Tag Archives: Hitman: Absolution

Against Diluting Censorship

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Lana Polansky

Lana Polansky “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” -Soren Kierkegaard The past few weeks have been dogged by some rather unsavoury aspects of videogame subculture regarding rape culture and … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation , Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“I’m Not Offended”: The State of Discussion and Contagious Ideas

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Edcrab

by Edcrab Assassin-women in nun costumes, being killed. No, not a B-movie, I’m describing the Hitman trailer which most everyone has seen and rolled their eyes at. It didn’t “feel” Hitman. It was widely disparaged and derided, seen as laughable, sometimes seen as indicative of all that is wrong with gaming. I saw it as indicative of a marketing department that couldn’t feel Hitman on the feelingest day of their life with an electrified feeling machine, and I wondered whether that kind of violence against women in fetish wear is what the demographic longs for or whether it’s merely what they’re expected to long for according to the extensive research of ad agencies. Tycho thought it was ridiculous too. But he also felt similarly about the response to it, and as is so often the case with this strange beast called the internet, it prompted a discussion in kind. In Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged Child's Play , Diablo 3 , Dickwolves , , , Freedom of Speech , , , Penny Arcade , , Shattersnipe , | 13 Comments

Nuns with Guns: Hitman, Grindhouse, and Gamer Expectations

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Steven Sukkau

by Steven Sukkau I have a strong suspicion I may be a vile person. For the most part, I enjoyed the Hitman Absolution trailer, “Attack of the Saints”. I loaded up the video, consumed what I thought was a striking, if somewhat average piece of marketing media, and went about my day. Technically, the video is stunning. I actually made a double take, unsure if the trailer was live action. My favorite pieces of media have often come from Blur studios that routinely create artful marketing trailers of such quality that they outstrip the actual product represented. I love these things, and I assumed the Hitman trailer was created in the same vein. Then Twitter erupted. One of the major voices in this was Brendan Keogh wrote, who noted the “conflation of hypersexualisation and violence” in the trailer: “Violence against women in media is fine. It’s when it is conflated Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged , , E.T. , E3 , Faster , Grindhouse , , Killer Nun , Laslo Kovacs , Mike Vraney , Nude Nuns with Big Guns , Nunsploitation , Planet Terror , Pussycat! Kill! Kill! , Robert Rodriguez , Steven Spielberg , , The Defilers , The Notorious Daughters of Fanny Hill , | 4 Comments