All The Tropes

Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Overshadowed by Controversy (view source)

Revision as of 17:19, 5 July 2020

111 bytes added ,  3 years ago
no edit summary
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
Line 95:
* While ''[[Minecraft]]'' drew in players of all ages due to its sandbox-style world creation and its blocky, pixelated aesthetic, its creator, Markus "Notch" Persson, became embroiled in a number of controversial statements about feminism and "white privilege", leading to accusations of him being an alt-right sympathiser. This led to the parodic "Hatsune Miku created ''Minecraft''" meme by fans of the game who sought to distance themselves from Notch and his ideologies. Similarly, series owner [[Microsoft]] [[Unperson|removed]] most if not all references to him from the games as a result of the controversy.
* ''[[JFK: Reloaded]]'', while marketed as an accurate recreation of the [[Who Shot JFK?|Kennedy assassination]] according to the Warren Commission's findings, was harshly criticised as depicting the assassination in a video game setting was viewed to be in extremely poor taste. Late Senator Ted Kennedy condemned the game as "despicable", and Joe Lieberman, who also happened to have co-led the Senate hearings which formed the basis of the [[Media Classifications|ESRB]], "was sickened by the game."
* ''The Guy Game'' would've been yet another run-of-the-mill trivia quiz-slash-puzzle game with a [[Fanservice]] theme taking the form of a live-action [[Full Motion Video]] game show, where players are treated to bare-breasted women should they givecomplete aany correctof the answerminigames. There was just one problem though: one of the women in the game going by the name Diane filed suit and alleged that she was unaware that her footage would be used in a video game, and she was [[Ephebophile|seventeen]] when the footage was taken, giving it the dubious distinction of being ''the only piece of underage pornography to be licensed for home consoles.'' Unsurprisingly, the game was pulled from shelves as it technically counts as [[Paedo Hunt|child porn]] (given the latter, it is presumed that all unsold copies and masters were destroyed to avoid any legal repercussions over the possession of illegal pornography as well as personality rights issues), though Topheavy Studios eventually re-released ''The Guy Game'' as an interactive DVD under the subtitle ''Game Over'' with the offending footage removed and replaced with other models.
* The vulgar humour and adult themes in [[Acclaim]]'s ''BMX XXX'' was universally viewed as one of the worst if not the worst gimmicks to grace a sports game. It was said that Acclaim somehow had the brilliant idea of having [[Z-Axis]] [[Executive Meddling|turn]] what was going to be an extremely subpar game [[Sex Sells|into a raunchy sex comedy]], breasts, babes and all, in a vain and puerile effort to drum up publicity and make up for the lacklustre gameplay, likely under the impression that immature men would grab a copy and play it for the smut regardless of the game's actual quality. The late extreme sports athlete Dave Mirra, whose namesake video game series formed the basis for ''BMX XXX'', balked at the decision and sued Acclaim for the use of his name and likeness, forcing Acclaim to release the game without the Dave Mirra branding. Sony also forced Acclaim to censor the PS2 release as they "didn't feel that the topless nudity fundamentally added to the gameplay experience." The obscenity controversy and negative reception towards ''BMX XXX'' eventually contributed to Acclaim's downfall and bankruptcy.
* On top of recent entries in the ''[[NBA 2K]]'' series being peppered with increasingly pervasive monetization schemes like [[Loot Boxes]], ''NBA 2K20'' was condemned and ridiculed by gaming circles for its blatant and tasteless use of casino gambling mechanics in a game rated for players ''as young as three years old''. The pre-release trailer<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MQ1ZMZ-l4 NBA 2K20: MyTEAM]</ref> was savaged for its in-your-face promotion of gambling towards youths, and doubts were thus cast towards the integrity of ratings organisations ESRB and PEGI for giving such a dubiously low age rating, as well as video game journalists whose praise of the game was seen as dubiousquestionable and myopic. Alongside the likes of ''[[Star Wars: Battlefront (series)|Star Wars Battlefront II]]'', ''2K20'' and many others was seen as representative of the unabashed greed and avarice by corporate video game developers as well as ''laissez-faire'' capitalism in general.
* ''[[Star Wars: Battlefront (series)|Star Wars: Battlefront II]]'' garnered the attention of legislators over its use of loot box mechanics and prompted ''Star Wars'' series owner [[Disney]] to force EA into toning down the use of microtransactions by removing the lootbox mechanic in favour of paid cosmetic items.
* Speaking of controversies inon journalistic integrity and ethics, ''[[Driver 3]]'' aka ''DRIV3R'' became embroiled in a review scandal called "[[Scandalgate|DRIV3Rgate]]" where two outlets operated by Future plc, ''PSM2'' and ''Xbox World'', gave the game 9/10 scores despite it especially the PC version having been saddled with numerous technical issues, leading to accusations of bribery and corruption through review-fixing on part of Atari and Future plc. Rubbing salt in the wound was that of a controversial thread on the GamesRadar forums, also owned by Future, being filled to the brim with posts critical of the dubious reviews. Posts defending ''DRIV3R'' and Future followed suit, but this was later outed as a desperate act of [[Astroturfing|astroturfing]] by Babel Media, a marketing company hired by Atari to generate fake praise, when the questionable posts were traced to them by the forum moderators. The controversy spilled over to [[Wikipedia]] several years later, when doubts over the scandal's notability were made as noted by YouTuber Larry Bundy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEQOv2g0JA The Driv3rGate Scandal: The Full Story (DriverGate)]</ref> It also did not help that some of the revisions on the ''DRIV3R'' article were made by an anonymous user who claimed to be an ex-Future employee who maintained that the scandal [[Blatant Lies|never took place]] and any reviews made on ''PSM2'' and ''Xbox World'' were true.
* Despite receiving critical acclaim from mainstream gaming press, ''[[The Last of Us Part II]]'' was [[Critical Dissonance|savaged]] by a number of gaming circles for its inclusion of LGBTQ+ content and themes, branding it a "[[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|social justice warrior]]" or a "woke" game as some perceive it as [[Anvilicious|pervasive agenda-pushing]] not unlike films featuring female, LGBT and racially diverse cast members. Kotaku's Riley MacLeod saw the controversy as a weak point with Metacritic's aggregation system, where he stated that the site "fails to take into account the diverse critical opinions of the game", instead focusing on the overall scores and seemingly padding it out to make the game appear better than it is, than the actual content of the review and provide a more even assessment of the game's critical both in the eyes of the press and the gaming public. It also didn't help that, like what happened with the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' remake, the game's cast members were unfairly harassed and trolled by self-styled "edgelords" who take offense at anything remotely "diverse" or "feminist". Considering the disconcertingly divisive sociopolitical atmosphere in the United States in this day and age, the homophobic and anti-feminist sentiment thrown at ''The Last of Us Part II'' is unsurprising.
** The other part of the controversy was due to leaks of the game revealing that one of the main characters of the first game got [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|a very ignominious death at the hands of the new playable character]], while the other remaining characters received extreme [[Character Derailment]] compared with their previous characterization (and the actual release of the game revealing that the game has a bleak [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] story–with a lot of [[Shoot the Dog|figurative and literal dog shooting]]–with a [[Bittersweet Ending]] very high in the bitter that gave little emotional resolution). The leaks forced a definite release date of the game after some years in [[Development Hell]], and the ensuing takedowns of leaks and early critics only irritated gamers that were already angry with both Sony and Naughty Dog. The above was not helped by the heads of the project responding to their harassment by calling any critics that didn't like the game "regressive" and "misogynists", [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|whenever they actually were or not]].
Line 106:
* ''[[Coonskin]]'', [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s satirical [[Blaxploitation]] reimagining of the Uncle Remus tales. The Rev. Al Sharpton famously criticized the film without even seeing it, saying, "I don't got to see shit; I can smell shit!"
* ''[[Any Bonds Today?]]'', a 1942 propaganda film commissioned by the United States Department of the Treasury to Warner Bros., would later be known for its [[Values Dissonance]] in the form of Bugs Bunny donning a blackface than the film encouraging Americans at the time to buy war bonds and contribute to the Allied military effort.
* Media coverage of the 2019 Spanish animated feature ''[[Elcano & Magallanes: First Trip Around the World]]'' was skewed more towards the outrage it generated when Filipinos took umbrage over its [[Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle|depiction]] of [[Lapu-Lapu]] and the Battle of Mactan. [[Misplaced Nationalism]] ensued when Filipinos, whose elementary school textbook knowledge of their country's history is [[The Theme Park Version|a little distorted]] to say the least, took to social media and bashed the living daylights out of the film, the catch being that most of the outrage came from those who [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|haven't even watched the whole film yet]] and were motivated more by [[Serious Business|blind patriotism]] and the [[GIFT|typical keyboard-warrior mentality]] than sincere and level-headed perception of history. Said Filipinos are under the impression that Lapu-Lapu fought for the Philippines as a whole as the first to resist colonial rule, something [[Rodrigo Duterte]] played up and over-hyped in a statement; historians and scholars disagree with this, as the Philippines as we know it is a relatively recent concept, and the archipelago was at the time made up of mostly unconnected tribal polities who waged wars against each other for whatever reason. Another thing was that Magellan and his posse weren't necessarily plotting to conquer any land, and were more into trading spices than anything else. Magellan did have chieftain Rajah Humabon and his consort Humamay converted to Catholicism, but other than that, it was mostly a trade expedition. It wasn't until 1565 when King Philip II spearheaded the conquest of the Philippines through a Spanish expedition of five hundred men led by Miguel López de Legazpi. To top it all off, a Rappler columnist bluntly pointed out<ref>[https://www.rappler.com/views/imho/244538-anger-toward-elcano-magellan-film-unjustified The anger toward the ‘Elcano & Magellan’ film is unjustified]</ref> the hypocrisy in an editorial where he noted how the producers of the 2013 religious historical drama ''[[Pedro Calungsod: Batang Martir]]'' had no qualms about portraying the Chamorro people as barbaric savages who slayed Calungsod for his missionary work–the film was universally praised in the Philippines, but was unsurprisingly panned by the Chamorros in Guam.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has an In-Universe example with Russ Meyers Sr., the creator of Itchy and Scratchy (well, sort of). While most regard him as a beloved cartoonist, (often portrayed as this reality's equivalent of [[Walt Disney]]) he was also criticized for a controversial cartoon called "Nazi Supermen are Our Superiors". Oh, and as revealed in one episode, [[Plagiarism in Fiction| he was a plagiarist.]]
* John Lasseter was known for directing pioneering works such as ''[[Toy Story]]'', ''[[A Bug's Life]]'' and ''[[Cars]]'' among others, but his reputation as an influential animator went down the drain when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced accusing him of "grabbing, kissing, [and] making comments about physical attributes" towards female colleagues, and that Pixar had minders reminding Lasseter to lay off on his perversions. In fairness, he did more or less admit to his "missteps", but still it left a sour taste on those who grew up with the films he directed. The controversy with Lasseter may have also accounted for the removal of a mock blooper scene in recent home media releases of ''[[Toy Story 2]]'' that featured the Prospector suggestively enticing a pair of [[Barbie]] dolls with a role in ''[[Toy Story 3]]''.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1798709"