Video Game that encourages Big GAY Hunting

I love when people tell me that there isn't any hate left and that minorities, gays, and women need to stop whining because they have equality.

This new app tells us that hatred is still alive and well.

The game, which described itself as a “Popular game hunting on [sic] gays! Play and do not be gay!” was removed by Google on Monday morning following complaints from social media users.

However, it had been available since 5 November with an ‘Everyone’ suitability rating. Furthermore, before its removal, the title mustered a four-star rating from 352 reviews, accumulating over 10,000 downloads.

The app tasked players with hunting naked gay men using a shotgun in order to prevent a suggested rape. On the Google Play platform apps are not reviewed, instead with developers offered “Content Guidelines”.

m.thedrum.com...

I've got nothing to worry about right? Only the fact that there are still tons of people who would kill me and not only feel no remorse but think they were doing a good deed or protecting themselves.

a reply to: tavi45

Yeah, in bad taste, I'll grant you.

10,000 downloads from a world wide population is not many. Many downloaders may well have been from some of the more nutty church groups or (insert religion here). The middle east would go bonkers over such a game. So would the nutty Westborough church is the US.

Now when they bring out a shoot the politicians game, I may well download it myself.

Out of the millions who play COD, how many actually go out in real life shooting Russians?

It is just a game in bad taste, they exist.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Call of Duty doesn't just say "Russians are garbage and are out to get you, kill them first". It's got you know a storyline and such.

It's an awful lot of downloads and 5 star reviews considering how short a period it was on the Google Play store, especially for such a terrible low budget game.

But yeah no big deal right? I wonder what would happen if I created a similar game which encourages killing a more mainstream group.

a reply to: tavi45

Well, give it a go. I will even help with the title. Your choice

Save a Kid, kill the Priest.

or

Save us all, Kill the politicians.

I would love to see the demographics of who downloaded it. Just because you download something, does not mean you agree with it. I wonder if the Gays could shoot back?

P

saw the gameplay, didn't manage to download it in time to form my own opinion, but i'm sure the apk is out there.
What can we say really?
Is it in bad taste? totally.
Should it have been made? i guess, freedom of expression and all that jazz.

From what i understand the original game was not meant to target (get it?!) gay people, it was just about shooting naked dudes in a park/forest.
the whole gay angle was added later in the description of the game...who knows why?

This game has been around for a long time, I remember it was available years and years ago as an online flash-game from many of the websites at the time when that type of thing got popular.

I have a feeling most are playing it because they think it's "funny" not because they hate, and want to kill, gay people.

There is a bit difference between insensitivity and hate, I really wish people would recognize that.

It is not that all the hate is gone. The reason that people should stop whining in many cases has to do with the fact that the law can only do so much. It can establish equality, but whether a person agrees or disagrees with that is up to no one but that specific individual. Some people are going to hate other types of people, even if equality has been established. So basically complaining to the government will accomplish nothing, and complaining in general will accomplish nothing, because the task at hand is not establishing equality...it is getting individual people to change their specific outlook.

a reply to: tavi45

The app tasked players with hunting naked gay men

Oh the irony!

a reply to: tavi45

So the fact that some developers made a tasteless video game proves that inequality is alive and well today?

How do you figure that? Because 10,000 people have played it so that means we have 10,000 people that will go on a naked gay guy murdering rampage? LOLOLOL

I played all the grand theft auto games, never once has it given me the urge to steal a car or kill a hooker. I imagine people play this game for the same reason as they play other games. Entertainment is all it is. Shooting naked gay perverts in a forest might be a fun thing in a virtual world, but would only be done by psychopaths in the real world.

There are a million other things you could nitpick in society to scream racial inequality or whatever. This is reaching IMHO.

I happen to agree with you, OP. I call it killing them softly. Shooting games have been around for years now, and slowly the populace has been indoctrinated to become completely blasé about it. It happens ever so slowly, that you don't even realize that yesterday's gamers become tomorrow's drone operators. Hate that is cultivated becomes the next agenda for someone in charge.

The constant cry for "freedom of expression" sure has cost a great many people their own personal freedom to simply exist. This needn't be misused for cruelty, oppression or hate. With great privilege comes great expectations. We ought to have become much better than this by now. Evolving isn't done solely through technology. For every person who excuses certain behaviours, how many are hurt? Our acceptance means we are complicit.

We get the society we allow.

a reply to: MoonBlossom

Shooting games have been around for years now, and slowly the populace has been indoctrinated to become completely blasé about it. It happens ever so slowly, that you don't even realize that yesterday's gamers become tomorrow's drone operators. Hate that is cultivated becomes the next agenda for someone in charge.

I've heard this myth time and time again. Violence is at an all time 30 year low in America. Coincidentally, video games have gone quite mainstream in that time. So if all of these gamers are indoctrinated into violence by playing violent video games, should'nt it have increased in that time? So then what is your reasoning for society being so violent before video games came along?

Violence is an innate part of human nature. Whether you give in to it or not boils down to you as a person. Not what sort of video games you play. Do you really think that if the only video game that ever came out was pac-man people would not be violent?

There is more, more, more bad stuff on this earth than gays. Probably a #ing immature and homphobic autist created the app. not so funny afterall

originally posted by: Cancerwarrior
So if all of these gamers are indoctrinated into violence by playing violent video games...

It's not that they're getting indoctrinated INTO violence - it's that they're getting indoctrinated into accepting violence as the norm, culturally.

You cannot deny that gamers will be the drone operators - they have been trained for a very long while now. If it's "fun" for them they may well be able to rationalize away the killing of human beings one day, as long as they are "told" it's for a "just cause" - and it's done in a game simulation that they are well used to. By the time a militarized police state appears, it will all be accepted as "that's just how things are today".

Ask any oldsters - society at large, wasn't promoted towards violence in any form of media, NEARLY as much as they are today. Again, it is done so slowly, most do not notice - they enjoy their "distractions" too much.

Violence is not an innate part of MY nature; nor is it of the company I keep. Human nature was meant to evolve beyond our history, we just haven't done so very well, yet.

Video games are not alone the nature of the beast; however they are but one arm of the octopus of passivity and apathy towards violence.

a reply to: Cancerwarrior

Hahaha this reminds me of the ravers "gta doesn't make people violent if pac man had affected us as kids we'd all be running around dark rooms munching litle pills listening to repetitive music"

a reply to: MoonBlossom

originally posted by: Cancerwarrior
So if all of these gamers are indoctrinated into violence by playing violent video games...

It's not that they're getting indoctrinated INTO violence - it's that they're getting indoctrinated into accepting violence as the norm, culturally.

You can change the words around, but the question is still the same. If gamers are being indoctrinated into ACCEPTING violence as the cultural norm, why has violent crime across the US at a 30 year all time low? Should it not have increased in that time since we have all of these COD gamers running around?

You cannot deny that gamers will be the drone operators - they have been trained for a very long while now. If it's "fun" for them they may well be able to rationalize away the killing of human beings one day, as long as they are "told" it's for a "just cause"

If gamers "will be" the drone operators then who is operating them now? And why is it that there is not a single drone simulation game if that's what they really are trying to do.

And if COD and games like it brainwash people into mindless soldiering killing machines then why is Army recruitment at an all time low as well? Should'nt they be signing up in droves to go kill some ragheads?

I've played video games since I was 8. I've also served three deployments in the US Army as a tank crewman. I can tell you there was nothing at all enjoyable about shooting and getting shot at. There was nothing entertaining about any of it. Nobody I knew that was there with me felt that way, and I (and many of my peers) grew up playing all manner of games. Violent ones included. The way you describe it we should have been in COD heaven but it was pure hell for us all.

Violence is not an innate part of MY nature; nor is it of the company I keep. Human nature was meant to evolve beyond our history, we just haven't done so very well, yet.

When I say human nature I mean the human race as a whole. Not you individualy. You can deny it all you want but I have seen firsthand the violent atrocious things people do to each other for no good reason. Human history (and by extension human nature) is rife with violence. But like all things I believe you can choose to not give in to it. Choice is what separates us from the animals.

Maybe all of this rise in violent video games is a symptom of a sick society instead of the cause. Maybe people are giving in more to the violence that is an innate part of human nature instead of moving away from it.

I don't think that it is "planned" like you suggest, merely that is just what sells. Same reason why the ESRB rates most every game that comes out as M for mature even though most of them have no blood and guts because those are the games that sell more. Same reason why most movies are rated R even though there is really nothing bad in the movie because those are the movies people pay to see.

Do we live in a morally sick society? Absolutely. Are video games the culprit? Hell no merely a symptom.

Well, I think the understanding is that there is lessening institutional racism/sexism/etc. Are there still crappy people making crappy games? sure. And the market is becoming less and less for such stuff..not just because of it being bad taste..but also not really a fun premise overall (unless you have a IQ roughly the size of a potato).

Now, as far as violent games overall are concerned, I am a fan of that. But the violence should have a motivation overall that seems if not justified, then at least motivating. I get the whole rage against the machine GTA rampages now and then for fun, but for entertainment value, point oriented violence is needed.

Now, as far as real world effects of being a terrible sexist murdering psychopath in game, it seems there are benefits..if we are to listen to science:
'Bad' video game behavior increases players' moral sensitivity: May lead to pro-social behavior in real world

Also, generally speaking, gaming will keep you clever
Playing action video games can boost learning, study finds
So, yeah, the game in ops sounds terrible, but lets remember that crappy game behavior is certainly not a demonstration of what gamers are...and frankly, they will probably end up a better person for unleashing their demons on vid game pixel people either way.

With all due respect, I did not say that gamers were involving themselves in violent crime - nowhere did I say that. They are however immersed in a culture that is near completely buried in it, be it via the news, movies, games, etc. - take your pick. You said as much yourself:

originally posted by: Cancerwarrior
Maybe all of this rise in violent video games is a symptom of a sick society instead of the cause. Maybe people are giving in more to the violence that is an innate part of human nature instead of moving away from it.

As for drones, and who is operating them now? I would wager some of the same who grew up as gamers, since culturally almost everyone has been a gamer, under a certain age these days. Albeit the current deployment of them is peanuts compared to where they wish to head, according to the amount we will see in ten years time.

Look For 30,000 Drones To Fill American Skies By The End Of The Decade


I respect your sharing what you've experienced Cancerwarrior; and I am glad as hell to hear that no one took joy in it. Not that I suspected they "truly" did; just that I don't necessarily trust that those in command are always 100% upfront and honest to those they deploy. It tears me up to think of what some experience on behalf of men who give orders but would never fight themselves - only others' children are put in danger.

I highly recommend this article about one man who has flown drones - he had some really eye-opening points to share, as outlined below, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Confessions of a Drone Warrior

And yet the very idea of drones unsettles. They’re too easy a placeholder or avatar for all of our technological anxieties—the creeping sense that screens and cameras have taken some piece of our souls, that we’ve slipped into a dystopia of disconnection. Maybe it’s too soon to know what drones mean, what unconsidered moral and ethical burdens they carry.

“It’s like playing Dungeons & Dragons,” says Bryant. “Roll a d20 to see if you hit your target.” His training inspector, watching over his shoulder, would count down to impact and say, “Splash! You killed everyone.”

"In the early months Bryant had found himself swept up by the Big Game excitement when someone in his squadron made “mind-blowingly awesome shots, situations where these guys were bad guys and needed to be taken out.” But a deep ambivalence about his work crept in."

"How would he feel, living beneath the shadow of robotic surveillance? “Horrible,” he says now. But at first, he believed that the mission was vital, that drones were capable of limiting the suffering of war, of saving lives. When this notion conflicted with the things he witnessed in high resolution from two miles above, he tried to put it out of his mind. Over time he found that the job made him numb: a “zombie mode” he slipped into as easily as his flight suit."

"By the spring of 2011, almost six years after he’d signed on, Senior Airman Brandon Bryant left the Air Force, turning down a $109,000 bonus to keep flying. He was presented with a sort of scorecard covering his squadron’s missions. “They gave me a list of achievements,” he says. “Enemies killed, enemies captured, high-value targets killed or captured, stuff like that.” He called it his diploma. He hadn't lased the target or pulled the trigger on all of the deaths tallied, but by flying in the missions he felt he had enabled them. “The number,” he says, “made me sick to my stomach.”
Total enemies killed in action: 1,626."

"Bryant himself would have bizarre dreams where the characters from his favorite game, World of Warcraft, appeared in infrared."

"In 2011, Air Force psychologists completed a mental-health survey of 600 combat drone operators. Forty-two percent of drone crews reported moderate to high stress, and 20 percent reported emotional exhaustion or burnout. The study’s authors attributed their dire results, in part, to “existential conflict.”

Definitely sobering, to read that article. :/ To answer your question army recruitment is low because we are not at war (at least not a big one) - yet.

Also, I really did not mean to imply that COD and other games brainwash people - but they most definitely desensitize them to SUCH a degree, that, as in the article above, one does not know the extent of what he has truly participated in, until it is too late and he suffers his own PTSD upon return.

originally posted by: Cancerwarrior
I don't think that it is "planned" like you suggest, merely that is just what sells.

Rhetorical Question, but have you ever asked yourself WHY it sells...and who might be in charge of ensuring that it does? As always, follow the money. (We really are cogs in a great big machine - but only as long as we allow it.)

originally posted by: Cancerwarrior
Do we live in a morally sick society? Absolutely. Are video games the culprit? Hell no merely a symptom.

And at last, we can truly agree on that point.

I really am loathe to think it is being planned, just so you know...but just watching the changes in even the past decade, the signs are pointing to yes, sadly. I will always hope for better though, as more and more people are waking up to reality each day.

Though we may have to agree to disagree on some points, I appreciate the discourse, and wish you a good day ahead.

*ETA - With massive apologies to the OP for going a tad off course

a reply to: MoonBlossom

The article you linked is indeed interesting, however alot of folks join up with lofty notions of duty, honor and all that Jazz that you see on military movies. Then when they get deployed to a warzone the reality is much different than the notions that they had. I don't think the fact that he is piloting a drone makes him feel this way, I think its a normal response that any soldier with a conscience would feel.

To answer your question army recruitment is low because we are not at war (at least not a big one) - yet.

A big one would most likely see a draft so the need for volunteers is kinda moot in that scenario. I've known guys that have done 5 and 6 deployments all a year a piece. I think that and a more public realization of the nature of these bullsnip wars is why recruiters are having trouble making their quotas. Not to mention 22 veterans kill themselves each day.

Rhetorical Question, but have you ever asked yourself WHY it sells...and who might be in charge of ensuring that it does?

Easy enough answer, because they make more money. Game developers have marketing divisions that do nothing but sit around figuring out how to sell more games. That is who is in charge of making sure it sells. One major way they have found is to give as many as they can an M rating. M rating always sells more than the G rating for games, just like R movies always sell more tickets than PG movies. The game/movie may have no guns, blood/gore or curse words at all, but will still get an M rating because that's what people want.

I still think just because a game has some shooting "bad guys" in it is not desensitizing anyone to murder. If you have ever played any of these games and see how cartooney they are compared to really pulling a trigger at someone who is really trying to kill you back, I bet you would see what a silly assumption it is for people to make that playing violent games=a will to be violent in real life.

One big reason that I think there are more violent games that I failed to mention earlier is the processing power of these gaming systems double or triple every time they release a new one. Now entire worlds can be created with incredible attention to detail. I remember back in the day when 007 came out on the N64 my friends and I thought it was awesome that you could shoot someone in the hand and make him drop his gun. That was something impossible to program on a SNES or Sega genesis. Fast forward today and many games look and play like a movie. In fact that is one big reason I don't play any mainstream games because they are all generic and catered to the "I wanna beat this game in 2 days" crowd. I like to think and I like challenges and I'd rather the games I play incorporate that.

And also, not sure if you are aware, but the age of the average gamer today is 37. Its not the younger crowd, its the guys my age that play the vast majority of CO type games.

I really am loathe to think it is being planned, just so you know...but just watching the changes in even the past decade, the signs are pointing to yes, sadly. I will always hope for better though, as more and more people are waking up to reality each day.

I live in a rural part of the country and I can tell you, in just the last 10-20 years people have changed around here and not really for the better. People are colder, less social and just generally out for themselves more. I wish I could agree with you on the more people waking up part, sadly I don't see it much around here.

I appreciate the civil discourse also. Thank you for the article too. Hope you have a good day as well.

I love when people tell me that there isn't any hate left and that minorities, gays, and women need to stop whining because they have equality.

One of the most difficult lessons for me to learn was that we have to give others the freedom to live their lives if we expect that same freedom for ourselves. I don't agree with everything other people do or think, but I do support their freedom to think and act as they choose...even if they choose to act like bigoted morons. It is ultimately just a game albeit a stupid one.

Just watched a Let's Play narrated in German...

NEIN NEIN NEIN!