Games or Movies that have hostility or contempt for the viewers/players?

[bosskbot]

Does anybody have an example of this?

 

[MasterEn]

probably anything that came out in or after 2015.
i don't have anything specific off the top of my head to list.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I always thought that the graphic adventure Tequila & Boom-Boom was made in such a way that the player was never intended to enjoy it. Even the ending spits on everything it had you do, no matter how nonsensical, preventable or annoying.

Not sure this counts, but it was the first thing that came to mind upon reading the title.

 

[Mago]

Someones probably gonna say Spec Ops the Line. I haven't played it but I know of its reputation for seemingly shaming the player. If thats the intention or not is a whole other debate.

 

[Glimbo]

Desert Bus and Takeshi's challenge

 

[Octopus]

I think there's some in MGS4. Kojima had stated that he wanted Snake's story to finish after the first MGS, but kept feeling pressure to continue the story and specifically Solid Snake (https://www.psu.com/news/hideo-kojima-feeling-the-pressure-to-continue-mgs/, this is all I could find with a quick search of the top of my head but there's definitely way more where he says this sentiment, and specifically pre-MGS4 release; I think I remember him cleanly stating that in an EGM preview of 3 even). I think this constant pressure to keep SS going really influenced MGS4, given that the last time you saw him in 2 he was an apparently perfectly normal and healthy enough clone, then MGS4 opens and it's like "no, he's actually really old now and Meryll hates him and FOXHOUND disbanded and he lives in a tanker now with his only friend Otacon" and sometimes it comes off as a little mean spirited. My little headcannon is that he kept getting roped into continuing Solid Snake's story by fan pressure, and so finally finished it with a really kinda bleak ending of the character out of a little bit of spite. I don't think that MGS4 is 100% this, but has some elements in it maybe.

 

[ATenderLad]

Desert Bus and Takeshi's challenge

Damn, Desert Bus is the correct answer, no ones doing better than this. Penn and Teller *hate* you.

 

[Antilocal123]

Funger, because fuck you for thinking you finally got anywhere.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Obviously Drakengard 1.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

I'd say most games which have "isn't this ironic" kind of writing aka millennial writing.

This video puts it better than i could ever:

Also, umm, Lester The Unlikely i think is funny, but it was making fun of the nerds who would play it at the time.

Do we count extremely condescending tutorials? Cause most modern games got that.

 

[RustySK]

Funny Games.
An Austrian horror (or maybe thiller?) film from 1997. It also got an American remake at some point, as is dictated by law, but I never saw that one. I'm sure it sucks as per usual though.

It's a deconstruction of the Slasher film genre that deeply, deeply despises not just the Slasher film genre, but also fans of Slasher films and wants you to know that.
As a fan of Slasher films, it's a good watch - intentionally irritating and purposefully smug. Rare combination.

 

[Mago]

I'd say most games which have "isn't this ironic" kind of writing aka millennial writing.

This video puts it better than i could ever:

Also, umm, Lester The Unlikely i think is funny, but it was making fun of the nerds who would play it at the time.

Isn't the point of Lester the unlikely that he starts off a coward but becomes bolder and more courageous as the game goes on? Interesting concept even if not the best execution.

Post automatically merged: Mar 3, 2025

Funny Games.
An Austrian horror film from 1997. It also got an American remake at some point, as is dictated by law, but I never saw that one.

It's a deconstruction of the Slasher film genre the deeply, deeply despises not just the Slasher film genre, but also fans of Slasher films and wants you to know that. As a fan of Slasher films, it's a good watch - intentionally irritating and purposefully smug. Rare combination.

I'm probably the one person who just found this film funny lol.

 

[RustySK]

I'm probably the one person who just found this film funny lol.

Nah, I can totally understand that - it depends on how well the base idea clicks for you, I think. And how irritating you find patronization.
I'm also sure it lost a lot of its edge at this point simply because people have become far more desensitized to violence and cruelty in entertainment than they were in 1997. That's just something you can never walk back.

 

[MasterEn]

Damn, Desert Bus is the correct answer, no ones doing better than this. Penn and Teller *hate* you.

i heard a bit about the backstory behind this. it's not hate towards the player. it's hate towards the people saying that video games cause violence and make people into selfish, violent criminals.
it's supposed to be a middle finger to the pearl clutching, rear mongering asshats who always say: "Oh, won't someone please think of the children!!"

 

[Bakuma1997]

THE one

 

[Deleted member 99901]

Every new version of 7 Days to Die. "No fun allowed, you stupid gamers" ethos. If the players are enjoying anything, we'll take it away and replace it with tedium and grind. ^_^

 

[Graw]

I don't know if it's intentional hostility but Metroid Fusion feels like it's made as a big fuck you to Super Metroid fans. Adam in particular feels like he exists just to piss off players.

Portal's pretty antagonistic while you play it. The robot voice thing insults you the whole game.

A lot of old adventure games feel like they hate you. Shadowgate constantly wants to kill you and then laugh at you for clicking on pretty much anything. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy actively fucks with you by letting you play the game for quite a while after you've already unknowingly failed and never actually let's you know you've failed. You just reach a point where you can't continue. There's a bunch of ways this can happen.

 

[Bonkers225]

Mass Effect Andromeda

 

[Wechseln]

Etrian Odyssey. Still trying to beat it tho.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I think there's some in MGS4. Kojima had stated that he wanted Snake's story to finish after the first MGS, but kept feeling pressure to continue the story and specifically Solid Snake (https://www.psu.com/news/hideo-kojima-feeling-the-pressure-to-continue-mgs/, this is all I could find with a quick search of the top of my head but there's definitely way more where he says this sentiment, and specifically pre-MGS4 release; I think I remember him cleanly stating that in an EGM preview of 3 even). I think this constant pressure to keep SS going really influenced MGS4, given that the last time you saw him in 2 he was an apparently perfectly normal and healthy enough clone, then MGS4 opens and it's like "no, he's actually really old now and Meryll hates him and FOXHOUND disbanded and he lives in a tanker now with his only friend Otacon" and sometimes it comes off as a little mean spirited. My little headcannon is that he kept getting roped into continuing Solid Snake's story by fan pressure, and so finally finished it with a really kinda bleak ending of the character out of a little bit of spite. I don't think that MGS4 is 100% this, but has some elements in it maybe.

I totally get this. MGS 4 and V felt like they're stories were made out of spite for the players that pigeonholed him into making more MGS games. You like the character of Solid Snake? He's now a feeble old man who has nothing to offer anyone else and is hated by the people who he sacrificed every for, who has just the embrace of death to look forward to.

You want to see Big Boss break bad and see him becoming the monster he is in Metal Gear 1 & 2? Too bad,

Spoiler: SPOILER1

You get stuck playing as a body double who was brainwashed into believing he was Big Boss and somehow can do everything the original can, showing devaluing BB as the ultimate solider the games made him out to be.

. You don't learn anything about how Big Boss made his bones internationally and get the respect of desperate groups of people, or his decent into villainy. The only thing you learn is that

Spoiler: SPOILER 2

Kojima wrote his way out of the corner of Big Boss an enemy of the state in Peace Walker by having a body double take over being Big Boss and somehow Jack steals his identity, rejoins the US Army and get the 'Big Boss' title, even though everything in the past games points to the 'Big Boss' title only being given to one guy in history.

.

Hell, it seems like Kojima went out of his way to obsolve all of the major baddies of their crimes

Spoiler: SPOILER 3

Like Major Zero being behind the Patriots, instead being the responsibility of a stupid computer with no agency

Kojima gets away with infuriating story decisions all the time.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

I think there's some in MGS4. Kojima had stated that he wanted Snake's story to finish after the first MGS, but kept feeling pressure to continue the story and specifically Solid Snake (https://www.psu.com/news/hideo-kojima-feeling-the-pressure-to-continue-mgs/, this is all I could find with a quick search of the top of my head but there's definitely way more where he says this sentiment, and specifically pre-MGS4 release; I think I remember him cleanly stating that in an EGM preview of 3 even). I think this constant pressure to keep SS going really influenced MGS4, given that the last time you saw him in 2 he was an apparently perfectly normal and healthy enough clone, then MGS4 opens and it's like "no, he's actually really old now and Meryll hates him and FOXHOUND disbanded and he lives in a tanker now with his only friend Otacon" and sometimes it comes off as a little mean spirited. My little headcannon is that he kept getting roped into continuing Solid Snake's story by fan pressure, and so finally finished it with a really kinda bleak ending of the character out of a little bit of spite. I don't think that MGS4 is 100% this, but has some elements in it maybe.

Kojima was the first name that came to mind. He was one of my favorite game makers but after MGS4 he is persona non grata in the Strategist household..

I also think FF7 Remake has some Kojima vibes with the whispers trying to alter the story of the original game. Nomura had noted that he wasn't interested in making a faithful remake to Final Fantasy 7, despite the wishes of the fan base and the whole subtext of the story reads as a passive aggressive rant against those fans.

 

[miguk miguk]

well proboly several but nothing I played or watched comes to mind. How ever what comes to mind is Gaming journlism and games companies they love to hate on gamer´s and blame us for everything. Oh the game sold bad it´s the damn racist, bigot gamer´s fault they are all evil fascist.

Their hostility towards gamer´s are hilarious like with out us they would have not be making games would would be flipping burgers or clean for a living yet they love to hate on us... And we are dumb enough and keep giving them money so they can keep hating on us and yet keep make a living. No wonder why I hate people so much stupidity know no bound.

This sounds like an argument I've heard time and again by people who demand that games be considered high art but also contradict themselves claiming they should never be judged like actual high art is. And they never notice that this is exactly why it is not considered high art and why the industry often avoids trying to turn it into a high art.

No, journalists don't HAVE AN UNBRIDLED HATRED FOR THE VERY LIVES OF GAMERS. No, they aren't CLAIMING THEY ARE COMMITTING GENOCIDE ACROSS THE LAND. No, they aren't ZERO TALENT SUBHUMANS WHO DESERVE TO LIVE OFF LESS THAN $7 A DAY. You aren't making your point sound better by flinging cliché exaggerated and sophomoric personal attacks at people who are actually doing something to push for the advancement of the art.

You give no examples to support your rant, but I'd like to point a few out myself. Metroid: Other M was championed by people with this attitude before launch. When responsible journalists pointed out that the game's story is sexist trash, and that the gameplay is actually harmed by the story itself, blind raging gamers screamed their heads off about "BAD journalists do BAD thing to BEST GAME EVER". And then they actually played it for themselves. None of them are claiming it's from God's own desktop anymore; they aren't even calling it good.

But you said "racist", right? Okay, let's look at Resident Evil 5. Again, reviewers did their jobs and pointed out that the game had a problem involving racist stereotypes. Again, the r/KIA crowd gave the only response they ever give to actual thought. And then the game was released to the general public, and we found out that not only was the opening sequence using a lot of coded racist visual language, but the game had literal spear-chucking, bone-through-the-nose tribal crazy ooga-boogaing Black people as enemies. And again, the Body Snatcher gamers silenced themselves about that game because they wanted us to all forget they were dead wrong.

But they haven't remained silent. They still throw around vague complaints about anyone who writes anything about games. They demand silence from anyone who speaks out of line with one very loud minority of gamers. And in all this attempt to silence free speech, they complain that they are being called fascists for just saying nobody should ever be allowed to express an opinion different from theirs.

"There's so much hostility" because that kind of gamer creates it. They invent a non-existent enemy and attack without considering that maybe the writer has a point, and that maybe the soulless corporation that fails over and over to hire good writers and demands that gamers just pay $60+ for mediocrity is the one actually doing something wrong. And as they blow their money on trash they themselves don't like again and again, they never stop to think that maybe they should have considered the fact that sometimes the thing you want to be good simply is not.

Seriously, this crowd would have never said "f*** Konami" if Konami didn't stop making games, but instead just gave them shovelware. Fire Igarashi? Fine, just give us more garbage CV. Fire Kojima? Fine, who cares if MGS has a story? Fire del Toro? Who needs an actual high art writer working on a game? But stop making games? Then and only then do they see the soulless corporation as anything less than a god.

Really, this kind of argument just poisons the entire gaming community and drives it to self destruction. You want gaming to be considered an art? Then let it stand up for itself. The game makers are grown adults who can handle rational criticism. Any rational person can tell that their businesses are not going to be COMPLETE DESTROYED by a mere article that only a portion of the customer base reads. If anything will destroy gaming, it is the irrational rage from the KIA crowd that is poisoning every website that allows discussion of them. And in the long run, they'll destroy those websites, too.

Side note: this post comes with a free t-shirt:

 

[Octopus]

Kojima gets away with infuriating story decisions all the time.

Can't agree more, MGS5 is one of my biggest gaming disappointments of all time because of exactly all of that. Subversion can be a good storytelling tool if both used sparingly, and when whatever you're subverting expectations with is also actually good. MGS5 has neither of those points.

Mass Effect Andromeda

*Laughs in current playthrough of Andromeda for an article*. Yup, I wouldn't quite say 'disdain' or 'hatred' but definitely a dislike at least.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

This sounds like an argument I've heard time and again by people who demand that games be considered high art but also contradict themselves claiming they should never be judged like actual high art is. And they never notice that this is exactly why it neither is considered high art nor why the industry often avoids trying to turn it into a high art.

No, journalists don't HAVE AN UNBRIDLED HATRED FOR THE VERY LIVES OF GAMERS. No, they aren't CLAIMING THEY ARE COMMITTING GENOCIDE ACROSS THE LAND. No, they aren't ZERO TALENT SUBHUMANS WHO DESERVE TO LIVE OFF LESS THAN $7 A DAY. You aren't making your point sound better by flinging cliché exaggerated and sophomoric personal attacks at people who are actually doing something to push for the advancement of the art.

You give no examples to support your rant, but I'd like to point a few out myself. Metroid: Other M was championed by people with this attitude before launch. When responsible journalists pointed out that the game's story is sexist trash, and that the gameplay is actually harmed by the story itself, blind raging gamers screamed their heads off about "BAD journalists do BAD thing to BEST GAME EVER". And then they actually played it for themselves. None of them are claiming it's from God's own desktop anymore; they aren't even calling it good.

But you said "racist", right? Okay, let's look at Resident Evil 5. Again, reviewers did their jobs and pointed out that the game had a problem involving racist stereotypes. Again, the r/KIA crowd gave the only response they ever give to actual thought. And then the game was released to the general public, and we found out that not only was the opening sequence using a lot of coded racist visual language, but the game had literal spear-chucking, bone-through-the-nose tribal crazy ooga-boogaing Black people as enemies. And again, the Body Snatcher gamers silenced themselves about that game because they wanted us to all forget they were dead wrong.

But they haven't remained silent. They still throw around vague complaints about anyone who writes anything about games. They demand silence from anyone who speaks out of line with one very loud minority of gamers. And in all this attempt to silence free speech, they complain that they are being called fascists for just saying nobody should ever be allowed to express an opinion different from theirs.

"There's so much hostility" because that kind of gamer creates it. They invent a non-existent enemy and attack without considering that maybe the writer has a point, and that maybe the soulless corporation that fails over and over to hire good writers and demands that gamers just pay $60+ for mediocrity is the one actually doing something wrong. And as they blow their money on trash they themselves don't like again and again, they never stop to think that maybe they should have considered the fact that sometimes the thing you want to be good simply is not.

Seriously, this crowd would have never said "f*** Konami" if Konami didn't stop making games, but instead just gave them shovelware. Fire Igarashi? Fine, just give us more garbage CV. Fire Kojima? Fine, who cares if MGS has a story? Fire del Toro? Who needs an actual high art writer working on a game? But stop making games? Then and only then do they see the soulless corporation as anything less than a god.

Really, this kind of argument just poisons the entire gaming community and drives it to self destruction. You want gaming to be considered an art? Then let it stand up for itself. The game makers are grown adults who can handle rational criticism. Any rational person can tell that their businesses are not going to be COMPLETE DESTROYED by a mere article that only a portion of the customer base reads. If anything will destroy gaming, it is the irrational rage from the KIA crowd that is poisoning every website that allows discussion of them. And in the long run, they'll destroy those websites, too.

Side note: this post comes with a free t-shirt:

Yeah, gaming journalism is in a rough place. There's no winning in that industry. Either you water down your reviews so much you essentially say nothing to not offend anyone or you get hate either from the AAA companies or the fans of the companies. Granted, there are some seriously compromised reviewers out there that have friends in the industry and carry the water for the AAA companies, but there's also a lot of legitimate criticism that gets shut down due to fanatics.

 

[Bonkers225]

Can't agree more, MGS5 is one of my biggest gaming disappointments of all time because of exactly all of that. Subversion can be a good storytelling tool if both used sparingly, and when whatever you're subverting expectations with is also actually good. MGS5 has neither of those points.


*Laughs in current playthrough of Andromeda for an article*. Yup, I wouldn't quite say 'disdain' or 'hatred' but definitely a dislike at least.

I'll say they have complete destain/hatred for attractive women.