Games you refuse to play on Principle

Mahoshonen

Are there games that you flat-out refuse to play on pure principle? Specifically for reasons that go beyond brand loyalty or sweeping generalization of genres.

For me, I cannot play any game made by Bioware. This is a pity, because I enjoyed many games they made prior to me making this decision.

The reason that I categorically refuse to play their games can be traced to Dragon Age 2. Specifically, the "Tranquil Solution" quest in Act 2. While I never played it (thank god I didn't, otherwise I would have thrown my computer out the window when I got to that point), I did read about it in a Let's Play. I swear I had never felt that angry about something in my life. After I read what the quest entailed, I immediately deleted every Bioware game I had, broke any disks that were left, cancelled my ME3 and TOR preorders, and wrote an angry letter to the ADL. The only thing I need to do to complete my show of disgust is to post a massive rant on the Bioware Forum complete with a wallpaper-sized goatse.cx. However, work's been busy, so I've been putting it off.

So, anyone else with a similar experience?

Alucard6986

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

Rainfall

There's a lot of games that I won't purchase thanks to excessively sexist or racist characters, but seriously, OP? That is... worryingly overdramatic.

jclast

I don't have any that I won't play (I think), but what did Bioware do that quest that made you hate it so much?

reVerse

What's ADL?
edit: Anti-Defamation League, huh? So it's some Jew thing?


On topic, any Ubisoft game on PC. Hey, Ubisoft, I understand that you guys feel the need to protect your games from the pirates but come on.

Come on.

Shady3011

You could just say because Dragon Age 2 is a piece of shit game.

CaptainNemo

I'm not sure what you're going all Southern Belle over.

Explain this to me.

Mahoshonen

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

GnomeTank

I can't even remember what quest your talking about from DA2, so I can't imagine it being that bad. I also can't imagine why it would stop you form playing any BioWare game ever, but meh.

I refuse to buy or play Call of Duty games anymore, for really obvious reasons. I can fire up Modern Warfare 2 and still get exactly the same experience as if I fired up Modern Warfare 3 or any of it's ancestors. I really don't blame Activision for continuing to shit them out, because people are still buying them like fucking candy...but I refuse to be one of them. I'll stick to Halo and Battlefield for my FPS joy.

I also refuse to play MineCraft on purely hipster principal. I never thought it was that good to begin with, and the hype machine was so ridiculous that I just said "Nope, not doing it". Dwarf Fortress for the same reason.

Viskod

I oftentimes thought of playing Bulletstorm because it looks fun and I like the environments, but the absurd level of crude humor just goes over a line for me and I honestly don't think I'd be able to enjoy the game or the characters in it.

Although I don't know if that qualifies as principle more than it does just preference.

Alucard6986

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

I...what? I'm still not seeing it. Right, there was a lot of pro-mage/anti-mage dogma but I'm not seeing how bioware offended the jews in the process.

TychoCelchuuu

edit: DOUBLE POST VAMILLA FORUMS GOGOGOGOGOGOGO

edit #2: now my original post disappeared

CaptainNemo

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

I take it you also boycott Marvel, right?

Klyka

So your were offended because it was a wordplay on "The Final Solution"?

As far as I just read you got to stop some madman from trying to pull this whole thing off and there's not even the option to actually let him do it or anything. It also says that his higher ups were totally against that plan and it was just him and his lackeys.

What exactly is offensive about this that you would destroy your games and hate Bioware?

Henroid

Hmm. Well, I'll say that I'm going to refuse to play any Sonic the Hedgehog games.

I played all the Sega Genesis-era games. And really, since then, I hadn't played any others. Not because I was avoiding it, it was just a matter of circumstance. So I apparently missed the whole transition from platforming to stupid-speed-fuck-bullshit. Which yes, Sonic is about running fast, but I played Sonic Colors on the DS recently (bought it actually, and I should just sell it off) and it was my first taste of a Sonic game, hands on, since the Genesis. And my god, it is just such a huge pain in the ass to try to handle. I really can't be fucked to deal with that shit.

GnomeTank

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

Genocide happens all the time...so no game can ever touch on the subject of genocide without it being about Jews and the holocaust?

TychoCelchuuu

GnomeTank wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

Genocide happens all the time...so no game can ever touch on the subject of genocide without it being about Jews and the holocaust?

The issue is that the quest name is a direct reference to the Holocaust, but yeah, he's getting way bent out of shape. I mean I have a whole family tree stump in Europe too but I don't flip out when people bring it up obliquely.

Robes

I ignore everything from Activision because of Bobby Kotick. I still buy Blizzard games, but someday I hope they break away from Activision.

Shady3011

Viskod wrote:

I oftentimes thought of playing Bulletstorm because it looks fun and I like the environments, but the absurd level of crude humor just goes over a line for me and I honestly don't think I'd be able to enjoy the game or the characters in it.

Although I don't know if that qualifies as principle more than it does just preference.

You should give it a shot since the "humor" is sparse and takes a back seat to the melodramatic story. It's basically the opposite of what the advertising would have you think.

CaptainNemo

My greatgrandmother helped smuggle Jews out of Berlin. Her, my greatgrandfather, and my grandmother all survived the camps and the Red Army. And you know what? Fiction will always be influenced by history, and unless BioWare has Nazi sympathies I see nothing to be offended by.

GnomeTank

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

GnomeTank wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

Genocide happens all the time...so no game can ever touch on the subject of genocide without it being about Jews and the holocaust?

The issue is that the quest name is a direct reference to the Holocaust, but yeah, he's getting way bent out of shape. I mean I have a whole family tree stump in Europe too but I don't flip out when people bring it up obliquely.

I'll concede the title of the quest is...thought provoking. That said, I find the No Russian mission in CoD to be far more offensive than a reference to the Final Solution, but I am not Jewish so I can't judge.

CaptainNemo

Shady3011 wrote:

Viskod wrote:

I oftentimes thought of playing Bulletstorm because it looks fun and I like the environments, but the absurd level of crude humor just goes over a line for me and I honestly don't think I'd be able to enjoy the game or the characters in it.

Although I don't know if that qualifies as principle more than it does just preference.

You should give it a shot since the "humor" is sparse and takes a back seat to the melodramatic story. It's basically the opposite of what the advertising would have you think.

Bulletstorm is honestly a parody of the game you think it is. The main character's arc is learning that his assholish prick demeanor has consequences, and that he needs to take responsiblity.

TychoCelchuuu

Since Vanilla ate my original post:

I don't play MMOs, so this kind of doesn't count, but if I did play MMOs I would refuse to play TOR on principle. There's some horrific, awful, twisted rape/torture shit in there that makes me sick just reading about it. BioWare in general has the kind of writing that makes people think that videogames are infantile nerd fantasies that confuse something like "epic" or "violent" with "mature" or "deep."

Mahoshonen

Alucard6986 wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

I...what? I'm still not seeing it. Right, there was a lot of pro-mage/anti-mage dogma but I'm not seeing how bioware offended the jews in the process.

GnomeTank wrote:

Genocide happens all the time...so no game can ever touch on the subject of genocide without it being about Jews and the holocaust?

The thing was that the reference was really blatant while carrying absolutely no gravity. Refering to the whole thing as "The Tranquil Solution;" Having it orchastrated by a Templar named Otto who was just looking for lobotomized sextoys, and the line in the DLC where one character makes the oh-so memorable quip: "I guess your Tranquil Solution wasn't the Holocaust you envisioned!" It's one thing to have genocide in a game, but making such blatant references while showing no respect whatsoever for one of the most horrific events in human history, all to make your game 'edgier', is what blew my gasket and led me to renouce Bioware.

Henroid

Oh wait, this is like... refuse to play because of face-value offense-taking?

Um... I'm gonna have to think on this one. I can't remember the last time I saw promotion for a game and I was personally offended. Maybe that Call of Juarez shit, but I have to find out about that through an episode of Extra Credits.

CaptainNemo

Renounce? You can renounce a company? How the fuck do you do that? Do I need a priest and the ashes of Enron?

DoctorArch

I haven't played Dragon Age 2, but I looked up the Tranquil Quest. It reminds me far more of an atrocity like female genital mutilation than the holocaust.

That said, I sometimes have difficulty playing an bad character that does not direct his ire on characters that are "badder" than him. It's a common character trope, for example in the series Dexter, Dexter is a self-admitted monster who preys on people worse than him, and that allows people to make a connection to Dexter because in this world he is still a hero of sorts.

Prototype gave me difficulty because of this, as the character you play murders innocent people all the freaking time as a part of gameplay.

Klyka

Mahoshonen wrote:

"I guess your Tranquil Solution wasn't the Holocaust you envisioned!"

This is amazing.

CaptainNemo

To be fair, you're not exactly human in Prototype.

Virii kill innocent people all the time.

Mahoshonen

CaptainNemo wrote:

Renounce? You can renounce a company? How the fuck do you do that? Do I need a priest and the ashes of Enron?

Easy. Never play a game of there's again.

Henroid

Klyka wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

"I guess your Tranquil Solution wasn't the Holocaust you envisioned!"

This is amazing.

Sorry, but the Holocaust is in another castle.

CaptainNemo

I don't remember that line in any of my playthroughs.

EDIT: What the hell?

Kadoken

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

Yes, I agree, the flying fuck nut?

If there were games about Political/religious reasons

If you want to keep being neutral about me as a user don't read these maybe

seriously

games where you kill the Abrahamic god(god of the Jews, Christians, Mormons, JW's, Rastas, historically and biblically Muslims, etc) or any real world religion god, Hindu's multiple, or Buddha (Not a god, a spiritual advisor), calling religion a farce, called a certain real racial or ethnic group evil, have the player be able to rape people (Believe me, some fans of Rockstar wanted this feature in GTA) one note, Japnese games are the exception, because some like FF10, are about trying to kill the fake god of a world and the "not catholic church", because most Japanese publishers (I know at least) don't like Christianity.

I would not play them, out of principle.
The reason I won't watch Dirty Dancing is because it's some mid 30 year old going after a young adult woman, and THAT scene, which I will not mention.
If anyone suggests I remove my post, politely and civilly, I will.

Shady3011

Look, as long as we all agree that Dragon Age 2 is a shitty game, we can move on.

GnomeTank

Well, not to be controversial, but the Holocaust is "one of the worst events in human history" because it's fresh, recent and talked about a lot. More Russians died in the culling (by three times) than Jews during WW2, but it's not talked about as much and not as fresh in our memories. Almost as many people have died in Darfur as Jews in the holocaust as well. If they had been making casual reference to the genocides in Africa, would it upset you as much?

Genocide is never funny, never good and should never been tolerated, but I think video games referencing these things is just part of history being woven in to our mythology. Video games are modern mythology, like it or not.

Anyway, not trying to talk you down from your point of offense, who am I to tell you not to be offended by something...just offering a counter point.

Klyka

Henroid wrote:

Klyka wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

"I guess your Tranquil Solution wasn't the Holocaust you envisioned!"

This is amazing.

Sorry, but the Holocaust is in another castle.

If that line is TRULY in the game, I will buy it just to see this with my own two eyes.

CaptainNemo

Shady3011 wrote:

Look, as long as we all agree that Dragon Age 2 is a shitty game, we can move on.

I liked it, but I'm not going to purge all of my Shady3011 products off of my computer.

AspectVoid

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

GnomeTank wrote:

Mahoshonen wrote:

Alucard6986 wrote:

that's a bit dramatic. I don't remember anything particularly offensive about that quest.

As a Jew who has an entire branch of my family tree ending in a stump at around 1941-1945, I admit that I'm rather touchy about potrayals and direct references to the Holocaust in the media. Needless to say, Bioware hit all the wrong buttons for me.

Genocide happens all the time...so no game can ever touch on the subject of genocide without it being about Jews and the holocaust?

The issue is that the quest name is a direct reference to the Holocaust, but yeah, he's getting way bent out of shape. I mean I have a whole family tree stump in Europe too but I don't flip out when people bring it up obliquely.

Being a direct reference to the Holocaust was kinda the point, I thought. It was Bioware saying "Hey, if you support the Templar's, look at where their extreme views lead to. This shit is terrible, and radical psychos like this need to be stopped. There is bad JuJu here."

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

I don't play MMOs, so this kind of doesn't count, but if I did play MMOs I would refuse to play TOR on principle. There's some horrific, awful, twisted rape/torture shit in there that makes me sick just reading about it. BioWare in general has the kind of writing that makes people think that videogames are infantile nerd fantasies that confuse something like "epic" or "violent" with "mature" or "deep."

I'm sorry, but I don't get this reasoning either. Real world villains do horrific, awful, twisted rape/torture shit all the time. All you need to do is look at what's going on in Syria right now to see that. Its a huge part as to what Evil and what a culture who promotes evil, is. What do you want from villains? Do you want Disney villains where the worst that happens is they cause someone to fall into a deep sleep?

I would argue that it is better for villains to be evil, twisted, and demented just like they are in the real world. To me, it is FAR more realistic to have the villains be, you know, EVIL, rather than the kid friendly villains we normally get.

Shady3011

CaptainNemo wrote:

Shady3011 wrote:

Look, as long as we all agree that Dragon Age 2 is a shitty game, we can move on.

I liked it, but I'm not going to purge all of my Shady3011 products off of my computer.

Well, that's because you have simple tastes unlike my refined ones. 8->

Henroid

Is it me or is there some level of irony where instead of hating a single product or the writers involved, this guy is raging out against the company and all its assets?

MagicPrime

I have been setting here for five minutes now trying to put my head around this OP and come up with some kind of suitable snarky remark about his rant against BioWare. But I am at a loss.

Any person who goes to that extreme for a plot line in a mediocre game probably needs to be medicated. And it not someone I would want to socialize with.