Monday, June 04, 2012

On Hitman

I don't often feel like Tycho has completely missed the point, but last Friday's newspost definitely seems to suggest that he's skipped right over the cause of the outrage following the Hitman: Absolution trailer.

Of course the entire industry isn't about fetish-nun assassins and the brutal, fetishised murder thereof, but that doesn't mean we can just dismiss this kind of bullshit.

The attitude that led to the creation of that trailer is a very real and very pervasive part of the (largely male-oriented and male-dominated) games industry, and unless consumers and creators challenge this kind of wannabe-snuff misogynist wet-dream, it will continue to inform and encourage the kind of trashy, offensive (and by all accounts not-even-relevant-to-the-game-being-promoted) marketing that doesn't do anything but undermine the artistic efforts being made by game creators who are trying to do more than fulfill the base fantasies of straight white teenagers.

For excellent (and spot-on) reactions to the trailer in question, and the ensuing fallout, I recommend Keza MacDonald's article at IGN and Rob Fahey's at GI.biz.