Is politically correct to add chernobyl as a stage?

Megax60

Member
Do you understand now?


There are so many politically incorrect things that i dont know if adding real places such as chernobyl is correct.

What do you think? i know adding events in wich many people died is incorrect, and adding real nuclear bombs names is incorrect too... but is it correct to add chernobyl? will people be offended?

you know... chernobyl... the place where the nuclear reactor exploded

I think in CoD MW4 chernobyl is a stage, but it never says its chernobyl...
 

JackTurbo

Member
COD4 doesnt mention Chernobyl very much (but it does mention it) because the mission wasnt set in Chernobyl, it was set in Pripyat.

Pripyat was the closest city to the Chernobyl power plant and housed most of the workers for the plant (along with plenty of other people).
My understanding is that Chernobyl (or Chornobyl as its sometimes spelt) was a different, slightly smaller city that was actually some what further away from the Chernobyl power plant (although still well within the Chernobyl exclusion zone).

Regardless of if your level will be set in the Chernobyl Power Plant, Chernobyl (the city) or Pripyat, I think the area has been used as a setting enough times in various media to have proven itself to generally be an acceptable setting.

However I would say that whenever you're referencing any real life tragedy in a piece of media, context and tone are key.

Handle the setting with respect and you should be fine and avoid undue offence.
 

Roa

Member
Do you understand now?


There are so many politically incorrect things that i dont know if adding real places such as chernobyl is correct.

What do you think? i know adding events in wich many people died is incorrect, and adding real nuclear bombs names is incorrect too... but is it correct to add chernobyl? will people be offended?

you know... chernobyl... the place where the nuclear reactor exploded

I think in CoD MW4 chernobyl is a stage, but it never says its chernobyl...
I dont know what you are saying about being correct or incorrect. It's ok to use events where people died and real bomb names lol. People portray events that really happened all the time. Stop trying to police yourself and just do what you want to present. You are never going to satisfy the people that would get offended about stuff like that anyways, cause they are more than likely perpetually offended. Offense is taken, not given.
 
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zendraw

Guest
stalker is pretty much a game about it. i think. but u can change the name to blacknobyl or somthing. cherno means black.
 
I dont know what you are saying about being correct or incorrect. It's ok to use events where people died and real bomb names lol. People portray events that really happened all the time. Stop trying to police yourself and just do what you want to present. You are never going to satisfy the people that would get offended about stuff like that anyways, cause they are more than likely perpetually offended. Offense is taken, not given.
I think then you go down the slope of putting a school shooting game on steam. I think the best solution is common sense.
 
Y

Yotzer

Guest
you can use Chernovil as a stage just as you can use Hiroshoma or Jerusalem.
how many millions died in ww1 or/and ww2? how many games were made about it?
you can do anything your creative spirit tells you to do, politically incorrectness is probably just a side effect .
these days people are really exaggerating with sensitivity ,if i make a game about gays i am wrong because i am offensive but if i make a game with no gays representative in it i am being offensive too.
sometimes there is no need for black guys in the scenario and sometimes we want to shoot down some Jews in a concentration camp just for fun....ooops.
(i am a jew so i am allowed,you don't) .
 

Ralucipe

Member
if i make a game about gays i am wrong because i am offensive but if i make a game with no gays representative in it i am being offensive too.
Come on now, you know it's not nearly that simple.

First of all, who makes games that are "about gays"? How could you possibly make a game completely oriented about gay people that won't be offensive? What in the world could the premise of that game possibly be?

Second of all, nobody will criticize some ordinary game that doesn't have gay people in it. But they will criticize a game that is heavily oriented about couples/relationships, and has zero gay couples. (Not to mention that this hypothetical game doesn't sound particularly entertaining, and thus is conceptually rare.)

Offense is taken, not given.
This argument makes sense, but it's also critically flawed in the context of game development. One thing is certain with any form of media you publish: somebody will always get offended. There's nothing you can do about that one person. But you should certainly strive to offend as few people as possible, instead of claiming that it's not your problem when a large number of people become offended. Because, guess what, it is your problem. Offending large populations of people is a good way to ensure that your game turns into a commercial failure, and to cause irreparable damage to your name as a publisher.
 
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AnonyMouse

Guest
stalker is pretty much a game about it. i think. but u can change the name to blacknobyl or somthing. cherno means black.
Or Blackmobil(e).
Another problem with such things is that they may be incorrect - because of lack of information or the time to gather it. Anyway in most cases the relationship between movies/games and real things is based only on few real names, for example "I, the robot" has nothing to do with the book but using the name to gain popularity. Is that the Real Chernobil - or I didnt imagine it like this - you can evade that. And people who are interesting in that may be very disappointed because they know a lot and expect to see that in it.
Although I am making a game for Mars and the first time I published the demo got the question "Cactuses on Mars?!". I got a lot of problems because I had to made researching for Mars landscapes and seems my landscapes are not enough Marsian but I like them. So it was a mistake, it should be for some unknown planet but it is too late.
 
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zendraw

Guest
Or Blackmobil(e).
Another problem with such things is that they may be incorrect - because of lack of information or the time to gather it. Anyway in most cases the relationship between movies/games and real things is based only on few real names, for example "I, the robot" has nothing to do with the book but using the name to gain popularity. Is that the Real Chernobil - or I didnt imagine it like this - you can evade that. And people who are interesting in that may be very disappointed because they know a lot and expect to see that in it.
Although I am making a game for Mars and the first time I published the demo got the question "Cactuses on Mars?!". I got a lot of problems because I had to made researching for Mars landscapes and seems my landscapes are not enough Marsian but I like them. So it was a mistake, it should be for some unknown planet but it is too late.
pollitically correct doesnt mean factually correct. and why do u care if ur mars is not the real mars? if some1 asks, u can come up with why`s. im sure most stories and game stuff came in that way. expand the creativity of ur game, dont shrink it.
 
A

Alessio

Guest


There are so many politically incorrect things that i dont know if adding real places such as chernobyl is correct.

What do you think? i know adding events in wich many people died is incorrect, and adding real nuclear bombs names is incorrect too... but is it correct to add chernobyl? will people be offended?

you know... chernobyl... the place where the nuclear reactor exploded

I think in CoD MW4 chernobyl is a stage, but it never says its chernobyl...
It's not politically correct at all. As such, people should stop giving a damn, your videogame is not going to hurt anyone but just someone's feeeeeelz. *insert wojak image here*

I dont know what you are saying about being correct or incorrect. It's ok to use events where people died and real bomb names lol. People portray events that really happened all the time. Stop trying to police yourself and just do what you want to present. You are never going to satisfy the people that would get offended about stuff like that anyways, cause they are more than likely perpetually offended. Offense is taken, not given.
You offended me. You assumed i would get offended by something anyway and this offends me. You must be arrested.

I think then you go down the slope of putting a school shooting game on steam. I think the best solution is common sense.
That's not politically incorrect, that's just tasteless.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
unless someone has been specifically affected by a disaster in some way, they're unlikely to care too much in the first place. especially one that's already been filed away into the history books.
so tbh at this point if it's really such a concern, you will likely have to ask someone who actually lives--or is otherwise familiar with the culture and general climate--in Ukraine whether or not the people there still feel strongly about it or not and would be offended by your usage of it for a video game.
 
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Yotzer

Guest
in addition to the answers above there is a big difference between doing something about a natural or not so natural disaster and doing a game about a humanly inhumane behavior actually happening and growing .
it's totally different if you make a game about school shooting or bulling from the victims perspective or the victimizer and if you are giving a score /reward/win to the maleficent or the underdog hero.
Are you suggesting solutions or just praising the tragedy?
 
T

Triangle

Guest
This is really subjective. Honestly, I would just say - as a rule - just do some solid research first, and avoid referencing individuals. Any setting can be done well, but some settings are just inherently controversial and require appropriate gentle discretion. More bluntly, this also depends on your audience: If you are selling this game primarily to Americans, you don't need to have the same empathy about Chernobyl as you would if you were selling it to Ukrainians, Belorussians, e.t.c. But at the end of the day, empathetic, well-researched game settings, are simply better then ones that aren't. Remember also that your handling of a topic is dependent on your game's tone - I mean, if you just want a backdrop for an arcade shooter, it's basically fine to plop something like Chernobyl into it, as other have said, it's a popular setting these days. But if you want to have a more down-to-earth, realistic, or serious game, your obligation to treat the matter with the respect it deserves increases appropriately. If you chose the latter route, I recommend you read Svetlana Alexievich's book 'Voices From Chernobyl'; it's the best journalism I've ever read and will go a long way to help you understand the human impact of the disaster. But yeah, it's fine, just know what you're getting yourself into when doing these settings.
 
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NeonBits

Guest
The potential of laughing at ourselves is always strong until matters happen. Then opinions, where both sides are right, enter in dual to justify their values, often to a point where the substance behind things are neglected and even rejected. We also come to understand that the one who lives "there" is the same as the one who lives"here"; and what happens "there" can happen "here". It's too easy to say "it's someone else's feelings" when even the rebel sings to not step on his blue suede shoes and to respect his surrounding. Today, alot of people will tell you to not care, considering everything done in books, games, movies; many things were made just to impress and/or show how dark they can go and pretend how "mature audiance" they can be; I can say "ok" for "this" and "that", but it's often garbages if you ask me. If you don't feel right, maybe it's a sign that using a true event to win interest isn't the ideal and to stay creative.
 
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Taddio

Guest
Bro, they advertise guided tours for that town (I heard they're kind of popular), I highly doubt anyone cares. To me, it just sounds like a good post-apocalyptic name for a map. It's not like naming your map "Hiroshima_1945 = yay;" or something like that (that MAY be politically incorrect, yeah...lol).
Chernobyl is just a city, nothing to be politically incorrect at all.
 
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