Is child abuse OK in Detroit: Become Human?

This morning I was watching The Wright Stuff on British breakfast television, a daily panel show featuring current news affairs, when I noticed the next topic to be discussed was about a 'computer game' called Detroit Become Human:

ws1.jpg

Detroit: Become Human is the latest game to come from creator David Cage, a 2018 Sony PlayStation 4 exclusive title, that featured a scene of potential domestic child abuse when a new trailer aired at Sony's Paris Game's Week 2017 Conference. You can see the full trailer here:



David Cage is no stranger to controversial subjects in his games. I've played Fahrenheit and also Heavy Rain and both of these games feature murder, the latter with a serial killer who kidnaps a child. So why is this new game suddenly on daytime breakfast TV? Because it's controversial, and without the controversial, off-screen scene, the game wouldn't have appeared on all of the mainstream gaming sites. So we all saw this a month ago, but only now is the printed press and big media catching onto it, because it's an easy target for a headline.

I'm no expert on what Detroit: Become Human is, but I gather from related media that it's a story-driven game with a heavy narrative, much like all of Cage's previous works. You play as an android and throughout the game are presented with game-changing decisions, but do you live through the story as an android would, or do you make the android 'Become Human' by making morally correct decisions as a human would, breaking the android's protocol, kind of I, Roboty. In theory, you could finish the game without even seeing this scene play out the wrong way. Choices given to the player are designed in such a way as to spark some kind of emotion from them. That is what this type of game is all about.


ws2.jpg

I've watched TWS on TV for many years, but today, with a headline like 'Ban Child Abuse Computer Game?' on the TV, I felt compelled to call the show and try and advocate as to why a scene like this in a video game isn't a reason to ban it. To my surprise, I got through!

Here is the clip of the entire discussion on the show today. If you want to skip forward to my call, I am caller number 1 at 05:50:



Mirror (UK):

Before the call I had plenty to say, but under pressure, live on air, with only a minute to talk, I don't think I got my point across as well as I could have, but it did make me think about how non-gamers perceive people who do enjoy experiencing and playing video games. I also wanted to tell Matthew (the host) to watch The Last of Us Part II trailer that was featured at the same gaming show in Paris, and is also a Sony exclusive title. I think that trailer has way more for the non-gaming masses to complain about, than the scenes from Detroit: Become Human. I've also been obliterating hundreds of Nazis with my Schockhammer in Wolfenstein 2 recently, literally blasting them into smithereens, but I've not seen that discussed on TV.

Obviously, this is a touchy subject matter, but in my eyes, it is no different than watching a movie or reading a book. The movie Sleepers immediately came to mind when I was trying to think of comparisons from other media, a 1996 film featuring some of hollywood's top stars suffering from child abuse. Why is that ok, but Detroit isn't?

It makes no sense.


Detroit: Become Human is expected to release worldwide in 2018.

:arrow:Detroit: Become Human Official Site
 
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We just don't live in a fucking utopia and shielding people from all those things doesn't make them a better person in the end. It just makes them ignorant and detached from life itself.
thats going in my new sig when i get around to making my sig again
 
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Xzi

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Ohh...I remember when the ESRB was supposedly gonna solve all this. Unfortunately there are still a lot of idiots out there that think all games are for children regardless of the "M" label.

Really the problem here is that other mediums are threatened by the advances video games have made over the years. If a child getting beat in a video game elicits such a strong human emotion/reaction, then live-action films with actors that cost millions start to become slowly obsolete.
 

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I don't own a PS4 and that trailer makes me want to play the game a lot more than the E3 trailer. It's not like the game is making light of child abuse. If anything I get the same feeling from watching that as I did, guiding Clementine in The Walking Dead. Protective parent mode kicks in and I feel like saving the day. Old people need to stop seeing video games as a child's play thing and start seeing it as a form of media that is better in many ways than movies. On the same note, maybe the game industry should just abandon the "video game" moniker and just call it all "interactive media".
 

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Ohh...I remember when the ESRB was supposedly gonna solve all this. Unfortunately there are still a lot of idiots out there that think all games are for children regardless of the "M" label.
That's another point. He was saying kids can play and have been playing M rated games. They can also watch rated R movies and read adult books, yet they aren't banned. Not that they should be.

It is funny, because some movies can be even more gruesome than video games. They also tend to be live action, so it feels more closer to real life.
 

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I haven't seen the trailer, but I take the scene is presented as ethically wrong and is use to portray an anthagonist or at the very least to make the player think and not to present him with pleasure through that, no?
 

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Unfortunately there are still a lot of idiots out there that think all games are for children regardless of the "M" label.
Your correct fact is funnier when you combine it with the other fact that in the UK (and Australia) game and film age ratings are legally binding so at least on paper they don't even have that excuse...
 

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That's another point. He was saying kids can play and have been playing M rated games.

Which I find rather ironic (or moronic)*. The whole rating system is itself rather broken as it focus more on syntax than semantics. Hence, here we have a game that actually shouldn't be M rated (well, presuming that this is the core gameplay and it doesn't turn GTA) precisely because it's a message that both teenagers (maybe even children) really need exposed to. As stated, the only real way to break the cycle of abuse is to educate people, and the best way to educate people is to do it when they're young. Same with a lot of other "mature" games. The whole point of a game like this is that you're not supposed to enjoy it.

*The problem with movie and game ratings is mostly that they're designed with the notion that the movie/game are "R-rated" or "mature". That's not it, though. The person who watches it should be "mature". Mature individuals can see wanton acts of sex or violence in the context of fantasy and digest it because they have the experience to understand it as fiction. It's precisely that child abuse is not something that should ever be easily digested that it makes any real sense to call it "mature". Hence, rating a lot of such movies or games doesn't make sense in some ways. Or we can just acknowledge that when it is closer to truth than fiction, perhaps we should be more inclined to acknowledge that teenagers (and maybe children) should be allowed to engage in such fiction precisely to learn. Nah, silly me. "We" want all our entertainment to be all empty calories and the ratings to match.
 
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Has any of you actually been abused as a child?

Have any of you ever abused a child? Is that relevant to this discussion?

Reminds me of:

"I will not beg for your understanding of my personal grief, nor will I parade it for you to gain your cooperation. My love for my daughter...is too deep for display. My pride in her runs even deeper." -- The Mark of Gideon
 
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Has any of you actually been abused as a child?
i'm just gonna leave this here again

We just don't live in a fucking utopia and shielding people from all those things doesn't make them a better person in the end. It just makes them ignorant and detached from life itself. Closing your eyes doesn't help with anything, it only makes everything worse
 

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i'm just gonna leave this here again

We just don't live in a fucking utopia and shielding people from all those things doesn't make them a better person in the end. It just makes them ignorant and detached from life itself. Closing your eyes doesn't help with anything, it only makes everything worse

And making a video game about this doesn't glorify abuse or make it more of an issue? What the hell kind of dumbass developer would do this?
 

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