Greetings from The Warden

Hello. Are you sure that having a pedophile character adds enough to the game experience to be worth the tradeoff of losing a segment of your audience? Most of the people I game with are 30+ year-old parents, who'd be loathe to play a game featuring a pedophile or rapist, especially if someone has to play that character, and would probably start drawing comparisons to the FATAL RPG without ever giving the game a chance.

If nothing else, I recommend watching the show Breakout Kings, which has Jimmi Simpson playing a genius with a gambling addiction who sold prescription narcotics to his college students, which resulted in a young girl's death. He comes across as completely sordid with terrible social skills and a scrawny physique, so that he is constantly being beaten up in prison and has to smear rancid tuna on his body to avoid being raped. For several episodes, you have no idea what crime he committed, but the assumption is pedophilia. My point here is that you can have the sleazy underdog character that you are talking about without being so overtly tactless.

There are plenty of games about playing glorified criminals, several quite popular. Here's a Board Game Geek top 10 crime games list: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/143219/top-10-crime-games

Some of the most popular movies, television shows, novels, and games are about glorified crime, so playing prison inmates is far from a hard sell. Oz, Orange is the New Black, Lockdown, and Prison Break, number among the host of shows dealing specifically with that subset of the crime genre. This may not be a game that you or I would play, but it is a commercially viable idea.

I doubt that many people here have the moral high ground to say that playing a criminal is somehow worse than the many other character roles that we step into. We just tend to lose perspective: http://explosm.net/comics/3486/
Aren't you working on a game in which players murder entire spaceship crews?

Also, what evidence do you have that the 2012 Aurora shooting was influenced by FPS games?

Come on Soulfinger... Do you really believe people will play a game in which they are a Rapist or just as bad a Pedophile? Just siding with this concept make me wonder want kind of people would be interested in such games? The kind of people who exchange kiddy porn??? Seriously this has poor taste written all over it. It reminds me about all those guys that try to hook up with a minor and are confronted by media and police...

Just WHO is the TARGET AUDIENCE for such a game???

Thirty years ago, people were citing games as innocuous as your Quest CCG as being the motivation behind teen suicide, those satanic baby killings that everyone "knew about" but were never covered by a reliable news source, antisocial behavior, and bad taste in music. Read the Jack Chick pamphlet, "Dark Dungeons." That is directed at you just as much as it is D&D with all of your evil monsters and devil magic. Of course, there is no hard evidence for your game being evil, but it has just got to be true, because those kids have to be learning mind bondage spells and satanic suicide pacts somewhere. Maybe you can see how your attitude seems like the pot calling the kettle black.

What gives a kid the idea to get a gun and go shooting? Maybe the ready availability of the guns in question. Maybe our gun culture. Maybe they've logged onto the NRA forums I've seen where people gleefully discuss these premeditated murder scenarios to figure out what gun and what load they'll use to ensure that they kill the mugger trying to steal the $20 in their wallet. Maybe they come from a family that stockpiled guns and ammo when Obama was elected (this happened to the point that there was an ammo shortage) on account of him being the Antichrist (translation: black). Maybe the factors are so numerous that pointing to any specific one as being "the reason" is implausible at best.

I've played a variety of FPS games. Metal music is not a common feature of the genre, which invalidates your premise. On top of that, the soldiers you are referring to are bringing their iPod playlists from home. The articles about this cite bands like Slayer, Metallica, and Eminem. I can guarantee you that those men were listening to those bands before they ever joined the military, because that is the stuff young men of that demographic listen to. My social group spent high school listening to Metal and Industrial precisely because of that surge of fierce energy that the soldiers cite. If anything, we were far more hardcore. I used to enjoy violent mosh pits. Now, I mostly like ABBA.

The 1990s called, it wants its Sound Blaster audio card back. :) Seriously, you are going to cite Doom? There is a Call of Duty game where you are trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell by helping them gun down every single person in a crowded airport (you fail the mission if you kill the terrorists), and you are citing Id titles from 20 years ago?

You missed me suggesting that this aspect be removed. I cited FATAL, which contends with Racial Holy War for the worst RPG ever made. No, I think featuring a pedophile character would be a disastrous decision. It's a no-win situation, because the character would have to be tremendously sympathetic for the players not to actively hope for his demise, but a sympathetic pedophile is even more horrifying. That said, a game about prison inmates is a good idea that would appeal to a sizable audience.

As far as who would want to play a pedophile in a game, I'd hazard to guess: an introverted male, age 14-20, undereducated with no volunteer or extracurricular experience, and limited exposure to other cultures and ways of thinking. Likely to be intimidated or estranged by women with the antisocial attitudes typical of an Internet "troll" or "griefer." The kind of guy whose "hilarious antics" at the game table make everyone else confused and uncomfortable. Sound about right?

Yeah. Sorry about that. Let me reiterate that a game about prison life has great potential even if we totally derailed things on one point.

Hey The_Warden,

I am glad you found your way here and hope that you will take as much inspiration from this site as you give.

As for your idea: I like the prison scenario for quite some reasons. Thematically it is a 'world' I have never been to, so there is some curiosity, which is always good for the theme of a game.

Mechanically I think it is a good choice, because in prison rules are much more strict than in real life, just as they are in games. That could make for some great thematic mechanics.

I share some of the concerns of my fellow forists here though. The role of a pedophile would likely keep many people from playing your game, not to speak of recommending it to others. The goal of said character seems interesting, though depending on the game length, it might get boring. I am far from wanting to interfere with your creative work, but I would suggest renaming the character and giving him another background. Surely there are more guys in prison than pedophiles who get beat up for what they have done. E.g. he could have betrayed another inmate by reporting his escape plans.

Again, I hope despite this unfortunate start, you feel welcome here.

Josh 'Dagar'

I didn't want to perpetuate this thread, but I feel the need to point out that you are grossly misrepresenting the bipolar spectrum. Armchair psychology like yours can be more destructive to the afflicted than their actual disorder and voicing such thoughtless misapprehensions can greatly exacerbate the anxiety and overwhelming depression suffered by said individuals, who are often misunderstood and marginalized to begin with. Your opinion is vastly uninformed, if not downright ignorant, and your expression of it is as irresponsible and offensive as attributing negative traits to ethnic groups.

Do you want to know how the average bipolar person views shooting? They see it as terrifying, because the person they are most likely to shoot is themselves. It is estimated that up to 50% of people within the bipolar spectrum attempt suicide at least once, and from 30%-70% of suicide victims have bipolar disorder. There is a 9.2 year reduction in expected life span. Shame on you.