Published on Jan 4, 2015
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." – Voltaire.
Ah, freedom of speech. Who doesn't love it? That is, until someone says something we strongly disagree with it. That's when very few people are willing to follow Voltaire's example. Instead, they start making concessions. "Look: I'm all for free speech and all, but…" Some even go as far as to hypothesize about the potential repercussions of the innocent populous being exposed to such heretic thought. "Don't you realize what would happen if innocent people saw this?!"

Unfortunately, video games are no exception to this distressing double standard. For the past couple of years, we've read numerous articles urging both game developers and the gaming community to take the medium more seriously; for it has the potential to explore a plethora of complex and thought-provoking themes in a way we've never seen before. However, as we've asserted in our Yellow Gaming Journalism video podcast: they say that, but the moment a game developer decides to step out of some people's comfort zone and try something a bit risqué -- the very same people are quick to label said developer's game offensive and attempt to censor it.
We here at Cheshire Cat studios recognize people's right to dislike something or even be offended by it. But when people decide they have the moral authority to dictate others what works of fiction they can expose themselves to -- that's where we draw the line. Such was the case with the latest controversial shoot-em-up game: Hatred. A game that garnered plenty of negative publicity for its over the top violence and a nihilistic, mentally distraught protagonist who seems to execute his victims with no particular rhyme or reason.
LaughingMan and CineMax sit down to discuss Hatred being reinstated on Steam's Greenlight service (with a personal apology from Gabe Newell, no less!) and debate whether such a controversial concept -- that, to be fair, isn't all that different from the first Postal game, for example -- is almost necessary to curbstomp some empathy back into gamers after years of ultra violent video games that have let you commit all sorts of unspeakable acts of violence under the banner of: "Don't worry about killing those people. They're the bad guys!"
Related links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatred_%28video_game%29
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/12/15/controversial-video-game-hatred-pulled-from-steam-greenlight/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-21-valve-pulls-game-from-steam-following-devs-tweet-threatening-gabe-newell

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"HATRED" Back on Steam Greenlight: Video Game Violence, Real World Empathy | CCS After Hours Podcast "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." – Voltaire. Ah, freedom of speech. Who doesn't love it?