March 14, 2013 by

War Games: God of War’s woman-hating ways

kratoseye

Considering this is a hobby where we control tiny virtual people to destroy imaginary cities, roll Japanese garbage into balls, throw fireballs at turtles and make friends with little girls, there sure is a lot of complaining, weirdness and straight-up corruption going on. War Games is your semi-regular summary of the Issue of the Moment, and a chance to generate some thoughtful and honest discussion amongst the sea of hyperbole and hurt feelings.

You may have heard of a game series called God of War. It’s ostensibly about a Spartan warrior who rages against the injustice of the Greek gods, murdering hundreds of thousands of people just because he once accidentally stabbed his family to death. Ascension – the latest in the series – came out recently and brought with it the fury of feminist outrage. A trophy, spotted by many but brought into the public consciousness by Adam Sessler’s review, went by the name “Bros before Hos”. Sessler took issue with the trophy, which appears after a particularly violent confrontation with a female enemy. He used his review to call the achievement a “gut punch of misogyny” which soured the entire game for him.

This prompted the internet at large (by which I mean a small, but extremely loud, minority) to express similar outrage at this sexist turn of events. All corners of the industry were suddenly buzzing with indignant commentary about the treatment of women in video games and the casual denigration of the gender this three word joke represented. This story takes an unfortunate turn when the developers — Sony Santa Monica — feel the heat of public scrutiny and change the name of the trophy to wet the flames of feminist rage.

Did they do the right thing? In my opinion they certainly did not. Bowing to public pressure simply because people are shouting loudly sets a dangerous precedent for future events. If SSM are willing to change their game to stop people being offended (many of whom were probably never going to buy the game in the first place) then it gives angry mobs ample reason to think they can succeed again. And it means other developers will see caving in as a valid business strategy. Even worse, the entire controversy is a manufactured attention grabber of the worst kind. It seems rather convenient that Sessler brings up this “gut punch” at a time when the issue of gaming and feminism is the hottest of buttons. Achievements and trophies frequently feature bad jokes, puns and pop culture references, and this was no different. The phrase “bros before hos” is an established one, and has arguably reached a point where it is used comically more often than with serious intent. And this is before even looking at the misrepresentation of the circumstances surrounding the trophy unlock.

That’s right, it’s good to step back at this point and remember we’re talking about an imaginary prize related to a fake battle in a fictional story. But enough of my fully-baked opinions for now. What do you think? Is the trophy sexist? Does it matter? Was Sony Santa Monica right to change the wording?


  • http://twitter.com/BrutalitopsMage Brutalitops

    I, for one, was also horrified when that group of pixels on my screen did a violent thing to that other group of pixels on my screen, after which I received a virtual reward granting me no real gratification other than making my e-peen larger. DISGRACEFUL, IT IS

  • http://twitter.com/FraserIBrown Fraser Brown

    The God of War series is all about shock and spectacle, and its violence reaches the point where it becomes almost comical, so the achievement wasn’t a tonal shift, so I see no reason to pick on one innocuous achievement other than the fact that it can be attached to an issue that’s being discussed a lot right now, and it deserves discussion, but not in such a ham-fisted manner over a manufactured issue.

    Besides, as far as I know, the achievement has nothing to do with violence against women. First and foremost, the “ho” in question is not a woman, it’s a female monster, and secondly, the achievement is for siding with a friend against this monster, not the act of violence against the creature itself.

    But what strikes me as particularly concerning is that every day video games celebrate brutal violence against males, yet that is not perceived to be a problem, or at least the problem isn’t that they are men. The outcry against this achievement implies that women need protecting while men are either tough enough to handle it or are somehow deserving of assault. This is hardly the equality that we should be aiming for, because, you know, it’s not equal. I’m not saying that blokes are hard done by, I don’t feel that way at all, but this debacle really does highlight some rather unhealthy notions about gender.

    • http://twitter.com/BrutalitopsMage Brutalitops

      Your last point is a great one. I’m sure there have also been many trophies specifically celebrating male deaths (Widowmaker in Tomb Raider comes to mind) and they werent controversies. Nor should they have been, but for people to react this way for one situation ad not the other highlights both hypocrisy and, as you said, the notion that women need defending or protecting

  • Excalibeard

    In my opinion, people’s arguments are more or less invalidated when they shun the use of a tongue-in-cheek trophy title, yet have no qualms about killing multitudes of female enemies. You either choose both or none.

    Sadly, the extremely vocal minority tends to win battles that frankly do not matter in this age of oversensitivity and the “me too!” mentality. Like Andy said himself, most of that vocal group probably never touched a GoW game, nor would they regardless of the trophy ever existing.

  • Ramminchuck

    Definitely agree that they should not have changed it. Stand by the things you create. If they happen to offend someone so what? If you feel like you actually did something wrong, apologize. But don’t censor your work to appease people, especially if the decision to do so involves anything to do with money. Censorship to give yourself a wider appeal is the wooooooorrrsssttt. I am not in favour of the trophy, but under no circumstances should they have changed it.

  • http://twitter.com/djchan08 David Chandler

    I would care more if this were a big deal. It’s a total attention grabber, like you say. It’s a self-important reaction to a really stupid joke. I don’t really know which is worse, the studio thinking “Bros before Hos” is funny or the people so offended by it that they created a big enough outcry to change something so tiny. I don’t think there’s some sort of integrity in keeping the trophy’s original name, nor do I think there’s particular danger in changing it from one dumb name to another dumb name to appease people.

    For my part, I actually like the “Bros before Foes” title better because it’s a pun (and we all know how Fraser loves puns). But really, GoW does so many other things regarding gender that could lead to much more interesting discussions than a stupidly-named trophy.

    • http://www.awesomeoutof10.com/ Andy Astruc

      The idea of appeasing people makes my skin crawl. And I suspect that not a lot of thought goes into the trophy names beyond “Hey, this kind of fits and sounds okay”. As it should be, really.

  • http://twitter.com/sodanipple Arlo

    Andy, stating that the trophy is just “imaginary prize related to a fake battle in a fictional story” can also be used as an argument for the other side of the argument which, while I do kinda think this whole debacle is dumb, I am more inclined to lean towards. It is just a trophy. The change of the trophy was a simple two letters, and seemingly kept those who (more or less) had a right to be angry at bay. It’s pretty ridiculous censorship at a change that incremental.

    Also, you said that the outrage rooted from “small, but extremely loud minority” is, from my experience, false. From comments, twitter, etc., a large portion of the outrage I saw was those who were against Sessler, not those against/impartial to him.

    How the joke could be taken as offensive all depends on context. The problem wasn’t that you were brutally murdering a monster-ladything, there are enemies in droves in GoW, of all types of genders. Making a joke (rooting from an inherently sexist term) out of it in a game that is tonally very serious and grim puts it in another perspective. Even if the character was male, that context of a joke would still be enough to make some stomachs turn.

    • http://twitter.com/FraserIBrown Fraser Brown

      Achievements and trophies are frequently tongue-in-cheek, even in otherwise serious games. Besides, the God of War series may be a humourless affair, but it’s grim to the point of being almost comedic. Kratos, and, indeed, the whole series, is a caricature of Greek epics and tragedies, at points even bordering on satire. And let us not forget that this is a series that had a sex QTE, which, while not excusing “sexism” (which I don’t really think the achievement is, in the slightest) certainly suggests that the tone is very much in keeping with the franchise.

      I propose that anyone whose stomach turned at the joke take some indigestion tablets, because they clearly have a medical problem.

    • http://www.awesomeoutof10.com/ Andy Astruc

      The trophy itself is meaningless, and would have remained so if none of this had happened. But the moment people started making noise about it they drew a line in the sand. They gave the trophy meaning by suggesting that it was wrong, and SSM (along with anyone who suggested or still suggests the change was a good idea) gave it even more importance by allowing it to be changed. Besides, the argument definitely does not work from the other side, as it would require acknowledging that the trophy means nothing while also saying it means something. They conflict.

      Everyone has the right to be angry about things, but whether or not a company caves to make them happy has no bearing on how right or wrong they are, and it says in clear terms that a reasoned point isn’t what gets things done, throwing a tantrum does.

      Regarding who was shouting about what: yes, I have no doubt we read different articles and saw different posts on social media. The internet is a big place. My point was that it was a minority complaining. It was probably a minority defending it as well. The majority didn’t say anything because they don’t really care. That comment was intended to express my distaste for small groups dictating what everyone should think, regardless of their “side”.

      And I don’t have an issue with people finding the trophy offensive. Some people find two men kissing offensive. Some people think it’s offensive to use your salad fork to eat steak. Those who are offended by the GoW trophy are wrong, but nobody is telling them not to be offended. But being offended doesn’t give you the right to tell the world to change. It’s a subjective, emotional response. If you can back that up with a reasoned argument then we’re getting somewhere. And that certainly didn’t happen here.

      As Fraser said, trophies are, more often than not, tongue-in-cheek, and there are literally hundreds of examples that are just as benign as this one that nobody cares about. Also, I find the idea of someone taking God of War seriously to be rather comedic in and of itself. An absence of jokes does not automatically mean a serious tone. Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3 are quite thematically similar and neither are comedies, but one is certainly to be taken more seriously than the other.

  • Hony

    looks like sony santa monica believes in ‘hos before bros’!

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  • Ludakriss

    Your article is a sensible marvel. I don’t care about other who disagree. It simply means they must study, experience and write upto your level to be able to relate.

    Congrats and I bet it’s tough not spouting trash for traffic.

    Peace n Good Gaming.

  • DarthDiggler

    Yep the industry is basically becoming an incubator for a bunch of whining cry-babies that will never be satisfied.

  • mike

    Isn’t a +18 rated game supposed to have many things that deal with adults and regular things in life? God of war series always had kratos having fun with women, I would be surprised if I played a god of war game without a single seks scene.

    Why all the fuss about a trophy name? Even if there was a trophy called ‘you, gamer, are totally stupid’, I wouldn’t care.

    Why, women are always victims? Games, movies, life, simply by using the word ‘woman’, and the organization X or Y will find something to say. But tell me, why, when divorcing, we don’t see a man attacking a woman in justice, and getting 50 or 70% of her cash? Why, if a woman is a bad wife, a bad mother, if she f*cks with the 3000 men of their village, she will still be the victim, the poor and unlucky wife and woman, and lawyers will grab 50-80% of the husband’s hard-earned cash, and will give it to her, the poor little wife.

    People should stop seeing racism and sexism everywhere. Really.