"Hey Baby": The First-Person Shooter

Jun 02, 2010 17:28

Over at The Sexist, Amanda Hess wrote about a game called "Hey Baby".

Here's her thoughts on it. )

articles

Leave a comment

dejadrew June 4 2010, 19:08:10 UTC
Huh. I've got nothing against violent revenge fantasies. Heck, one of my favourite guilty pleasures after a bad day is re-reading the comic "Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist." But somehow the description and the trailer leaves me cold. I wonder why?

Maybe it's because the game looks so... bland and dull. There's no humour or irony. Your reaction is so over the top, but the world and the dudes are so neutral. It doesn't quite click. It's just real enough to be disturbing.

Maybe it's because you have to go through the process of being harassed first. And again, it's just real enough to be disturbing. And the game world is apparently filled with NOTHING but the street harassing men. I know that the point is that they're like monsters or zombies in this game and you have a gun, but... I catch myself getting a little nervous and short of breath, watching the vid, just the faintest edge of panic. Because in the real world, and again, this is just bland and real enough to be disturbing; if I were on this street and one of these guys approached me, I would be looking around for a crowd to vanish into, women or families preferred, and there's NO ONE THERE. Just these guys, and their allies, crowding in. Nowhere to run. No safe space.

Maybe it's because killing them doesn't seem to help or FIX anything. Even when you kill them, their TOMBSTONES have the creepy come-ons CARVED IN STONE. They keep coming on to you even in death.

If it was me, and I were the game designer? I'd looney-tunes it up a bit. Exaggerate the harassers, caricature them, so they were just as obnoxious, but more laughable. Make a wide variety of cartoon weaponry to deal with them. A bazooka that shoots rabid dobermans, a flamethrower with "feminine protection" scrawled on the side, I don't know. The tombstones could maybe have ironic comebacks to the come ons, like, I dunno, I wanna lick you all over guy's grave could say "now he's licking pavement" or something, or maybe just variants on "RIP Some Asshole, whenever-today, He Will Not Be Missed." And maybe populate the shops with other women cheering you on.

Reply

magna_carter June 5 2010, 09:26:57 UTC
I'd looney-tunes it up a bit. Exaggerate the harassers, caricature them, so they were just as obnoxious, but more laughable. Make a wide variety of cartoon weaponry to deal with them.
My first thought: Bloody tampons fired out of a huge cannon. The harassers die of shock.

Agreed about the women cheering you on :)

Reply

pinkpolarity June 15 2010, 07:01:35 UTC
Very late to the party, but I love, LOVE your ideas for how to make a better game like this. I'd play the heck out of that-- though I'd still like some story or at least a boss fight or two, something more than just trash mob trash mob trash mob.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up