Do you think similarities between the incidents in Boston could affect the launch of Watch Dogs?

The appearance of the suspected bombers and the look and feel of Chicago and Boston are very similar. Also the game seems to be about a rather abberant hero who is working against the police towards some goal, which to a layman could look like terrorism.

No.

nope but expect some backlash when gta v comes out

I all most did not click this thinking someone might be suggesting all this was a super stagged promo for the game.

Nope.

Alex Jones is prepping that video as we speak

Not at all

Oh boy.

They both wear hats, a clear sign of terrorist activities.

Hey guys, The Last of Us takes place in Boston, maybe we should cancel that too. GTA V is about crime, let's cancel it. In the Killzone trailer there was an explosion, cancel it.

Let fiction be fiction. If we start letting real tragedy stifle creative works, hasn't terrorism in some way succeeded by dictating what we can and can't do?

What? No. Get out of here.

Erm...no the Last of Us takes place in Pittsburgh.

I had no idea. Was just agreeing with their general sentiment. Things should not be censored because of real world events. This is not even a similar thing, so it's extra silly. I remember hearing MGS2 was edited but that was over a decade ago.

I probably shouldn't have googled Alex Jones. Jesus Christ, what a nutcase...

I thought the Watch Dogs protagonist was a good guy, though a vigilante type.

I really thought this was going to be about the surveillance aspect of Watch Dogs. Since surveillance played a major role in finding the suspects, Watch Dogs' examination of the morality of public cameras becomes all the more relevant. Games can be relevant and focus on questions that trouble the modern world. I'm happy Watch Dogs is looking that way.

Also, from the parts we have seen, it looks like Aiden is a chaotic good actor--he is not above collateral damage, but his goal is higher than terrorism. Not that a game built around being a terrorist should not exist. That could be important, too.

That is like a billion news cycles from when Watchdogs comes out. People have goldfish memories.

The game starts in Boston. The demo I played at PAX East definitely took place in Boston, I recognized street names and some landmarks.

http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/Boston

A couple folks will say "This new video game 'Dog Watchers' is teaching our kids to score points by terrorizing a city and emulating the Boston bombings!", a bunch of people will get outraged, nothing will come of it, a month will go by, and those people will have found something else to get angry about. Business as usual.

@ll_exile_ll said:

I don't think the OP (or anyone for that matter) is arguing that this is something that should happen, or even should be a consideration. Besides, as far as reactions to recent events go, I think delaying the release is more likely than outright censoring.

That said, it won't happen. Maybe if it came out within the next month and there was a scene reminiscent enough of the events.

No - I don't think anyone would care even if it came out today. It would need a back of the box quote from one of the brothers before anyone even noticed it. Leave it to GTA to get the moron constituency of America all hot and bothered.

All this did was remind me of Watch_Dogs and now I'm sad because any time other than "now" is too long to wait for that.

Nobody will give a fuck about what happened in Boston by approximately tomorrow morning.

No... I hope not at least, one thing that is odd, and few people know though is that Halo was Rated M because of the 9/11 thing, which is pretty dumb if you ask me, but it is a fact.

sigh

Yeah, more or less this.

We know so little about Watch Dogs at this point that to speculate how closely events in the game resemble real-life tragedies is a pointless endeavor. In no way has what little that's been shown of the game at this point even remotely resembled the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

Grand Theft Auto 3 came out a month after 9/11 and it only had minor changes. I think they changed the color of the cop cars and the box art? Maybe something else but that is all I remember.

So what I'm trying to say is Ubisoft will probably cancel Watch Dogs next week.

@peasantabuse: Didnt they also remove planes from the game?

No. It's a fair question, but I seriously doubt it'll be an issue.

What? No.

I don't think the OP was accusing the game of anything. He was just saying...

Technically, they just clipped the wings of a plane, named it the Dodo.

@mrsignerman44: Thank you. I don't post often, but when I do I get alot of one-word or "OP lets not talk about this"

This is the type of discussion I was looking for. I was chilled at how a non-government controlled camera system by businesses was used by digital vigilantes to do what they thought was right and actually got it wrong! The main character from what we know is a vigilante and he uses stolen government surveillance mixed with hacked internet data to do his "anti-hero" work. I hope they touch on the mistakes that someone could make.

Also who was scared watching a Boston suburb turn into a militarized police quarantine zone. Justified or not, what was going on that day was more frightening than scenarios that Tom Clancy cooks up.

Remember that proof of concept video for a Rainbow 6 reboot?

I really love games that go for the "Thriller" style of real world scenarios. But when they get too close to real events, people who can't compartmentalize (or media who takes advantage of people who cannot) what is a game can scare away investments in these types of franchises.

Is this game still coming out? I haven't heard of seen anything about it a long time. Rainbow 6 patriots, that is.

Nah. If the following were true:

• The game took place in Boston
• There's a mission where you rig explosives to blow up a civilian target
• The game was set to release less than a month after the bombing

...then I might see them delaying the game and perhaps altering that one bit. As it is, I sincerely doubt it.

Wait, the bombers look similar to who? the main character?

If there ever was any grasping at straws this would probably be it.

It wouldn't be anything new! How many times have you seen ignorant people draw conclusions from false or incomplete information? News outlets saying GTA has rape, newscasters talking about games that don't even exist, it totally happens.

You should write for Kotaku. Sensational? Check! One paragraph? Check!

Did you read anything or did you wander to the bottom to post your snark?

What is the point of a forum if you are just gonna see OP and go: "pfftt... I'm gonna write something witty so everyone will know how dumb I think OP is and not reflect on anything or offer any real discussion on the topic."

I don't think they will delay it but I'm fairly confident someone will call the game dangerous when it comes out for advocating terrorism or something like that.

Every incident has a window of time where media depictions of it can be accused of coming out "too soon." There were numerous films, songs, games, etc. that were censored, not played, or straight up cancelled due to possible similarities to 9/11, for example. Given this event did not result in such a huge loss of life, and that the suspects were caught rather quickly, I'd say the window on this event will pass long before Watch Dogs comes out.

Also, maybe the point of Watch Dogs is that you're a terrible person to begin with. idk. Just throwing that out there.

I think the fact that you thought of this topic proves that somebody could make that connection, but I don't think it's going to have any kind of impact on the game. I give you props for actually making an interesting topic that pissed people off though! haha

Ew!

Kidding.

But I agree, fiction is exactly that. If it's not trying to handle the subject of the Boston tragedy, then don't connect the two.

ಠ_ಠ

God. This is still an active thread huh? Awesome.

If things like this music video can exist without mobs of Americans lynching the creators, then I'm sure Watch_Dogs will be fine.