Hitman 2 Backlash [Oct 30, 2002, 09:40 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
The SikhNet News' Hitman 2 Video Petition
(thanks Computer and Video Games)
looks to inspire a recall of Hitman 2. Here's the deal: "SikhNet has
partnered with thirty-five Sikh organizations around the globe to demand that
video game publisher, Eidos Interactive, recall one of its games from the
market. The game, Hitman 2, incites racism and hatred against Sikhs and Dalits
by linking them to terrorism. The game glorifies violence against Sikhs within a
Gurdwara that looks like the Harmander Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple,
while Dalits are portrayed as followers of an evil cult leader, according to a
vivid description that was recently removed by Eidos from its web site."
The problem with your analogy is that the game isn't replicating the events of 1984. It's more like if someone, 5 years from now, made a game where you attack gun-wielding businessmen in a large building suspiciously reminiscent of the World Trade Center. I'm sure some people would be offended just by the presence of the WTC in a violent game, but these are the same people who get bent out of shape from just about anything.
It's not like the game is making a specific reference to the 1984 happenings. In fact, I could almost guarantee that the temple in hitman is only superficially similar to the temple referred to by the Sikhs. And really, its inclusion in the game is more of a tribute to its fantastic architecture than anything else. It's a bit unfortunate they fell to the standard stereotype of turbaned Sikhs as thugs, but I suppose there's a ready analog in the devout Catholicism of mobsters as portrayed in the Godfather or countless other mob movies.
This is just one more example of hypersensitivity spiralling out of control. I thought it was a problem endemic just to spoiled Americans, but apparently it's a global plague.
It's not like the game is making a specific reference to the 1984 happenings. In fact, I could almost guarantee that the temple in hitman is only superficially similar to the temple referred to by the Sikhs. And really, its inclusion in the game is more of a tribute to its fantastic architecture than anything else. It's a bit unfortunate they fell to the standard stereotype of turbaned Sikhs as thugs, but I suppose there's a ready analog in the devout Catholicism of mobsters as portrayed in the Godfather or countless other mob movies.
This is just one more example of hypersensitivity spiralling out of control. I thought it was a problem endemic just to spoiled Americans, but apparently it's a global plague.
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