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[nenjin]

The phone number makes it, I think. Someone is trying to be funny.

[Frumple]

Seriously, are the people who made this thing sadists or something?

Have you turned on a TV lately? Violence porn, 24/7. Sadism -- taking joy in inflicting, or watching, to a lesser degree, pain -- is pretty basic to the human animal. We like to see others suffer, especially when we can inflict it ourselves (power, control), especially when those others are the out group (justification). There's a reason the ol'bread and circus worked so well and why most forms of mass media throughout the ages have strong resemblances to blood sports

If you feel differently -- congratulations! You've been well trained by society. It's a good thing, but you're working counter to natural impulses, at least if you're extending that feeling to people outside your in-group (family, local community, possibly society/culture as a whole)

Re: Actual game topic: If it's real (doubtful, but whatever), it's a shame it's not covering a broader historical period, perhaps up to and including modern day slavery. That'd actually be somewhat interesting, because it's a helluva' topic all around.

[Nighthawk]

Seriously, are the people who made this thing sadists or something?

Have you turned on a TV lately? Violence porn, 24/7. Sadism -- taking joy in inflicting, or watching, to a lesser degree, pain -- is pretty basic to the human animal. We like to see others suffer, especially when we can inflict it ourselves (power, control), especially when those others are the out group (justification). There's a reason the ol'bread and circus worked so well and why most forms of mass media throughout the ages have strong resemblances to blood sports

If you feel differently -- congratulations! You've been well trained by society. It's a good thing, but you're working counter to natural impulses, at least if you're extending that feeling to people outside your in-group (family, local community, possibly society/culture as a whole)

But really, that period of slavery is over. It's a touchy subject for most people nowadays.
Why are they bringing it back? It's not like we're proud of it. Do they actually think it's a good idea to create a game highlighting the specifics of how slaves were treated back then? And making you, the player, the one who controls that?

It's not the smartest thing I've ever heard of in my life, to say the least.

Also, I don't know whether to feel insulted or praised by your comments. I'm hoping that it wasn't meant to be an insult, because if it was, that shows that you wholly support crime, violence, and horrible human acts which society is trying to prevent - for good reason. Judging from the smiley faces in your post when you mention blood sports, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you ARE one of those people.

But you know what? If you ran into something like this IRL, you wouldn't be posting smiley faces. If you saw someone brutally murdered, you wouldn't be laughing about it.
You would be sickened. And most likely scarred for life.

But maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions. Maybe you do understand that violence is something that should not be tolerated.

I certainly hope so.

[Vherid]

Hm, while it was a terrible time, I like the idea of offensive games/art/works that challenge society and morals. Make people think. Give something for people to get angry about. Challenge everyone personally, not just the mean.

[KaelGotDwarves]

It does indeed look like a shitty hoax just for drumming up attention, or a shitty game made for causing sales through controversy.

Honestly, the Serial Killer roguelike hoax looked much more real/better.

Either way, complete non-troversy made by assholes.

[Kusgnos]

You know, it'd actually be a lot more interesting if there were a modern-day slavery simulation. Choose your country to start in (China, India, Nepal, etc,), then kidnap, extort, or buy daughters and sons from families that are troubled by poverty--sell them to a range of markets, from forced labor to sexual exploitation, and have the game depict heavily the suffering that the families go through. After your slaver gets caught or dies, have the "score" detail a short paragraph of life story for the children that were sold.

Stuff like "Xia He was thirteen when she was sold to a brothel in Thailand. Every day of her life since then has been living hell. She has attempted suicide multiple times, and has long since been resigned to living the rest of her life in debt and in exploitation. Sometimes she dreams about what her life would have been like if she had never been kidnapped by you."

But I don't know. Makes me think of that Candyvan game.

[Yodamaster]

But I don't know. Makes me think of that Candyvan game.

Candyvan game?

[Frumple]

[off topic]

But maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions. Maybe you do understand that violence is something that should not be tolerated.

I certainly hope so.

It's definitely not an insult, no, and I'm not one of those people that support crime, et al.

I simply recognize what is as what is -- the human species isn't a very pleasant thing when you look at it large scale. The situation as a whole and specifics -- such as th'blood sport comparison, and the embracing of violent media by mass media and human culture in general -- sicken me, but I had to make the choice between laughing about it or killing myself, because there's not really a damn thing I can do on a personal level that'd make meaningful difference. There's a few societal-influence longshots that can be made, but I'm still a few decades from really being able to make those.

Obviously went with the first -- the smiley faces are me poking fun at society in general and the hypocrisy of it specifically. Gallows humor is still humor, so to speak

You and me, we might recognize that violence is something that can't be tolerated, not in any genuinely sustainable manner, but our species doesn't, and no culture on earth even remotely embraces that in a unilateral, non-hypocritical manner. Which is probably good, in some sick meaning of the term, because at this point in history (and every other point we've had so far), any culture that held that would be crushed by some culture that did accept violence -- to the out-group, if nothing else.

And really, a great deal of the opulence of first world nations is built on top of violence and exploitation of varying degrees. It's incredibly hard to actually separate yourself from the support -- especially implicit support -- of violence while you're part of a culture, etc, etc. So you either accept it and tolerate violence to some degree, bath in ignorance and not see it, lie to yourself about its existence, or either commit suicide literally to remove yourself from the situation, socially by removing yourself from the group supporting it, or effectively by trying to fight something entirely beyond the capability of an individual to fight. Violence inherent in the system, maan. Systemic change is effectively impossible for an individual to push through these days.

[/off topic]--

Anywaay. Kusgnos, that would definitely be part of a wider historical picture. Slave trade's still pretty kickin' in modern society, from what I understand, for all that it seems to get downplayed in media. I'd be pretty curious to see a raw number (body count) comparison between modern slave trade and various historic slave trades. We've got a lot more bodies we wouldn't really miss nowadays.

Including th'periods in history where the main slave population wasn't african (ancient history stuff) and the main slave owners not specifically european/caucasian (i.e. not just rabble rousing, poorly) would let a dev make a game that would actually have a certain degree of legitimacy, especially if the historical aspect was played up ala Age of Empires. The history of slavery encompasses pretty much the history of humanity, after all. A broader focus might let stuff like indentured servitude or penal slavery be brought into the picture, too. Something that made an attempt to actually get into the head of the people running these systems at the time (instead of just playing to shock value) would probably be borderline brilliant, for a certain sense of the term.

[Pnx]

But I don't know. Makes me think of that Candyvan game.

Candyvan game?

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6961.0

Anyway, this reminds me of the serial killer roguelike thing. I find it interesting that so many people were interested in playing a game where you're a serial killer, and yet people really despise the idea of being a slave tycoon.
To be frank, I'm kind of an emotionally neutral person when it comes to this kind of thing, I can understand it being offensive, but what exactly makes it different from the roguelike?

Is it just that we all secretly harbour a desire to go on killing sprees but have no desire to be profiteering slavers?

I think society's group subconscious has some serious issues.

[Lectorog]

Would now be a good time to bring up No More Stumpy Wumples? I think now would be a good time.

-post-

These are the Bay 12 Forums, right? You're speaking negatively towards violence, cruelty, and discrimination in games. Do you see many DF posts? People have made Dwarf Fortress way worse than this game.
Slavery was bad. Slavery is bad. We know this. Slaves are treated inhumanely. The thing is, this is just a joke game. Nothing in a game - any game - is real, even if it's based off of real stuff. There are games whose primary functions are to depict a character, controlled by you, brutally murdering people. That's a secondary function in many games today; just take a look at the Xbox360 lineup. IMO, that's rather worse than purchasing enslaved individuals and forcing them to work for you.

With all the serious issues in the world currently, it's a wonder how much you're affected by slavery as a topic. I'm not saying it's not bad, but it is a rather minor problem today, all else considered.

Maybe you do understand that violence is something that should not be tolerated.

Tell me; I'm honestly curious now. Why do you play video games?
I'm not trying to insult you, I'm genuinely perplexed by that statement coming from a gamer, on the Bay 12 Forums no less.

[Kusgnos]

I still feel a little bit of half-amused guilt when I think back to that serial killer roguelike fiasco, since I made that opening post. Eheh. I was so excited for it, I remember.

I haven't yet encountered a game that I didn't want to play because it was too offensive. I think different people just have different tolerance levels for "types" of violence in videogames, and those tolerance levels can be reframed depending on the context the game presents to you. I had no qualms smashing into bystanders with a sportscar in GTA IV and watching their bodies ragdoll in the air til they hit the pavement with a splat; on the other hand, when I played Bastion, having to kill people instead of the monsters and animals made me genuinely feel a twinge of remorse. Looking at the still bodies of the dead Ura was more emotional than looking at the still bodies of a more realistically depicted GTA IV innocent passerby.

[Thexor]

A lot of that is in the emotions the game is trying (and succeeding!) to evoke. Bastion's environment does an incredible job at pulling you into a world, and making you feel like your actions carry consequence and weight; GTA IV does an incredible job at making civilians look like suicidal morons. (Not that that's a bad thing - car chases are much less exciting when you have to mind the idiots walking down the middle of your extra lane!)

Different games succeed in creating different levels of emotional attachment to characters. This game, disturbing as it looks, almost certainly will not attempt to attach you to the NPCs, and as such I doubt it'd be nearly as emotionally hard to play as you might think.

...operating on the assumption that it's actually real. Which it probably isn't. And even if it is real, it's bound to be crap anyways, so its only notable achievement would be yet another segment about evil video games on Fox. 

[Dutchling]

Seems like a fun game. Let's just hope this isn't fake..

Anyway, did that site where you could buy milk gargled by high-class rich white girls turned out fake?

[ThtblovesDF]

Boring...

Slavery, as potential game mechanic, is rather massive. Imagine your favorite rts or even rpg, now add the ability to capture and morally break the enemy, forcing his troops and men to work for you. Imagine units of warriors made from captured soldiers, driving them into the enemy army before your real troops, imagine completely free meat shields.

Imagine your elfen Archers shot into the melee between one tribe of orcs and another, that you caused! Imagine infecting a troll with all the illneeses you can find and then driving him towards the enemy camp with whips, his self regeneration powers the only thing keeping it moving.

Imagine beating and then enslaving a Dragon as your personal mount! Make the enemy commander your grunt and champion...

Or meet a enemy army in battle and with smart flanking... unleash there slave! Kill the mage controlling them, or the slave Master, see how there own weapons turn on them!

But noooo...

[dogstile]

And we wonder why the world is such an evil place.

A game really makes you see that? Not the killing of children, suicide bombings, rape attempts, etc that go on every single day?

You're extremely sheltered if it takes a game to tell you the world is a bad place.

Edit:

Oh, in Rome: total war, i definitely remember using slaves whenever I could. Just a thought.