Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 VR is Way Too Far
In my few years covering the gaming industry, there’s only been a handful of times when I’ve come across something that genuinely made me angry. I’m not talking about a release date being pushed or a game I wanted to love being a total flop either. I’m talking about a good reason to be pissed off and upset. The first time was when I came across a horrible magazine that attempted to appropriate gaming and female gamers in specific into nothing more than a skin mag. Gamer Girls Magazine was drivel and one hundred percent trash. As angry as it made me it wasn’t even a drop in the bucket in comparison to what Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 VR has me feeling. The developers, publishers and anyone else who has worked on this POS should damn well be ashamed of themselves.
When PlayStation VR hits the market it will be launching with this piece of trash in its library. In a recent video from Gamer.ne.jp it shows an active VR game mode that actually allows the player to ogle and harass female characters. It goes so far as allowing the player to virtually ‘touch’ the characters while they verbally protest and quite frankly, look downright uncomfortable. This isn’t scantily clad characters, that’s hardly worth being in an uproar over. This is violent and aggressive promotion of sexual assault.
We all know about Naughty America and their VR porn booth back at E3 but at least that acknowledges what it is, it’s porn. In the situation with DoA Xtreme 3 VR they’re trying to thinly veil the promotion of rape culture underneath a shoddy piece of entertainment. In a day and age where you’re seeing cases go to trial because privileged males don’t understand the meaning of consent, this is beyond what I would call a step backward. During the gameplay, you’ll notice Kasumi saying things like “I don’t like it,” and another word that directly translates to ‘bad’ which is often used to expressly deny permission. While the player continues to prod, the character pulls away looking beyond uncomfortable in the situation.
Now before people go and exclaim that this is just how Japan does things I’m going to go ahead and stop you right there. This isn’t an example of sexuality and Western culture being too uptight to handle it. This is a clear example of a man’s desire to overpower a woman regardless of whether or not she wants him to and regardless of culture, that is bullshit. Let’s clear something up too, I love boobs. I love being able to appreciate the female form. I am a red-blooded male who enjoys sitting down with the wife and watching a skin flick now and then… I am far from a prude. But when we’re trying to teach this generation’s young men the meaning of consent, and let’s be honest a ton of them apparently have a hard time understanding it, this is the most asinine and reckless thing I’ve ever seen from a developer.
When Hatred was originally pulled from Steam way back when I spoke up loudly about that being the wrong decision. While I didn’t appreciate the content I stood up for the creator’s right to artistically express their vision in the game. Despite all the controversy it ended up being a below average piece of crap but I defended their right to make it. This case is so different from that. Where the line is from allowing artistic expression to censorship I can’t say for certain. It’s a blurry line at best. What I do know is that this is way over that blurry line by a mile.
Koei Tecmo has long had a reputation of making games that push the boundaries of acceptable but it appears that they finally went too far. Jiggle physics, barely there costumes, nude mods; none of them are so bad to warrant any sort of outcry. Allowing a man to virtually power trip over a female while making her visibly uncomfortable? That is beyond deserving of an outcry. It’s like the developers are actively seeking their players to be sexually aroused. That deserves a more than hearty WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? Shame on you, Koei Tecmo. It seems like as a company you need to pull your heads out of your collective asses and wake up to the year 2016. It is not acceptable to create or promote this garbage.