Re: Introduction
"Mateusz Jończyk" <mat.jonczyk@o2.pl> schrieb:
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>2014-03-03 18:37 GMT+01:00 Nils Dagsson Moskopp <nils@dieweltistgarnichtso.net>:
>>
>> I am not that interested in most video games, as I think they contain needless
>> grinding. However, I am interested in games with interesting mechanics or story,
>> like Warzone 2100 or the games by Jason Rohrer.
>>
>> I am going to start with trying to package "Bernd und das Rätsel um
>> Unteralterbach" - a visual novel set in present-day bavaria containing
>> (optional) erotic content - as soon as the author releases source code and
>> assets. Getting it packaged is important to me as I found that Ren'Py makes code
>> bit-rot fast, having contributed to a VN myself.
>>
>> I am somewhat anxious about packaging Unteralterbach, as it may show - depending
>> on player choices - content pertaining to sexual abuse, bdsm, consent, moral
>> panics, slut shaming, virgin shaming, religion, etc. and makes fun of the german
>> federal police and several contemporary public figures. However, I believe that
>> the author has handled these issues in a suitable manner, delivering a
>> compelling story based on these themes.
>
>Hello,
>Seriously, I have visited the site of the game and from one of the screenshots
>(with the small girl with horns) it seems like the game has something to do with
>child sexualization. I am not fluent in German, but the text there seems to also
>suggest so.
That scene is part of the games' exposition: The girl is implied to be a victim of sexual abuse and threatens the player character upon meeting him for the first time, asserting that he molested her (which he hasn't).
Your suspicion is not unfounded, though: If the player character is established to be a pedophile (yes, there's a game variable tracking that) one possible game path does contain a sex scene with her. Note that the game implies that even though the sex is consensual, her sexual assertiveness is not normal and that the player is guilty of taking advantage of her.
I might add that the player is not necessarily a sexual predator - the game also contains less dark scenes, from the player character wearing a horse mask during sex to several characters messing around with food. Which - if any - are triggered, depends on player choices, as it does usually in the visual novel genre.
>It would be best to disable the contentious content in Unteralterbach as without it
>the game is playable (as You stated) and hopefully quite fine.
Sex scenes are, by default, disabled. If I remember it correctly, you have to click on a button labeled with something like "Yes, I am a disgusting pervert and deserve hell." if you want to see any of them.
I am strongly opposed to removing content, on grounds of preserving the artistic integrity of the work. I am not interested in packaging something that is substantially different plot-wise from the game as "Anne" (author pseudonym) envisioned it.
To elaborate: Bernd und das Rätsel in Unteralterbach is a game with an unsympathetic protagonist, where almost all story paths end with the player character in prison or dead. I believe that sugar-coating it would have as much of an effect as removing civilians from GTA, demons from Doom or - perhaps more fitting - the poison from Cultivation. In literary terms, try to imagine Fear and Loathing without drugs, Hannibal Lector as vegetarian or Lolita with a reliable narrator (if i recall correctly, the unreliable narrator of Lolita considers himself seduced by the titular character).
A concrete example: In one story path, the protagonist feels guilty and disgusted towards himself after being immobilized by two girls who proceed to have sex with him without his consent. Would you suggest removing the sex scene, the dialogue surrounding it or the entire story path, including the protagonist coming to terms with what happened, overcoming his feelings of guilt and disgust? (This is not a rhetorical question.)
That being said, the screenshots are entirely accurate: Unteralterbach is neither a porn flick nor a juvenile rape apology (for a game with erotic content, consent issues are brought up surprisingly often) and 95% of game content is not going to shock anyone.
(May I hereby suggest that anyone who wishes to discuss the game's content in detail play at least one story path to its conclusion, i.e. a standard game over?)
>Greetings,
>Mateusz Jończyk
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--
Nils Dagsson Moskopp // erlehmann
<http://dieweltistgarnichtso.net>
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