Horror
I was perusing the forums and I came across a discussion about a certain particular post from last night. The post from last night was about adding a pregnant survivor.
Naturally I understand why the discussion was yeeted out of existence. But it got me thinking about how Dbd is a horror game. And horror movies are generally pretty boundary pushing as far as topics they got into (child killing, trauma, pregnant ladies dieing).
I'm curious on what everyone's thoughts are on why horror games generally won't let themselves do stuff like that. This game is rated M for adult players so I'm not sure why we wouldn't be able to explore more horrific things Id even argue that horror games are "Horror Lite" instead of true horror.
Disclaimer: I am not saying we should add a pregnant survivor I am more curious on the discussion related to horror movies doing unsettling things while horror games particularly Dbd generally don't go too crazy.
Comments
It depends on how its handled, I don't have a problem with John Kramers wife having a miscarriage cause its given the appropriate tragicness it deserves. Putting a pregnant lady in DBD just doesn't fit this games tone and can mentally hurt people.
For DbD, I'd say the reason the game never really goes that far beyond "Cartoon Violence" despite being Rated M is because of censorship in other countries.
I don't think BHVR wants DbD to get banned in China, or Australia, or wherever else if they can help it.
As for other games, they definitely do push boundaries.
Especially Indie titles that benefit more from shock publicity than they suffer.
There’s also a commercial reason why. Going out of the bounds of its current rating in certain regions could cause it to become banned in places that already have an established player base. Which of course would be bad.
I´m kinda torn on how to respond to this. If you were reading last night´s post you would have seen that people other than OP were pretty much grossed out by the idea. Only one person had a good joke on the matter.
As much as I think the reasoning behind starting this discussion is valid, I´d rather see the topic left untouched. Someone was genuinely hurt by the idea.
It has been mentioned that crossing certain lines would cause censorship issues in several regions, so there´s the legal aspect.
On the moral side it wouldn´t make much sense implementing something the players are disgusted by.
There are places on the internet for that kind of thing, DBD is not one of them.
Because DBD isn't a game looking to explore horrific themes or push the genre. No, at the end of the day it's a PvP game. I enjoy survival horror games and psychological thrillers, but DbD isn't a forum for 'exploration'. That would be for games like Layers of Fear or Fatal Frame series, where elements of horror and disgust are themes part and parcel to the narrative.
Having a pregnant woman serves ZERO narrative purpose, again for the reason that DBD is not a narrative driven game. There's no story progression, just two sides with objectives driving the match. Same goes for mentally or physically handicapped ppl, or children- adding characters like that reeks of explotation and fetish role play, and that's not what I signed up for.
I did cover this in my own thread, but basically horror is derived from fear and a combination of overexposure, and knowledge lessen the effect on the player.
Horror is best achieved with the unknown. You do not know what is going on, therefore your mind races with possibilities. You cannot figure out how to deal with the threat because you do not know the threat.
Fear of the unknown is the most effective because of it. And also why the Elder Beings from the Cthuhlu Mythos are so terrifying, with the fact that we cannot comprehend them.
Here's a great example in gameplay: I hear Hillbilly rev up his saw and scream across the map instantly, I now know everything I need to do to beat the killer. Stick to cover and don't get caught.
Ghostface doesn't interact with me for the first 4 minutes and 2 generators are complete. He hasn't stalked anyone enough for a ring, and because GF is a stealth killer, I haven't heard a TR. Now my mind goes "It isn't Freddy because no dream world, no Billy/Bubba no saw, no Demo no screaming........." and I still have about half the roster by the time I'm done but nothing on how they play or the perks they use.
Having a pregnant woman as a survivor is similar to having a mutant as your killer. It's more on the gross-out body-horror side of things than actual horror. Gore effects do not make a horror scene, which is why Slasher exists. SAW is true horror because you have that deep psychological element, where as F13 is just a dude killing teens.
Hope that helps!
Few reasons, main one being money. They dont want to get banned in other countries. Second reason is that we are living in an outraged society, if anything is even remotely offensive, people start crying about it.
While @PigMainClaudette might not be a fan of slasher or gore elements - I would really like to see more monstrous killers and less humanoid ones - something like a Xenomorph (Aliens) that injects a chest burster into a survivor as his power or more likely his Mori. Even a giant Broodmother type spider killer that attaches little spider sacs to a survivor and meets some type of condition like having them stationary for x amount of timeto make them emerge with a hundred little spiders that make the survivor scream in horror while stunned for a second. Things like that can be highly disturbing for a lot of people and still have unique possibly even fun gameplay implications
Oh, don't get me wrong. I LOVE a good bit of gore. It's just that for me, true horror is psychological. Or at least the best ones are.
I kept going with the SAW series because I loved the traps, and ignored the largely convoluted plots at the end of the series. It's just gore everywhere doesn't scare me.
I bet that guy's girlfriend got pregnant by another guy.
I'm gay, though. How would this be possible? I had written I think pregnant ladies bellies are cute and wanted a survivoir to dress in cute pregnancy clothes.
Anywho, I ❤️ this conversation!
Get outta here buttercake. We had enough of you last night.
youre talking about the same thing I was. Why should I leave???
Gaming in general has a stigma of being villified for corrupting the youth or whatever. But then again Dungeons and Dragons was too for being Satanic when it was just math nerds making up stories.
So really it's more about reputation and good taste/socially acceptable horror. That's why we don't see bikinis (as much as i'd like to see that) or truly despicable acts that cross the line.
Lel. To be blunt about my opinion first so you understand where I stand:
This game is about serial killers brutally killing/sacrificing innocent people to a spider god over and over. It's about as high tier violent as you can get and on the same level of violence as Team Fortress 2 if you think about the gore factor.
However this is like, the cuddliest community always getting upset over bad words and people being toxic. They don't want *huntress slams her axe into a survivors skull* anyone to be mean or see anyone get hurt.
Okay with that out of the way...
I think a preggy survivor skin could work but it would have major game implications on how survivors interact with each other in the fog. iirc a long time ago in a Q&A it was actually asked about a baby in the game and they said it would die. A lot. Obviously a lot of countries don't like seeing kids killed in video games so you get weird things like the immortal children of Skyrim etc.
Women don't show for a few months so how do you not know all the survivors are already pregnant? How do you not know the Huntress isn't pregnant, singing her lullaby to her unborn child? It's your game, imagine it how you want to.
I'd be okay with it if the game had a reason for it. Like the character has a solid background and just happens to be in her 4th month.
Definitely not on the top of the agenda by any means, but if they did add a carrying survivor I'd probably just shrug and hope she has good cosmetics. Same as I do with every character really.
What if Felix pregnant girlfriend was brought in? Like how Steve and Nancy are together?
Like the thing is there is a huge boundry that really shoudn't be broken when it comes down to that certain subject. Like in outlast 2, your wife bares a child you think is real but really isn't and she dies from the miscarriage, so that is a very damaging aspect of that boundary
It'd be a waste. The whole Felix vs Talbot chapter is about ambition getting the better of you. You'd probably be looking at something like lust vs love. A succubus killer vs. a housewife tbh.