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Sex, Torture and Controversy In Star Wars: The Old Republic
It appears that some people have yet to actually grasp exactly how Star Wars: The Old Republic works. Apparently, there is a debate raging about the fact that, in SWTOR, there are NPC who are slaves, who are abused, tortured and humiliated. Somehow, no one notices that you spend a lot of time in the game slaughtering NPC for profit.
Part of the debate centers around Vette, a Twi’lek, who is the slave of the Sith Warrior. The write up about this on the Huffington Post showed a lot of laziness. They are correct that Vette (whom they say is a blue-skinned alien. She’s a Twi’lek. It’s mentioned in her bio) is a “slave, treasure hunter and survivor”. She can also be tortured, humiliated, and apparently forced to watch sex acts. If you are a male Sith Warrior, you can also romance her.
And, yes, the prison warden does say “give her enough juice and she’ll show you the back door to her mother’s house.”
Ok, so I shall forgive and forget the fact that the author of this piece probably has not played the game very much, but it is this quote that they use that really worries me:
Mike Fahey wrote in Kotaku:
“I cannot remember a single video game experience that has made me feel quite as dirty and evil as my relationship with Vette has. I wish I could take it all back, but it’s too late; BioWare has made me hate myself. That was not the emotional engagement I was looking for.”
This is what Light Side and Dark Side are all about. You can, if you want, set Vette free. You can shock her every opportunity you get. The reality is that the way you treat people in this game has an effect, and if treating an NPC in a particular manner makes you feel dirty and evil, then do not do that. While treating Vette well, and even freeing her may slow your saunter to the Dark Side, it is not going to stop you if you really want to go Dark.
Now, yes, my Sith Warrior is vicious and horrifying when it comes to Vette…or anyone else. My Sith Inquisitor has only about 50 Light Side points, but that’s because she decided to thin out the number of Sith running around Dromund Kas.
The Huffington Post also states that “Other reports have been even less kind, and some newspapers have taken it as wider evidence of declining morals in video games – which is a long-standing and controversial debate in itself.”
Let me see…in World of Warcraft, you run around slaughtering people who are upset that you’ve taken their land, or who are upset because the rulers of Stormwind decided to screw them over when it came to compensating them for their hard work in rebuilding the destroyed city. You spend hours of just slaughtering people in SWTOR, and people are upset over depictions of slavery, torture and sex?
Well, the sex happens off camera, and we do presume that Leia and Han had sex a few times in order to have children in the books that followed the movies, but let us be honest here, this is getting a little silly.
Here is the Sith Warrior cut scene where we meet Vette:
Now, I wish I could find the scene were Darth Vader tortures Han Solo…or Darth Vader chokes a Moff just because he talked back to the Dark Lord of the Sith. There is, of course, the scene where Vader tortures Leia on the Death Star, and the slaves owned by Jabba the Hutt. Honestly, when you get right down to it, with the exception of the sex…SWTOR is pretty similar to the Star Wars movies.
Well, except we don’t have to endure the torture of Jar Jar Binks.
6 Responses to Sex, Torture and Controversy In Star Wars: The Old Republic
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Kyle
July 27, 2012 at 12:24 pm
“I cannot remember a single video game experience that has made me feel quite as dirty and evil as my relationship with Vette has. I wish I could take it all back, but it’s too late; BioWare has made me hate myself. That was not the emotional engagement I was looking for.”
That quote is very telling. The game allowed him to make a choice, he made a choice, now he feels bad about it and it’s the games fault?
Sounds like every real life rationalization I’ve ever heard when someone makes a bad decision (“it was the other guys fault!”). Some people just refuse to be held accountable for their own actions, whether in a fictional online world or in the real one.
Devon
January 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm
TL:DR version
If you can’t accept the fact that its a game, in a fictional universe, with fictional characters, GTFO!
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This is getting sickening, seriously. No, I don’t mean the game content. I mean people complaining ‘Wah! The game gave me a choice and now I can’t live with myself!’
‘Wah! This game explores themes I’m uncomfortable with, therefore its indecent and needs to be censored before someone else is made uncomfortable!’
‘Wah! This game is going to train kids to be women beating, murdering psychopaths!’
Guess what people. Its a work of fiction. Same as music, same as movies, same as books, it is a piece of creative media. The only difference is choice.
In most of these fictional media, such as books and movies and music, any such impulses or themes are explored from the standpoint of a character or entity the content consumer is capable of being at odds with. They can clearly say ‘I don’t like this’ and feel morally content that they do not support the themes provided.
In games however, and this is likely the reason for the increase in controversy, players are on some level required to take responsibility for the actions they have undergone. It isn’t suddenly some faceless entity, some evil mastermind, who is presenting them with themes and experiences they find detestable. Because of the interactive nature of the media, they find themselves responsible for their own impulses or decisions.
However, one must ask. If you find such themes and ideals detestable, why on earth are you playing a class, indeed a faction, built around power, domination, survival of the fittest, deceit… you get the idea. These people complaining about ‘feeling bad’ for their actions have to realise, and understand, that not only did they make a concious decision to undertake such action, but that there are MANY paths available to them forging a better way. But instead you choose to obsess over this one ‘unacceptable’ part of the storyline of the game?
Food for thought.
Devon
January 20, 2012 at 5:22 pm
I feel I should add, I know this article isn’t attacking the themes mentioned, and I applaud that. I just wanted to get my 2-cents in about those seeking ‘controversy’ in fiction.
Bridgette P. LaVictoire
January 20, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Devon,
I saw what you said not as a refutation of what I said, but as concordance. I currently play a Mercenary (Bounty Hunter advanced), Imperial Sniper (Agent advance) and Marauder (Warrior advanced). I get pretty much into character. To give you some idea, my Sniper without hesitation killed the father of the force-sensitive kid because that is the law…if you are force sensitive you go to Korriban, and my Sniper will enforce the law without hesitation or mercy. Later, when faced with having to kill Karrel Javis, she spares his life. His death does not advance the Empire.
My Marauder treats Vette horribly because, as far as she is concerned, Vette is a slave. Now, if Vette were a possible love interest, she may see things differently…but without any need to treat her kindly, my Marauder is not going to treat Vette with any measure of kindness.
But, then, I’m a storyteller, and what my characters are like is important to me.
Lexi K
January 13, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Honestly, my biggest complaint, as this is BioWare we’re talking about, no sam-sex romance (yet).
As to Vette, I know I can’t romance her, but I’ll be damned if I’m not unintentionally going out of my way to earn her approval. So I freed her and now I’m essentially a Light Side Sith.
Neal L
January 6, 2012 at 1:37 pm
That is always the case in america, violence is OK, but involve sex and forget it.
1. Guns are legal in all 50 states, but prostitution is only legal in 1
2. Kill all the people you want in a movie and MPAA says PG-13, but show one boob and you can stamp an R on it. (this also applies to games with T vs. M ratings)
3. The right wing is wild about their gun rights, but don’t you dare give kids condoms or let two gays marry.
The moral have not declined, they remain unchanged essentially unchanged since the first puritans set foot in north America; violence is A-OK sex is not.