Fact check: Post Title: [Video Games] “My Name Is Not Important. What Is Important Is What I Am Going To Do”: Hatred, Creative Freedom, and Video Game Violence Ignite Controversy Post Content: Violent video games: a debate as old as…well [when players were able to run over stick figures](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/rh1jod/video_games_death_race_lights_a_fire_storm_over/) in the arcades I guess. I’m sure most people have run into the question “do violent video games cause violence” at some point, and it’s a conversation that probably won’t go away for the foreseeable future. But even if gaming has become a much more established form of entertainment today, there are still plenty of titles that manage to create a storm of controversy online. Such is the case with [*Hatred*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatred_(video_game)), a 2015 shooter that not only sparked drama, but reveled in it. **One Nation, Under Death. I Am Genocide.** Again, violence in gaming is not exactly an uncommon issue. And even a game entirely built on pure carnage isn’t new either: one look at titles like *Postal* or *Manhunt* already showed there is definitely an audience and profit to be found in such a concept. But when Hatred suddenly released its [first trailer in October 2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytdEYapPXdY), audiences were…split to say the least. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly suggest you take a look. But the “protagonist’s” opening speech certainly sets the tone. >My name is not important. What is important is what I'm going to do... I just fuckin' hate this world. And the human worms feasting on its carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred and I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving. And I will put in the grave as many as I can. It's time for me to kill and it's time for me to die. After our gun fanatic main character states his goals rather plainly, he immediately begins slaughtering a punch of civilians in his path. Police are being executed, people are begging for their lives, buildings are exploding. All in a sea of black, white, and red digital violence. Very few games have embraced violence like this game did in just two minutes of footage. And the developers, Destructive Creations, certainly got the massive response (and backlash) they were hoping for as Youtubers, gamers, and the media raced to talk, debate, and criticize the game. Some merely critiqued the trailer at an advertising level, [believing the shock factor the developers likely intended](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/17/6994691/hatred-trailer-sad) was cliche and ineffective. Continuing the tired old trends of shoving violence in the player’s face to sell copies rather than establishing its own unique identity. But plenty of others were quick to discuss the concept of the game itself. [Tacky at best and almost disgusting](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/16/6988687/the-worst-trailer-of-the-year-revels-in-slaughtering-innocents) at worst. And when the developers boasted that *Hatred* was [a response to political correctness](https://www.pcmag.com/news/trailer-for-disturbing-mass-murder-game-hatred-stirs-controversy) in the gaming industry, forcing the player to confront such large-scale violence and misanthropy directly, it raised a lot of eyebrows. That’s not to say that the reception was all negative, the developers [noted in an interview](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/17/6994921/hatred-the-polygon-interview) discussing the game that they have received plenty of support. At the end of the day, it was a game many wanted to play, based on a concept that has often been explored in the gaming space before. How wrong was it for the developers to continue really? >\[CEO Jarosław Zieliński\]: "Like many of us, I grew up playing all kind of games. More or less violent. And I'm still just a regular guy like millions of other gamers in the world. But what I observe these days are games, that used to be considered a rebellious medium, losing that factor and just trying to fit in the nice and sweet pop-culture. So the spark that was present in *Doom, Kingpin* or *Postal* was lost somewhere in the process. Those games had no limits. So we've decided to rebel against this overall trend and go back to the roots. Create a game, that we want to play and not the one that will try to please anybody's expectations. By the way, I consider 'No Russian' one of the best moments in the whole Call of Duty series!" \[**Editor's Note**: This is a notorious scene in *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* in which the player is asked to kill innocent people in an airport, in pursuit of enemies.\] **I Can Feel Their Pain, Their Suffering Flooding Through My Veins** Plenty more controversy would come in the following months as *Hatred* threw itself into the fire online and [on local news](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0SfDadDzs). Epic Games immediately began distancing themself from the developers, quickly asking them to [drop their name and logo](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/16/6989459/hatred-epic-games-unreal-engine) from the trailer even though the developers used their Unreal 4 engine. While the [developers were more than happy to do it](https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-16-epic-requests-its-logo-be-removed-from-civilian-massacring-game-hatred), they were quickly distracted when it was revealed that several of them liked and supposedly endorsed [far right groups and Neo-Nazi paraphanelia](https://fucknovideogames.tumblr.com/post/100204212288/hatred-is-a-genocide-simulator-developed-by-neo-nazis), including tatoos of symbols used by hate groups. The company would immediately decry such accusations, CEO Jaroslaw Zielinski arguing he only followed [such groups for news](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/20/7020277/ceo-behind-hatred-neo-nazi-anti-islamic-responds) and several developers stating their [opposition and negative history with Nazism](https://www.polygon.com/2014/10/21/7028531/hatred-lashes-out-in-blog-post-thanks-press-for-attention). Still, for many, this only gave further credence to the backlash facing the company. >"My grand-grand father was killed by Gestapo," writes Zielinski. "Some members of my family were fighting against nazi occupation in the Polish underground army called 'Armia Krajowa'. My forefathers suffered greatly because of totalitarian regimes, so who the fuck would I be if I'd truly support any of Nazi activists? The hateful title I'm working on (where virtual character hates virtual characters), doesn't have any connection to what I truly believe and think, there is a real-life outside, you know? Maybe you should try it? I will never ever again respond to any of those accusations, this is my ultimate statement." Even as this debate was raging, with [many in depth posts](https://www.polygon.com/2014/12/18/7417045/hatred-free-speech-and-one-developers-connections-with-polands-far) discussing the history of such groups and what the developer’s association meant, there were even bigger flames to put out. Primarily when Hatred was [temporarily removed from the Steam Greenlight page](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/12/15/controversial-video-game-hatred-pulled-from-steam-greenlight/) (an old system Valve implemented for players to vote for games to appear on the store). The fate of the game would be left in limbo until it was subsequently brought back not even 24 hours later, with CEO Gabe Newell himself stepping in to reverse the decision [with a simple email](https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-15-controversial-mass-murdering-game-hatred-appears-on-steam-greenlight). >\[Newell\]: “Yesterday I heard that we were taking Hatred down from Greenlight. Since I wasn't up to speed, I asked around internally to find out why we had done that. It turns out that it wasn't a good decision, and we'll be putting Hatred back up. My apologies to you and your team. Steam is about creating tools for content creators and customers.” By this point, the game had amassed a sizable amount of followers. Whether because of the controversy, or not, it had climbed up in popularity among users and was amassing a hefty amount of support on Greenlight. And even ignoring the actual…quality of the game, gamers were happy [Steam wasn’t “babysitting” the store](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2pj48o/hatred_is_back_on_steam_greenlight/). Hatred, at the end of the day, is a video game and one that many felt they should be given the option to experience. And if it really was all just a marketing scheme to attract attention, well it was clearly working. Fans would slowly begin pouring in to await what looked like an interesting project at the very worst, and not even an [Adults Only rating from the ESRB](https://www.polygon.com/2015/1/16/7557639/hatred-esrb-ao-rating) could stop the relative hype around it. Brave, anti-PC art project or shameless, blood hungry cash grab, gamers would just have to wait until June 2015 to [experience the developer’s vision](https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gkvgx/an-interview-with-the-makers-of-hatred-2015s-most-controversial-game-783-58477f773c665001fe3bfdfe). >Frankly, we have no idea why it was pulled down. The message we've got was kind of, "No because no." But it seems that almighty[ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabe_Newell)Gabe Newell reminded everyone what Steam is about – it is about creating tools for content creators and customers. It directly means that he didn't accept the previous decision of Valve representatives. *Hatred*, like any game, has a right to exist, and it is up to customers if they will buy it or not. **So…The Time Has Come. Rahahahahaha!** Despite one last little dent before the game was released, with [Twitch banning all Adults Only games from streaming](https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/05/28/twitch-bans-adults-only-game-streaming-days-before-hatred-release/?sh=8da7b2d4a5a3), the game would go on to see its [June 1 release date](https://store.steampowered.com/app/341940/Hatred/). And once all the dust settled, the reaction was…okay. *Hatred* certainly wasn’t the worst game in existence, and was a competent enough shooter for the most part. It was worthwhile enough to be [a top seller upon launch at the least](https://www.gamezone.com/news/despite-controversy-hatred-is-a-steam-top-seller-3417142/). The explosions whenever someone so much as looked at a building wrong were certainly fun. But critics [definitely didn’t warm up](https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/hatred) to the game’s tacky persona. And with a short campaign, a lack of substance, unspectacular gun play, and a pretty tacked on story (though again, I [recommend watching the cutscenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HfPAqRq_vo) if you want to hear an anonymous actor really hamming up their role as a psychopath), many didn’t see [much of a reason to check it out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/37pxvv/wtf_is_hatred_strong_language/) once the hype quickly faded. The game seems to have done fine at least, and the development studio is still around. But this was clearly not the ground breaking, ultra violent game many expected. Just another mediocre game in a market flooded with perfectly acceptable if not inspiring projects. If this was supposed to be the successor to games like *Postal*, bringing unhinged violence to a new generation, [it was certainly a disappointment](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/29/hatred-gaming-controversy). >But really, Hatred is just a silly shooting game that seeks to tap dance between self-deprecating parody and pseudo-anarchic posturing so that it captures all sections, moods and arguing positions of its target demographic. Postal was here 18 years ago, Carmageddon before that, Death Race before that, all hoping to draw the same idolatrous response from the same sorts of alienated adolescents feeling frustrated, isolated and powerless at the world. Unlike Rockstar’s most controversial games, Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto, it has no obvious sense of cultural guile, no clear determination to explore the concept of player culpability. It’s just a game where you kill people. **Aftermath** *Hatred* has pretty much faded in the memory of most gamers around for its release. While a [small community still seems to remain](https://steamcharts.com/app/341940#All) according to player counts, most probably only remember that insane trailer popping up out of nowhere. Even a later comic book ([which the site seems to have been taken down for](https://destructivecreations.com/news/59-hatred-is-back-with-subscribe-or-die-a-spin-off-comic-book-story.html)) disappeared as quickly as it went.The developers themselves have [certainly moved on to bigger things](https://www.pcgamesn.com/ancestors-legacy/ancestors-legacy-rts-strategy-medieval-controversy-hatred), smartly leaving the game behind once the controversy died down. To this day they’re still around making new projects, and that’s a lot better than what many small companies can say. There is at least [a future port for Switch fans](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/04/controversial_adults_only_murder_simulator_hatred_is_coming_to_nintendo_switch) apparently being worked on. Though who knows what’s going on with that project following nearly two years of silence, not to mention the ban on Adults Only games on the platform. As for the question of video game violence, well that’ll likely come up once again in the future. *Hatred* was far from the first game to raise questions of what games are allowed to be and what vendors are allowed to sell, and it certainly won’t be the last. Original Reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/6HT6gqd18R