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Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

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That torture game

Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 5:28 PM by Will Femia
Filed Under:

I'm trying to figure out why I'm not bothered in the least by the torture game Winda Benedetti wrote about today in her Citizen Gamer column. (version 1 and the new version 2)

I think the bottom line is that it's just not realistic enough to be very disturbing. It takes more than a vaguely human form and the occasional pained sigh to trigger the visceral revulsion of witnessing the mistreatment of a human being. It reminds me more of one of those time waster games that's more about exploring the properties of the program than the specific subject matter.

I don't want to get into a game of "what's grosser than this" but the floppiness of the torture doll reminds me a little of the falling bikini woman that was popular a while ago. And what's odd is that I find that somehow less real but more disturbing.

And then there's the obvious thing that makes this torture game not seem like torture - the fact that we've seen torture and it didn't look like this at all. The Abu Ghraib photos were more disturbing than this. The Daniel Perl video and the Nick Berg videos were positively scarring. Just the audio of those things was terrifying and soul-darkening. Splashing a little cartoon man with blood from a mouse-click chainsaw isn't even close.

I'm not insensitive to human suffering. The photo of that woman giving birth on the subway platform bothered me. Hell, anyone who made it all the way through 2 Girls 1 Cup should have the fortitude to endure the Torture Game 2.

Maybe it ultimately comes down to that relativity. I notice the things that bothered Winda the most are the things that made the game not bother me at all. I don't think the motion is real. The audio isn't real. The skin tone isn't real. The rendering isn't real. The "idea" of the game might be torture but you're not actually torturing anyone so it's really just a human figure abstraction.

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Comments

How exactly is cutting someone apart with a chainsaw  less "disturbing"  then a naked pile of men.  STOP LOOKING AT TODAYS' ISSUES THROUGH YOUR PRISM OF BUSH HATRED

F. Barr (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:40 PM)

As I explained, the prism is reality vs. not reality, though I suppose in some ways that is the same as Bush hatred. Who exactly was cut apart with a chainsaw? What prism are you using to interpret Abu Ghraib photos as a pile of naked men? It's funny that not even the torture game is sick enough to come up with Abu Ghraib tools of torture. How did the game creator not think to include genital electrodes in the tool menu?

Will Femia (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:08 PM)

why do people care about these things, come on its a game, its better to use your intelligence on something else.

Pony Ka, Kansas, unknown =] (Sent Wednesday, June 25, 2008 6:03 AM)

"STOP LOOKING AT TODAYS' ISSUES THROUGH YOUR PRISM OF BUSH HATRED"

What about the prism of hatred towards anyone that condones ACTUAL torture?
*cough*TheUSGovernment*cough*
*cough*AndI'mNotJustTalkingAboutBush*cough*.

Seriously, this sort of thing is just like the hatred towards GTA, Manhunt (which is a horrible game, not because of the violence but because it isn't fun), and a whole bunch of other games. Games don't make people deviants any more than listening to The Beatles will turn you into Charles Manson.
Ridiculous.

Michael "Don't listen to Helter Skelter; you'll turn into Chrales Manson!" [Last Name Deleted] (Sent Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:14 AM)

"I don't want to get into a game of "what's grosser than this"

Spoilsport.

Sean, NY (Sent Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:24 PM)

I suspect if that "vaguely human form" was black against a white background, the African-Americans would be going beserk.

Squab Jolson, NYC, NY (Sent Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:22 AM)

ok im 14 and i play this game all the time cuase it just a game and a timewaster thers nuthin wrong with it and if u hate it then y watch it or play if u hate y bother with it but complain  when others do its not ur life its ours if we want a to play this game who r u to say no i don't like it and its inhuman i'll tell u wats inhuman kids who put fireworks in animals people who kill cats and dogs for the fun of it people who get raped and killed and beaten but while this goes on u people just sit around and complain about som game that has a unrealistic and un expresianol doll that bleeds and can be torwn apart get a  life im 14  and clearly am more muture and grown up and more rastional then u people get a grip people

a 14 teen year old (Sent Tuesday, July 08, 2008 11:49 PM)

i agree with my fellow teen on this there are worst things going on than a time wasting game with a stick man dying in unrealistic graphics come on people its just a laugh and not the most evil thing since hitler

preston (Sent Friday, July 18, 2008 3:09 PM)

'not the most evil thing since hitler'
touche

Ed (Sent Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:33 PM)



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