sex and horror without the violence.
Well, it's too bad the Wii doesn't have any parental control options.
Oh, wait...
Hack... Slash.... Stops...
"was that a chunk of brain matter or a severed testicle, the texture resolution was too low to tell"
furthermore, a game specifically for debuting violence content to a mostly kid's console doesn't sound like it's gonna be anything I check out
"The irony when tending a flock of sheep is the dogs you put in place to protect them are genetically mutated wolves"
As a British citizen, I feel it appropriate to interject at this point with some important news.
It has come to my attention that all of your members were subject to a Ministry of Defence secret experiment during the 1950s that involved invasive surgery to their brains to enhance their mental capabilities. Your members will not be aware of the surgery until now due to the fact that these events took place at Porton Down before any of them had reached 6 months of age.
The experiment planned for the injection of chimp foetus cells into their brains in order to enhance brain growth during the early years of life, thus expanding mental capacity at an accelerated rate during childhood.
Unfortunately, on that particular day, there was a goddawful cock-up at the Ministry due to the incorrect P144T form being issued instead of the Q99S form. This resulted in all of you membership having their entire brains removed and replaced by lime flavoured jelly.
So please accept our deepest apologies as well as our notification that you are all total fuckwits.
Tally Ho!
Signed
The Ministry
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
bout time. This has been one of my biggest issues with the wii is that they didn't have content for mature audiences.
In an attempt to bring the World closer to the hardcore warmonger's taste, Lockheed Martin is preparing to release new cluster munitions, a violent 'hack and slash' type of bomblet loaded with shrapnel and high explosives. This has brought attention from family-conscious lobbies: 'The decision to release a violent weapon from a nation which has based its reputation on family fun has shocked anti-violence pressure groups. Mediawatch-UK, Britain's longest-running pressure group campaigning for decency in TV, films and warfare, said Lockheed Martin will "spoil" the World.' The weapon features drab steel casings, except for the bomblets which are in brilliant yellow. Cluster bombs are widely available, but new ones are announced to be released in early 2009.
link FTW.
Gee guys if it is really that offensive then for god sakes just don't buy it for your kid. When in this world do parents start taking responsibility for their own child instead of expecting those around them to do it for them. If you can't explain the difference to your child between the game world and reality, or just simply don't want to expose them to the frighting things that are happening out there, then for Christ sake get off your ass exercise some supervision and just say no. The problem is when you say it you have to mean it, not expect someone else to mean it for you.
I guess it's back to the drawing board with my "Super Mario Schoolgirls vs The Nazi Hentai Tentacles" Wii game then?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
If you dont want violence, don't buy this game - then it won't spoil the wii
it can't be THAT difficult to understand...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
I knew a mother who did not mind at all if her kids played Doom. I know because I asked her if it was OK when they came over to do some multi-player on our home network with my son own day. She said that she had watched her kids play the solo game and it seemed ok afterall they were just killl monsters. A few days later I heard from my son that she had pulled the game from his friends computer. It seems that she had never seen them use the chain saw on the zombies before. Of course all the other death and destruction was ok.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
I have so far once seen wii's available in a store - though not at a time when I had $250 to spare.
And of course up until now most people have been playing the wii-sports that comes with it. If we introduce violent games as well, the demand for the Wii amongst young angry boys might go up, at which point I might never get a Wii...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
So, I suppose red steel is not violent then lol
Yes... because red blobs make me think "murder." And being brainless -- unlike politicians and lobbyists, who have brains and are willing to think for me, and protect me from my own stupidity -- I must obey. I think I'll start with the lobbyists. :P
Seriously, how can it taint your precious family orientated Wii if you don't buy it?
The Wii is already full of violence, played Mario Carts (or whatever that game is called)? Just because it's cartoonalized and doesn't have any blood it's ok, HELLO it's still violence!
Media groups need to get a life, parents groups need to stop getting together and wasting time they could spend parenting...
To MediaWatch-UK, you bunch of lack-witted, thumb-sucking buboes...
Point 1:
Just because the sensationalist hacks at the Daily Fail run a story about your latest bout of whining does not lend any credence to your crusade against the right-thinking portion of the British populace and their desire to be able to decide for themselves what is or isn't appropriate entertainment for themselves and their families.
Point 2:
I have a DVD player. When I have children, they can watch Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen's back-catalogue, High School Musical and Bambi to their hearts' content. I can use it to watch Oldboy, Battle Royale and Cannibal Holocaust. It is up to me to control who watches what. It is my choice. If someone has the money to purchase a Wii, and then to purchase games for it, and yet is too fucking stupid to make an informed choice about the games they buy then there is no hope for humanity. If things have become *that* bad then "Campaigning for decency and accountability in the media" is just polishing the brass on the Titanic. Seriously, you'd be far better off doing something useful like chemically castrating these bozos.
Point 3:
Following on, Nintendo markets the Wii on its main strength, family-fun and party games. This is not out of some altruistic desire to promote family values, it is because it cannot compete with the 360 or PS3 when it comes to graphical content. Nintendo play to their system's strengths which are a unique and novel control system and a large catalogue of party games. I enjoy playing Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz but I also enjoy playing Red Steel and Call Of Duty 3. Both of which were available ON THE DAY OF LAUNCH.
Points 4-8:
This is not the first game to be released for Wii that I would consider inappropriate for the whole family based on violent or sexual content...nor will it be the last. Games already released which Alone In The Dark - Survival Horror
Bully
Call of Duty 3 - World War II First Person Shooter
Shooting people, throwing grenades, shooting flammable barrels next to people to incinerate them. While not graphic, this is a war-themed game that was available at UK release, and which I wouldn't let children play.
"...anti-violence pressure groups." We call them lobbyists and interest groups in the US. The phrase "pressure groups" would drive school psychologists mad.
This is a signature. Bow to me.
Because man, that was a bloody game exclusive to the Wii with lots of innuendo.
And Medal of Honor isn't violent enough? Sure, it's not the goriest game out there, but it's pretty violent.*
*Note: I'm not saying MOH is a bad game; quite the contrary, I love it, I'm just saying that it's no Teletubbies....
This will be quite a change from the very non-violent and family friendly Wii games like "Resident Evil 4", "Alone in the Dark" and "Bully".
How could such a thing happen?
Seriously, this is hardly the first M-rated title with violence to be released for the Wii.
http://www.toysrus.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2740893
Not a new annoyance, but a constant one: why is the phrase 'hardcore gamer' always coupled with the splatterfest M titles? I've been gaming on virtually every platform under the sun for the last 20 years, spending north of $1000/year on games and systems and playing a little bit of everything (Well, almost everything -- I never have managed the combination of brainpower and dexterity to play RTSen effectively, but that's a corner case). And the two most hardcore games I've played lately are Braid and Geometry Wars 2, with Bangai-O Spirits coming up rapidly behind; all three have fantastically hard elements and a distilled purity of experience that really makes them 'Gamer's games'(Braid perhaps a bit less so). They're the hardest of the hardcore, and all the other serious gamers I know are much more interested in these titles than in Mad World (though the visual style there is fantastic, I have to say) -- and none is rated worse than E10+.
Erm... this isn't news to anyone.
Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 especially violent games for Wii:
Manhunt 2
No More Heroes
Resident Evil 4
Redident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
You can go to ESRB's web site for a complete list of Wii games rated M. I'd post a link, but their site seems to be down.
That really burns my biscuits! You mean Sega is going to force games containing content unsuitable for my impressionably proginy onto my Wii, strip the parental controls, and then force my kids to see them, with me in handcuffs so I can't properly supervise what they're doing?
What's that you say? I'd have to buy it? On purpose? And you're sure the disc won't jump out of its case and load itself up? And I won't be prevented from setting the parental controls in the wii, nor from monitoring my kids?
Huh.
What a stupid-looking game.
The whole game website is about how great its violence and blood are, and says nothing about what the hell it is actually about.
Knowing that there are no other action games with this sort of avant-garde graphical style, our course was set.
Mr. Sulu, set a course for SUCK!
anyone who knows how it feels to read a comic book (or watch an episode of Tom & Jerry) should instantly be able to enjoy playing MadWorld.
So, all tease and no payoff then.
"Mature" games have already been done on the Wii, and done better.
if the goal is to get no ones panties all in a bunch, why don't console manufacturers just make two types of each console? one that will play any game that gets released, and another that will only load the kid/family games.
this way: there can be games for adults and kids, and if some interfering "concerned parent" group finds fault in this or that "adult" game, they can purchase a kids only version of the system and move on.
AFAIK, there's already a Happy Tree Friends game. I think it's from Sega too? Watch a few episodes on YouTube if you don't know what the Happy Tree Friends are :P
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Speaking of how violent Super Mario Galaxy is, did you ever notice you win by asking the star people to commit mass suicide? Or would you call that a suicide-genocide since they all died...
Well, I fail to see how that's any different from going over to Steve to play an ultra-violent PC game. Or to watch a splatter movie on dad's VHS. Or going over to Steve, which got someone to buy him a bottle of whiskey, bypassing age restrictions. Or Steve discovering his dad's porn stash and, well, I guess caring _is_ sharing ;)
I don't think the Wii brings anything new to that equation. _That_ cat is already out of the bag.
And arguably it never was in the bag (or anywhere _near_ a bag) in the first place. If you went back to AD 200 or so, you'd probably find little Julius going over to his pal Severus to read the Bible, much to his respectable parents' annoyance. And if you went to 400 BC, you'd find little Iolaos going over to his pal Strachys to read a bit from Socrates. And Zeus knows no respectable citizen of Athens would want his son's impressionable young mind polluted by that kind of subversive crap. Etc.
If a kid's only defense against being corrupted is not having access to stuff, well, that's not much of a defense. Because there'll always be some Steve to help him bypass that.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Thanks to their whining about whether Wii owners (even adults) should have variety in games available, the slashdot effect will now ensure myself and probably every other Wii owner out there will buy this game.
I honestly don't give a rats ass at how violent it is. This game actually looks fun. It's been a long time since Sega's come out with a decent game
see any SpongeBob game.
My roommate is actually interning at the Studio that makes a good number of those Sponge Bob games (yes, I do make fun of him) and he found it kooky how some things (though seemingly harmless) would be more likely to give them anything BUT an "E (for everyone)!" rating - but smashing other characters over the head with a golf club was perfectly acceptable, and wouldn't land them that awful E10+ rating.
They're not happy until you're not happy.
When I got in touch with a wii for the first time - a friend of mine bought one - he bought Redsteel. I think it was released directly after the Wii.
It's no more or less than a typical ego shooter. "Spoil" the Wii? Yeah, sure.
Advice: Open your eyes. Just have ONE short look upon your own kid's desktop, dear people-who-want-to-prohibit-violance-in-video-games. I'd be suprised if no shooter is to be found there.
Spoil. Ts.
WHAT?!?
*MANHUNT 2* came out on the Wii.
How can this /possibly/ be breaking new ground for the "family friendly" console?
Violent != Hardcore
What the Wii lacks, demographically, aren't violent games, but hardcore, more involved games. The biggest complaint isn't that Wii Sports doesn't show Miis getting chopped in half, the complaint is that a large percentage of Wii games are party games without much depth or sophistication.
Nintendo's going to have ONE HELL of a time getting bloodsport fanboys onboard, that crowd was pretty much lost to them over a decade ago, but they still have a very good chance of getting fans of lengthy, involved, hardcore games, back on their side. Hell, they themselves own one of the most popular of these series: Zelda.
Now, while having violent games may, in some way, result in companies finally realizing that the Wii is a decent platform for any games, including more involved ones... it's far from cure.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I don't mind my kids playing certain M-rated games, but in general, I'd rather they be playing games that are suitable for my grandson to see.
While the Wii does give parents the ability to specify the highest rated game allowed, and lock out games with more mature ratings, it provides no means for making specific exceptions to that general rule. What I'd like to be able to do is tell the Wii to disallow games that have any rating higher than T for teen, and then specifically grant exceptions to the M rated games that I've already seen and don't have a problem with my kids playing, even in front of the little guy. However, to allow them to play M rated games I would have to do one of two things... I would either have to give them the parental control password so that they could play those games (which defeats the purpose of bothering to have parental lock in the first place), or else I have to set the highest game rating allowed to M, which gives them the freedom to possibly bring in M-rated games that I don't approve of. It's substantially harder to convince them to stop playing the game once they already have it and are playing it than it is to get them to not play them at all because the parental controls defaults are set to not allow unapproved games in the first place. In the first case, it's taken personally, and in the second, it's simply seen as a policy, and not taken as some sort of an affront to their personal tastes in video games. What I'd really like to see on the Wii's parental controls is the ability to augment the highest game rating allowed with a whitelist of higher rated games... say if I want to specifically allow a game, I would go into the parental controls, and it would show me the name of the game disk that is currently in the machine, and give me the option to add it to a list of specifically allowed games, even if the rating for it otherwise was outside of what I would have allowed. A blacklist of specifically disallowed games might also be useful for some people, although I personally would not have a use for it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
A better description might have been Sega has wasted a bunch of money developing a title aimed at the hardcore gamer, but failed to consider hardcore games do not sell well on the wii. If their smart they will send previews of the game to similar organizations. Milk all the free press they can get. If you want to make adult themed games, go with the ps3 or xbox 360. The wii is geared toward casual gaming. If you watched their e3 press conference, you know I am telling the truth.
Just ask EPIC to make a Wii version of Unreal Tournament III.... it will be violent, but no one will play it...
That can't be an exhaustive list right?
Nine games?
Compared to almost 50 on the Xbox 360 (admittedly, it's been out for over a year longer).
Even the Playstation 3 (which has been out for nearly the same time as the Wii) has about 25 or 30.
if you are a parent, and you care about what goes into your kid's brains, then be aware of what they are doing and playing.
What platform/console a game is on doesnt matter - its the conent of said game and weather YOU feel, as a parent, that you should let your child play it. The rating systems, as flawed as they all are, give a very rough indication of the type of game it is, so then you research it - read the blogs/reviews/comments about said game because the more research you do, the better and more informed your choice will be.
We bought a Wii precisely because of the "family-friendly" nature of the games - basically, as far as I can see from the shelves, there are way more G & PG games (australian ratings) for the Wii than for the 360 or the PS3. Since I have small kids (2 years old) who are going to grow into gaming, I feel I have a wider choice of games to select from, plus I like the "interactive" nature and direction that Nietendo have taken with the Wii Remote, etc. I am also one of those parents who will research a game before letting my 9 yearold stepson play it...and I have said no to certain games, not only because of violent content, but also other factors like complexity of gameplay and plot.
If you dont want your kids to play the game, dont let them play it. Companies are going to do whatever they will to sell a game, but you dont have to buy it.
The way that these things work is, these controversial groups make these outrageous demands in order to make their smaller demands seem like they will be satisfied and finally STFU already...
Back in the Mortal Kombat days they created a huge stir about blood and gore, ban the games ban the games, also lets have a ratings system too... to which everyone responded, well, maybe if we give them the ratings system, they'll finally shut the **** up.
Nope, not good enough, gotta still ban the games! Alright, the biggest chains stop selling to minors, not good enough, several countries have legally banned games from being in the possession of a minor, still not good enough. And by proxy, their entirely incompetant ratings body, the ESRB, FORCED the developers of Manhunt 2 to change their game, or else - Even with their ratings body doing their job, "Shielding" us from awful cartoon violence that supposedly is not even suitable for the 17+ rating - They still want more.
So we can do one of two things now, we can either give in to more of their ridiculous small demands, ban everything they don't like, or stop giving them even an inch, because the more inches they take, the more political power they are gaining - Senator Joseph Lieberman campaigned for years against Violent video games and even though that was just one of several issues he campaigned on, it was a successful one that made him seem like he was getting things done.
Did he? No, the ESRB is a ridiculous institution, entirely understaffed, with absolutely no guidelines on how to rate games, only subjective opinion.
People need to stop giving these people even the smallest things that seem like they won't make a difference, or else we're going to face losing a lot of artistic expression in video games. Because they truly ARE an art form.
Judging from this game, it seems that this slogan is as true today as it was 15 years ago.
The "adult" game I've always wanted to see is "Wiid". Roll that shit, light that shit, smoke it!
And from earlier
But it's this, is it? No enigma... no dignity, nothing classical or poetic... only this... a comic pornographer and a rabble of prostitutes.
How could such a thing happen?
I agree, it's terrible. Blood certainly spoils my wii.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Mission Earth is pretty fucked up too.
Ooookay, so our friendly "family-oriented lobbyists" attack Sega for putting a release date on a hack and slash type game, but we ignore the fact that games like Manhunt 2 already exist on the Wii.
Last time I noticed, stabbing a man to death with a syringe was "adult" and violent...
Here's a tip. DON'T BUY THESE GAMES FOR YOUR KIDS! Parents need to stop being clueless about technology and what their kids are doing with it.
Well video games are just video games. If people or kids are reinavting the violance it's because the parents don't pay attention to them and they're looking for a outlet.
I smacked my mate right on the nose with a wiimote one time, that was pretty violent, and there was plenty of blood...
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
You know, these watchdog groups really bake my noodles!
Games are games. There are ratings for games, so, in essence, all the parents have to do, is "parenting".. you know, if a game is rated for teens or young adults, etc... then that's all there is, don't buy it! Supervise what your kids buys.
The Wii is a gaming console and platform and game developers should be able to create whatever games they wish. If some games are NOT meants for everyone, then, hey, no problems, just up the rating. The Wii was never meant to be a gaming platform where all games are for everyone. Gee, it's nice to know that some developers want to make restricted games on that platform!
As for these "nosey joes", get a life for pete's sakes! If you don't want your kids to play these games, fine, do that, maybe you have a point when it comes to your kid(s), we won't judge you for that, but don't stop everybody's else fun because of your beliefs.
Let's face it, how many consoles are orientated towards calm, childish games? ehm 1. The Wii. It's selling like hell purely because it's found a niche market, and it has to hold on to it
And why the hell is he using the term "hardcore gamer"? Hardcore gamers play games competitively - slash-and-hack is far from competitive. If they were planning on releasing, say a modern reincarnation of Warcraft or a team-based FPS OK, but sadistically violent games don't count (and by the way appeal to the 15-23 gamer range - far from adult...)
If the nannies get in a tizzy over MadWorld, their heads will probably explode when Prostitution Hero comes out!
And wait'll they see the controller it comes with.
'Far Cry Vengeance' has been out for the Wii since late 2006.
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity. -Isaac Asimov
The main website for this game that is linked in the article contains several typos and grammatical errors that make it sound like engrish. Now, I'm no english major but if it wasn't hosted on sega.com's site, I would have sworn this was a fake, made by the same non-english speaker who sends me Nigerian Scam Spam