I have various games that are in various stages of development. How many of them will ever actually be released remains to be seen. I have a full time network engineering job that pays the bills so making games is done during my free time and is something I enjoy doing.
For awhile I've been thinking about a disclaimer I wanted to put into my games. I decided to take my initial stab at writing it this morning. I want to share it with you. I expect this to evolve over time but I suspect you will understand where I am going with this.
Warning!!!
This game takes place in a fictional setting. No attempt has been made to sanitize the stories, characters, or setting in any attempt to minimize the possibility of someone being offended. If you are someone who is easily offended and/or think not being offended is more important than telling a good story then you have been warned.
This game could offend you.
Our bad guys and evil people will do bad things. They will have bad behavior. If we sanitize that from our game then in reality we will just be pushing the perspective that petty things are things to be concerned about. Why? That is all that might remain for a brief period after any attempt to sanitize what miscellaneous cultural groups might choose to view as offensive at any given time.
We want our bad guys to be bad.
Furthermore, some of the factions that you might think are good you might eventually view as bad. Why? Anything can be taken too far. Anything pushed too far can turn into tyranny and authoritarianism.
Historically the people pushing for the Inquisition thought they were fighting evil. It took them a while and a lot of deaths for some of them to maybe stop and think. “Wait. Are we the bad guys in this story?”
At least one of our games has six factions that all are authoritarian in one way or another. They also don’t like each other. It has races such as elves, goblins, humans, dwarves, etc. They often hate or at the very least dislike each other. That is called racism.
We have factions and situations where a role may be male dominated and even some where they may be female dominated. We try not to get caught up in whether we give equal representation to males and females. We may put a little effort into providing such opportunities if it makes sense to our setting and we have the time to create the systems and additional art assets to make that happen. Our goal though will be in making the game fun, and realizing our vision. Our vision does not involve anywhere trying to build fictional “safe spaces”.
We have factions that despise religions and the gods. We have different religious factions that do not get along. We have factions that defend nature. We have factions that don’t care about nature. We have factions that think slavery and cannibalism are acceptable. We have factions that want to stomp such factions out specifically for things such as that.
Are we writing about reality?
No. We simply are inspired by reality, history, and many other fictional tales.
In our company we don’t get offended by games. In fact, when we choose to be offended (for make no mistake it is a choice) we stop to think how important that thing is to our life and we react appropriately. If the thing that offended us is a word we will likely shrug it off and may make a mental note that we don’t want to associate with a person. That’s it. We won’t demand our politicians, celebrities, and mob of friends attack anyone for a word.
However, some of our fictional characters might actually just do that. That is exactly the type of action we think a bad guy might embrace.
You will often be free to be the bad guy in our games. That choice is yours. We completely understand the difference between reality and fiction. We can have imaginary journeys without thinking those journeys need to translate into our day to day life. We hope that you can do the same.
You’ve been warned. We hope you enjoy our games.
If you could make this into a meme or a sticker (something easily recognizable), it may become a selling point.
Bad guys are bad.... hmmmm
The Emperor has killed one million [helpless good guys] in concentration camps.... meh
The Emperor has misgendered an LGBTQ+ transexual person of color.... he needs to die!
:-p
If I ever get something close to getting out the door that this would work for I'll definitely do it.
Overall I think you make a lot of good points. However, I think you could make your warning much less verbose. I don't think you need to go into detail and discuss, or try to, every possible way people could be offended. I do actually believe that is a mistake, just like I believe the Bill of Rights was exactly the same mistake, because making an attempt to list important rights inevitably leaves some out, and all rights are essential.
I don't think you can prevent some people from taking offense, no matter what you say, and I think you will give some people grounds for taking offense if you make such a list and leave out whatever offends them.
This language specifically implies you have made most of your game male dominated, and that you didn't devote all of your time and effort to perfectly balance sexual domination. I promise that will offend someone. Just that, your disclaimer, not the balance itself, will offend someone. I'd leave that part out.
In fact, I'd try very hard to not mention any specific offensive things at all, for that very reason, but to simply say the real world reveals examples of many offensive things that contribute to the game by giving good guys things to oppose.
Thanks!
Edit: upon reflection, and re-reading, I'd leave out the following bit too:
You're almost begging to offend some people with that. I think you're trying to persuade and providing specific examples in that effort you find compelling. I think instead you need to realize that you can't persuade some people, and some people are going to be offended just because you exist. Really.
So, you should try to be as vague and general as possible, and not accuse people of being accusatory, but just tell them not to be offended, and if they can't avoid being offended, they should not play your game.
Haha. I'd agree with you if one thing were true.
That I actually care if they are offended or not.
Game Maker + Voluntaryist = a person that I want to follow and keep in touch with. Good luck on your projects!
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