Dubious "Slave" Depiction in the Game Universe

[HeadHunter]

GTA is a game and not art.

Oh my, Roger Ebert isn't dead after all! :p

Some people believe games are not art, for whatever reason. Others understand games can be art (though not all of them actually are).

I don't see why racism in a game is any different than racism in a movie. Do you think it's because the player is participatory and involved? What about the actor? What about the author?

Personally, I don't play GTA because I find it just has too much distasteful subject matter to be entertaining - and an example like Postal shows just how bad it can be when the game becomes indulgent of such behavior. But I don't think FTL comes close, by a wide margin.

I agree with what CFIT said - the tension of the setting and its ability to make players question their own motives is a good thing (and, by the way, supports the notion that games can be art after all)...

[UltraMantis]

Art is a difficult point to argue. Are games works of art? By default i think they're not, but many games tick off enough boxes to qualify. Let's just leave the core of the debate alone and either agree to disagree, or for comparison purposes agree that GTA is not art in the regular sense.

I wouldn't accuse GTA of indulging in racist material, or even of using it as a crutch or gimmick. My issue remains that it's used so causally as if it's tolerable. Some may say, but so is murder. To them i rply that murder is GTA is not real, but racism is real. When i say racism, i mean every derogatory slang word spoken, every stereotype portrayed.. all things that i am not listing specifically because they're inapropriate on a forum.

Which should illustrate my point. Why is it appropriate or tolerable in GTA, when we're clearly refraining from accepting it here? Again, it's not that GTA features it, but it's THE WAY it's featured. So casually, like it's not a thing. Some of it is neccesary because setting the game in that time and place demands it. But the game is completely unrestrained in that regard and deals with it the same way it deals with violence and crime. You can have virtual violence, but you can't have virtual racism. There is simply nothing virtual about it.

Maybe i'm now banging my own drum. Anywho, this is how i feel about GTA, and you can take or leave it, or argue it. The slavery issue is more interesting now. Because FTL is completely innocent of either bad taste or innapropriate content regarding slavery. If you want a game where you actually manage "captives", try Tropico 2. An excellent game, that somehow completely escapes judgement despite coming awfully close to the line. A key point to a succesfull game of Tropico 2 is keeping the captive population in check using threat of death primarily and also making sure they're fed here and there. If you can't spare any lumber to build them shacks, they can sleep on the ground or in the stockade. If you lose the game, presumably the captives will be freed making it very important to DENY slaves freedom as pretty much the game objective.

If that sounds horrible, the tone of the game is quite light despite brutality of piracy not being hidden or covered up. The only taboo the game outright refuses is same sex "wenching" Perhaps the reason it escapes criticism is that the game does not "indulge" in controversy nor use it as a gimmick. There's no "bad taste" though... you know, slavery...

[zeek]

I don't see why slavery in FTL is an issue. Slavery is quite real and continues to this day. It is not only a human trait either. It occurs in nature as well. For instance ants will enslave other types of ants if they can outnumber/overpower them. It's doesn't seem unreasonable to me that aliens would enslave each other for profit. It seems quite likely actually. I don't think the game is saying slavery is ok. Nor is the game saying asphyxiating your enemies is ok. It's just a reality of the world the game is set in.