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Well then... Congratulations. http://kotaku.com/some-jerks-made-a-completely-tasteless-boston-marathon-482562083
By the way, if this never gets approved, is it just going to stay in the queue forever? How does that work? Because although this is tasteless and violent, it is still some decent pixel art. The art style reminds me of something I'd play on the NES, although I doubt the hardware could handle this.
Well I'm an Aussie, and we are known for our sick sense of humour.
The issue I have with this, is that if your going for such a controversial piece, the pixel quality should be top notch. The guy running in the top right screen has the fattest legs I've ever seen.The Vehicles perspective doesn't match the BG.
In other news, QWOP anyone? XD
Just thought I'd let, you (Smilecythe) know that a building just fell in Bangladesh and killed 100+ people.
Maybe you could make a Wreck-It Ralph kind of game (repairing the building and such)?!
NOW... THAT... WOULD BE... FUNNY... AND... FRESH Shi**!!!
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*completeinterwebsarcasmhereofcourse*
Personally, I want very much my opinion to be changed, I look out for it. Generally people should be open for change as much as they would like to inflict it upon others. But again. this is not a matter of martyry for the truth and the individual right on opinion, or making friends. It is a matter of quality on execution. Sadly, in game making all too often it is artists and coders that head up story making when unwittingly they are about as good at writing as an artist doing code or a coder doing art. Writing is a craft, like painting. You can learn it a life long. Humor and sarcasm are techniques of culture. These things are not beyond technical criticism, they are at the heart of it. They critisize rationalities through absurdity, but they are rooted in understanding, the better it is, the better they are.
I was referring to my not wanting to change his position, not whether the site will approve this when I mentioned thought crimes.
To copy my reaction from dA:
[Oof! I definitely see where you are going with this. But this sure as hell isn't gonna win you any friends, hehe.]
Thoughtcrime isn't really relevant here. Censorship is a valid argument, but its up to site administration and public voting to decide what sort of content the site should allow. Which is something Smilecythe understands. This is a site that requires nsfw tags for boobs, this isn't 4chan. Take a good guess on how well this piece will assimilate.
I am not afraid of changing his opinion. I don't want him to change his opinion. I don't believe in thought crimes.
I have nothing more to add to my vain (overkill) attempts to justify myself. Other than what I have said, it's humour and it's not your beef, I get it. We're talking about limbless people happily cheering in the sideway. On other places we post as well as explained in the trailer (which itself is a joke too) we claim the game is realistic and that it reflects what 'really' happened during the incident and that people viewing this incident over the television wants to experience and live it themselves. Sarcasm, that's what this game is about. What I wished for was that people understand the comedic value on this 'side' and maybe even realize some of the references and parody the game has on Boston lifestyle, inside jokes and history. There's more to it than "What a blast", 9/11 and those random trivias you see ingame. You don't see it as humour so of course it's content of no value for you. Only rational option it leaves to me is to back off. Guys below gave me a good insight on various things which is why I always come here anyway, so at this point it doesn't matter for me if this gets wiped or not.
His motives indeed don't matter. He'd like them to matter, more than quality of expression that this gallery is about.
Why would you be afraid of changing his opinion, when he is so intend on changing yours?
I really think this should be approved for the gallery, however. Censorship is bad, mmkay?
I don't think his motives even matter. If he likes this incident and the fact that America was bombed, okay. He is allowed to have his opinions. I wouldn't want him to change them.
If there is no legal issue with approving this, and I doubt there is, it should be approved!
You wished it was touchy so you don't have to face it's just bad. You cherry pick the corner you'd like to be put in. I'm sorry to break this to you, but you're not a misunderstood genius, and this is no scandalous revelation.
Intellectually it is mediocre at best. This is not the Bigger Picture. It could have, but you couldn't. You ignore the human element, that is just means to your end that is in the end meaningless. And you don't provide international context / comparison of national media. What would coverage have looked like in Russia? And it is blind for the problems on your own turf. What does this mean for us individually, the expressed frustration, to be mocked in the interest of all lobby politics.
This is just a hitpiece; but not a hit to be missed.
The rational criticism given here, that you can't take yourself, really is just hints that you need to improve your handywork considerably. If you did, instead of justifying your failures rhetorically, maybe it would even provoke thought on the matter rather than execution. There is quite an irony in all this. Maybe that would have made for something more interesting.
You've already won here.
This... whatever it is, isn't even out of the queue yet and you've received the reactions no doubtedly desired.
I voted No on this myself. Because it's...
We will get nowhere with this kind of conversation. You're cornering me with the afterthought lecture and you basically want me to just say this is plain animosity and not humour like I claim it to be. If you don't want it in your galleries then don't put it in, I consider it your loss.
I'll perhaps come up with something less touchy next time. Thanks for your time
Your explaination of portraying the same as a "tradegy porn" parody would make more sense if the game revolved around an exaggerated media coverage of the event.
To be honest, too rushed and it has a poor concept.
If I played this game, I would know it's a parody of something but the most I'd get out of it would be the creators are making fun of the whole incident instead of bashing the media.
I have a hard time believing that your so-called critique of the media is anything more than after the fact justification for something created to deliberately offend. Especially since I know that your site has at least in the past hosted ~ironic~ Nazi content. I don't really see any kind of artistic merit to stuff like this.
I've seen the term "dark humor" used a couple of times now. I'm confused on the "humor" part.
Whatever. So you're cynical about the American media? Get in line. I still don't see any solutions here.
And I wouldn't buy or play this game.
Not making things evident and keeping the morals hidden on the fact is what makes everything in Lolokaust more noticed and questioned, plus arguing with different opinions is part of the fun. There's no right wing connections or any profit to what we do so the morals certainly come from nowhere there. We're not Vonnegut, he can f*ck off and this is how we broadcast our humour.
Everything was "entirely questionably constructed" back in the early console/comic days. The videogame art was also typically very kinky. Resemblance and parody was what we were going for, but the true difference here is that we wanted to release this as fast as possible, I ended up rushing and not checking the shadow/light arragement or anatomy through properly. I can, I could and under other circumstances definitely would, but do not want to fix the flaws in these mockups because I want it to represent the actual look in the game.
I don't disagree with the 'tragedy porn' message, but a critique of the American media is far from evident, and certainly seems to be an afterthought. Perhaps there is a better means of conveying your moral message? Vonnegut is my favorite writer, and the king of black comedy/gallows humor, but his satire is evident, focused, and biting. This just comes off as edgy antisocial humor, regardless of the long winded explanations that follow it.
I posted the game maker 'programmers's' quote as a comment below, but I'll put it to description as well. As it was his idea to the begin with, also he explains this better because, we'll it's his idea and he's American and actually a resident in Boston.
Basically, we found the news coverage very exaggerated and in some degree hilarious, which is when we felt that this whole incident had to be parodied no matter what while it's still fresh and people still haven't forgotten about it. Why too soon? I'd ask myself year later why too late, because the incident would still be as gruesome to those most affected, it makes no difference to them, they would still be as offended and people who pretend to care for them would just as enthusiasticly rush over and judge it as inappropriately, while also the spreading of this message would be multiple times harder. People need to stop trying to force their feelings on others and let them laugh even in bad times, everything should be fair game for humour. Theme might be offensive, but that is why we call it either Adult or Dark humour.
More like MSNBC.
You get it? We have different political ideaologies! Ha!
Not true. Most shooters are back to zombie/demon/monster hunting. The middle east phase ended a while back.
This piece/game is the moral equivalent of Fox "news". Controversy for the sake of controversy just to push people's buttons for no reason at all.
I'm ok with this piece as long as you've put the warnings (which you did) but just out of curiosity, may I humbly ask what was the point? If there is one, you could perhaps point it out better. For example are you mocking with the bombing? Are you pointing out you don't care? Or is this a media criticism for the fact that they can turn everything into a TV show?
@Most of the criticism below; Many main stream shooters lately let you go to middle east and simulate killing people trying to defend their country etc., which is to me nothing more than mocking with their actual deaths (you know millions died this way). So this piece doesn't bother me half of the fact that they are bought by millions including PJ members, coincidentally members that have voted on this piece. I say, if you're going to condemn terror and killings, do it for the whole thing or you're being hypothetical.
The man on the congratulations! screen is entirely questionably constructed.
I actually think the style of the rest of the game is quite good, though.
"As an american, the game parodies the "Tragedy Porn" of our media more than anything. Why pretend we care about this stuff when after we do nothing about it, we had many huge shootings over the last year or so and no legislation was passed for stricter gun control. All we want to do is shed a tear and give ourselves a pat on the back and then we don't change anything. We just act suprised and wave our flags. This game is what people actaully want, in a year or so this will be a movie and everyone will go see it. Making a game like this comes out of discontent for how shit like this is handled, not out of hostility to the victims. It may be offensive but for some people it's a cathardic way to take out your aggression over the situation." - CMCW
Gameplay wise, this is more like an interactive parody. On top of the incident there's lots of references to 80s-early 90s games and basically Boston itself.
I may not like the idea behind it, but the pixels are good.
2edgy4me. I thought you were over your lolokaust phase.
game itself looks incredibly boring, throw in a 9-11 reference and a few dead babies but that won't make the gameplay any more exciting.
anatomy seems sub-par for you, guess the game needed to be rushed while the wound was still fresh?
Lol Jeremy,
Do you realize that the post you linked to was written to one of the makers of this game?
That is a offensive. I think it could be allowed in the PJ gallery, but for what? It will mostly get a stream of negative comments....
Also, what was your motivation to make this game? Why not use your skills to make something everyone enjoyes?
I laughed about much "worse" shit really. But this one just doesn't work. It's neither weird nor smart enough. It's missing the humor in the dark. It looks frustrated with itself more than anything, awkward. The "backlash" here was more a response to their attempt on rationalizing it into a higher purpose than bad taste and rushed pixels. It was made into an idea protected on freedom of speech, and supposedly a genre thing beyond critique. Well that's one way to try buldge into a picky gallery. It's good that places exist where people can put out whatever, but not every other place must be obligated to endorse it all the same. Normally I don't comment, but the talk here was on a level other than artwork. Clearing up that, I don't really care much if it makes it into the gallery on the merits of its pure pixels. That's really the bottom line to it, it doesn't make me care as a work of art, probably because it just isn't.