The 15 Most Controversial Video Games (PICTURES)

Increasingly realistic and widespread, video games have repeatedly become embroiled in hot-button controversies over issues of sex, race, religion, politics, and violence.

Video game critics have decried the more explicit, violent games as everything from "Columbine simulators" to promoters of "religious bigotry and intolerance."

We've taken a look at the most controversial video games ever. Check them out below, and tell us which one you think was the most inappropriate.

 

Are there other controversial games that should have made our list? Send them to us.

Controversial Video Games

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Modern Warfare 2

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 included an optional mission called "No Russian" in which players joined Russian terrorists in an airport massacre. Players could choose to shoot into the crowd or not, or the level could be skipped entirely. Controversy ensued as many thought this was training players to commit mass murder and terrorism while the developers argued that their goal was to evoke the horror of terrorism. A scriptwriter for the game reportedly said the intent was to make the scene "upsetting, disturbing, but also something people would relate to

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 included an optional mission called "No Russian" in which players joined Russian terrorists in an airport massacre. Players could choose to shoot into the crowd or not, or the level could be skipped entirely.


Controversy ensued as many thought this was training players to commit mass murder and terrorism while the developers argued that their goal was to evoke the horror of terrorism. A scriptwriter for the game reportedly said the intent was to make the scene "upsetting, disturbing, but also something people would relate to

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Comments

[jaime556]

11:29 AM on 03/16/2010

Hey, where's Conkers Bad Fur day?

[cherylchay]

10:44 PM on 03/15/2010

So, let me get this straight.There was a big controversy about rap music, so big it went on the floor in congress and the senate against it for being too violent ,disrespectful to women calling them b@#$h and w@#$e, violence against police,making it law to put explicit labels on the covers.Okay.Now in the times that we are living in with so much violence that our children are exposed to where is the politicians that was so amped to jump on the wagon against rap,why not make your anger be known in this case, for this is far more graphic and denegrating to women against law enforcement than any rap that I ever heard. Isn't this a double standard? Oh, maybe it;s due to the fact that this is black and white.Rap was then,about the things that the young blacks saw everyday,police brutality, drive bys,drugs,etc. Now the youths today are being perpetuated and glorifying violence against law enforcement,women,blood and gore. But that's alright,right?Something just aint right 'bout this picture.

[Vincent Daniels]

12:50 AM on 03/17/2010

I gotta say I agree. Ice T had to face a congressional hearing for his song "Cop Killer". I have that album and all I heard is a song about getting fed up with police brutality and fighting back with force as lethal as the cops were inflicting at the time. Classical prey becomes the hunter stuff, really. It's prominent in even classical literature. But . . . oh dear . . . a non-white went in public and expressed the theme in an "angry" way. That can't be tolerated.

So a black guy makes a song about black people killing cops = congressional hearing on his album which forces him to remove the song.
A bunch of whites make a game about black people being killed by a cop = unchallenged and unchanged product available at any store where video game consoles are sold.

In one case you have an artist addressing an issue that is actually prevalent in black society and he gets dragged before congress. On the other you have a corporation making that issue into a form of interactive entertainment and covering it up with "zombies" (even though these zombies look a lot more like living people than in the other prequels of the RE series). Zombies don't exist. Abusive, burnt out cops do. And why are all the zombies in the game black? What? Did they forget that there are white people in Africa too? Yeah, I see a double standard waving.

[satyriasis]

05:22 PM on 03/15/2010

Fox New's smears and hit job against Mass Effect was sickening. Not surprising tho. They normally run with stories they gather from far right fringe web sites. Totally devoid of facts, as usual. The sex scene in Mass Effect was like a PG-13 movie. It was thoughtful too, with romance beforehand.

Sadly they intimidated Bioware into dumbing down the romance and sex in Mass Effect 2.

Why do the stupid have so much influence on society?

[eplebneesta]

01:40 PM on 03/15/2010

DooM:

Hell begins to invade the earth by sending demons and turning people into zombies.
The hero begins to fight zombies and demons to Save_The_World_From_Evil(tm). His fight takes him to hell, where he Slays_The_Devil and Saves_All_Of_Humanity.

Not a single human being is killed in the entire game. Only zombies and demons.

Sounds like a Good_Guy to me.
Only evil people should not like that story.

Saying things about something you know nothing about is a lie for it is not The_Truth.

And as all xians should know:

5:33 Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old time, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform unto the Lord your oaths:
5:34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
5:35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
5:36 Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
5:37 But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatsoever is more than these COMES OF EVIL.

Ie: Always_Tell_The_Truth.
`So Help Me God' --> Oath --> COMES OF EVIL.

Note: xians are faux christians.

E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
Blessed are the cheese makers.

[PhilosopherEight]

07:31 PM on 03/14/2010

I am confused by the arrogance of the question "which of these is inappropriate".

If we are speaking about adults using these games, it is clearly not our business to intrude ourselves into their personal sovereignty and decree what kind of game adults can/should play. Adults can do as they damn well please, and if that means playing games about shooting at bunnies or schoolchildren or the president, so be it. Bad taste is not illegal.

If we are speaking about children playing video games, that scenario is 100% under the control of the parents. They have sovereignty over the issue, totally. Here too, it is none of our business how parents choose to control content for their children. Being a crappy parent is not illegal. If it were, about half of all parents would be arrested for one thing or another they do wrong with their kids.

The issue of obscenity and virtual violence is all hypocrisy. Intead of working to fix the truly obscene probems that exist in the everyday world all around us, these insular, middle-class, bovine-minded Mood Police focus on fake problems because these fit their own abilities to correct problems, which are next to nil. But they feel so heroic and communally-protective by standing up to phantom problems, requiring coercion against people no more intransigent than mere children.

[asTer0id]

07:12 PM on 03/14/2010

Ugh, what a waste of time. Sure there's controversial games. There's also plenty of well made, entertaining, artistic, thought provoking ones. Picking the most controversial ones (and half of these aren't even controversies . Pulled a game because of a song from a well known artist that uses words from the Quran? please!) is like picking the worst and most controversial books and movies and saying lets damn all film making cause there's some bad ones.

1) A huge portion of games are made for adults. Adults own and play videogames these days, videogames aren't just for kids. Deal with it. If your kid has his hands on an M rated game, thats your fault, not the developer.
2) Any article that quotes Jack Thompson can't be classified as journalism. I'm ashamed for Huff post. Jack Thompson is a mess, a discredited, disbarred florida lawyer who has made an ass of himself many times by making over the top claims against the videogame industry (his case filings are even more entertaining).

[windyindie41]

12:56 PM on 03/14/2010

By George, leave my video games alone!

But I do absolutely agree with there being a video game ratings system. It only makes sense, as the majority of video games are made for and played by guys in their mid-30's and up to men in their 50's.

[LC Executioner]

05:49 PM on 03/14/2010

there is a game rating system in place but still elementary school kids end up with the worst games possible in their possession.

You're right about the ages of men who play. and that age will continue to climb with larger ranks as gamer generations age. The thing is that these modern games are more of interactive movies than just a game, IMO. For some games it's not the game play that can be shocking, but rather the content of the cut scenes. These games don't need to have PSAs for the kids mixed in between slinging smack, bashing skulls and incinerating Law Enforcement. This detracts from what would be otherwise be an excellent adult interactive movie / gaming experience. I say strongly enforce the rules we have now to prevent kids from buying adult games (by adult games I mean shooter, war, GTA type games, not the crazy pervert games listed in the article) and leave pressure off of the gaming industry.

No need to punish talented developers and responsible adult gamers for the actions of irresponsible parent who knowing by explicit games for their elementary aged children.

[MountPanic]

07:03 PM on 03/13/2010

So many of those controversies were total non-issues to anyone with a lick of sense.

The "Hot Coffee" nontroversy in GTA:SA only existed if you HACKED THE PROGRAMMING CODE. So the dumbsh!t kid whose grandmother freaked out, A) talked her into buying a game that was not age appropriate for him, which SHE then B) bought without informing herself, the HE C) violated the enduser agreement by hacking the gamecode which had that minigame disabled, and was D) stupid enough to let grandma see it -- to say nothing of the fact that the notorious violence of the series was less of a concern to these people than fully clothed dry-humping.

Bully was none of the things it was accused of being. It's essentially a teen comedy. The main character protects the weak and outcast children from, well... the overly entitled children of Republicans, pretty much.

There was no protest against Sony and LittleBigPlanet, except that by game nerds with a runaways sense of entitlement. Sony received ONE letter which merely brought to their attention the possible issue of cross-cultural hurt feelings which they CHOSE to respect and amend.

[MountPanic]

07:13 PM on 03/13/2010

Resident Evil 1 was set in a mansion, but no one ever worried that it was the declaration of a class war against the rich. Resident Evil 4 was set in a Spanish village, but no one was ever worried that it was the declaration of a culture war against the Spanish. And yet somehow setting RE5 in an African village is a call to genocide? I guess they were just building the whole series over a decade and 7 (or so) core titles just so they could sneak up on an opportunity to kill blacks.

The Mass Effect nontroversy was just pure invented idiocy. Simply wasn't true. There's no "there" there.

Six Days in Fallujah still hasn't been released. Based on all interviews and preview material out there, it actually looks like a really mature approach to narrative in a "war" game. Think "Hurt Locker" as opposed to "The Green Berets." Then again, I think it's an honest approach to war that scares certain parties.

[BklynBruzer]

07:50 AM on 03/15/2010

Yeah, seriously, the Mass Effect controversy is 100% bull. There's ONE sex scene near the end, maybe, and if you get there it's actually very tastefully done and meaningful for the player and the main character.

[MountPanic]

07:19 PM on 03/13/2010

Furthermore, "Ethnic Cleansing" is not a "real" game sold in stores or purchased by "real" gamers. It was made with an open source engine and sold directly from the developers, much as, say, a bootleg sticker of Calvin whizzing on a Star of David and distributed exclusively through the hate network. It's no more a blight on gaming than those copyright-breaking stickers should be seen in relation to Calvin & Hobbes.

[NoDubya]

06:54 PM on 03/13/2010

The majority of these games are AWESOME and VERY POPULAR and if it's true that they make people go psycho then we would have thousand of murders a day. I call BS on people who don't understand video games. My generation grew up with it.

[jsgaetano]

05:48 PM on 03/13/2010

The "Mass Effect" controversy proves once again why Fox and all conservatives should never, ever be listened to ever again- they are habitual and unrepentant liars.

[satyriasis]

05:11 PM on 03/15/2010

You're so right, jsg.

They lied and lied about Mass Effect. The sec scene was tasteful and comparable to a PG-13 movie.

Sadly these lunatics intimidated Bioware into dumbing down the romance and sex in Mass Effect 2.

[tploomis]

03:35 PM on 03/13/2010

I'm not a videogame player, but these rather twisted games do have an appeal for me. I'd like to give some of them a try. Acting morally reprehensible in an imaginary world is not the same thing as doing it in the real world. In the former, nobody actually gets hurt. So it is all really just a kind of internal fantasy going on, like a daydream or in some cases a nightmare. I'm not so unsure of my own self-control that I think playing a violent game would lead me to a greater likelihood of violence in real life. Do these games pose some sort of danger to people who are not very stable? The games could function as a release valve for anti-social impulses. It's better to shoot up a bunch of innocents in a videogame than do it in real life. Shooting innocent people in a videogame brings up the question for the player, "Am I capable of doing that in real life?" That's a question more people should be asking themselves, not less. If we know ourselves, we are better able to control our less acceptable impulses.

[Benjamin Johnson]

04:13 PM on 03/13/2010

I agree with you that it should work that way, but I think there are a few psychos out there for whom it has the inverse affect. And all it takes is a few psychos to do a lot of destruction. So the question that comes to my mind is, are those the exceptions? Does this work as a release valve for enough people who might otherwise be violent to offset the destruction of the few it pushes over the edge? Either way, censoring these games could be a slippery slope towards something else we are terrified of, so what can we do to minimize the negative effect of these without infringing on people's liberty to blow people up in a game?

[tploomis]

12:32 AM on 03/14/2010

A thoughtful response.

[topkatnc]

07:00 PM on 03/13/2010

Well I find it offensive...esp. the pictures of the women with big breast tied up...and I wish HP would take them down.....

[TheGripester]

02:26 PM on 03/13/2010

I think the overall theme is clear - certain games give gamers the license to enact their most antisocial urges with impunity, and reward them for greater and greater criminal acts.

What balances the equation is that those who really crave that excitement in order to feed their perversions are also usually too cowardly to actually enact their sick fantasies. So in the end it comes down to weakness of character in individuals rather than a growing threat to society.

I think I'll get my son a library card instead of an Xbox. No offense, gamers.

[NoDubya]

06:53 PM on 03/13/2010

Your son will grow up to be very rebellious. I guarantee.

[TheGripester]

09:35 PM on 03/13/2010

Good. There are many great acts of rebellion he can read about at the library, and more power to him.

[jesseholt]

02:20 PM on 03/13/2010

Avid gamer and parent chiming in: people make drugs, booze, and sell sex (pornography or prostitution). People buy the stuff. While most reasonable people would agree that these things are wrong, you can't deny their legality. At some point we have to call out the individuals who USE the products. I am a big time gamer. I play video games and blog about them. My son plays games but my wife and I strongly control the duration and type of games he plays. We're talking basic Mario here. I take FULL responsibility for what my son watches. I don't dare depend on companies or, God forbid, the government, to regulate my child's habits. That is for ME and my wife to do.

I grew up playing Mortal Kombat and all the other violent shooters (DOOM, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem) and I LOVED them. As an adult, I love GTA and all the other gratuitous games. Are they violent? Yes. But the social commentary is priceless to me. It gets me thinking about our society and, oddly enough, what I might could do to reverse some of these terrible phenomena. Rockstar and the other game makers are not evil, they just know what sells. If you don't like their games, don't buy them and encourage your friends to not buy them. Keep your kids away from them. But keep your laws off my games!

[CarlyHope]

12:08 PM on 03/13/2010

I played mortal kombat as a kid. I LOVED it. It was a normal healthy way to get out aggression. and it was fun,

[Wutangforever]

11:46 AM on 03/13/2010

I think we should have tighter free speech laws that bans these video games. We sanctify "freedom of speech" to the point that we allow our 10 year olds in photo-realistic detail to virtually rape and murder women. You can only imagine how realistic these games will become. Likely one day they will be indistinguishable from reality other than the knowledge that you are aware you are playing a game. Rating systems are not enough. The only way to protect children is through video game bans.

[drizzt396]

03:23 PM on 03/13/2010

In light of your sn I'm going to take a wild guess and say this was tongue-in-cheek...

[Renshai]

05:04 PM on 03/13/2010

"The only way to protect children is through video game bans."

Or perhaps you could try parenting... you know... telling your kid they can't play some of those games and explain why you find them inappropriate.