The usual boring attitudes
The market will decide. It's all about money, despite what some people would like to think about the importance of their moral opinion. This game will sell, just like Postal did, and for the same reasons. We are creatures of violence. We like to see violence, we want to see violence, but we want to stay safe from violence ourselves. We bask in TV violence all week. We seek the latest violent news in the papers, on the Internet, at the neighbors' house. We are all perverted like that, and those who advocate against violence are, ironically, quite well disposed to use it themselves (forbidding access to something is a form of violence).
There was only one Mahatma Ghandi.
The rest of us, especially males, are all potential rapists, murderers and molesters. Some of us control those emotions better than others. This game caters to those emotions, and those emotions have been catered to since before the gladiator arenas in ancient Rome (you know, before Christ ?).
And for those who think a violent film will only be seen once, I laugh. What keeps me from viewing my DVDs over and over again ? It's not because YOU only watch a film once that everyone else does. Do you think I pay €18 to see a film only once ?
Anything can make a person that is already borderline go over the edge. Once upon a time it was knee-length skirts that were anathema. Well we've got thongs in the streets now, and I don't think the rape statistics are any worse than they use to be. They're probably not much better either, and that's a shame.
In any case, a game is a game. There are Nazi games of torture out there, I'm sure one can find them on the Internet. I don't go and look for them, I'm not interested in the subject. There are also loads of porno games of all kinds, also available on the Internet for those who know how to look. I'm not interested in that either. P0rno and violence, the Two Pillars of Humanity. To deny them is to refuse power over them. I accept them, and I can choose what I wish to be subject to.
I will not pretend that I know better than my neighbor though. If he wants to watch violent films or play violent games, good for him. As long as he is polite with his fellow man, ready to lend a helping hand, who am I to judge his personal past times ?
Of course, viewing kiddie p0rn or snuff films is something else entirely. Making those hurt people, and are therefor reprehensible. But a game hurts no one, no more than a Hollywood film does (unless it's a really, really bad one).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
