Is it ever ok to say 'gooks'?

Nothing like a racially-charged slur to get everyone's attention! The easy answer to that question is, of course, 'no'. But we all know it's not that simple. Bad things don't stop being bad things if we just stop talking about them. I just finished writing a review of Vietcong, one of the most well-executed games I've ever played, and there are admittedly a lot of bad things associated with its subject matter - the Vietnam war. This game is unabashedly focused on historical authenticity and on a realistic portrayal of infantry combat in Vietnam. They could have taken the very easy route by saying that bad words are bad and so we shouldn't say them. Instead, they recognized that the above racial epithet was just one of many defining characteristics of the conflict. Its omission would be as glaring as an omission of hueys, Hendrix, and heroin. Oh wait, they did omit heroin. But that's only because they wanted to be able to sell the game at Wal-Mart. Actually, Wal-Mart wasn't cool with the blood either, so they had to gut all that out of the game as well. Luckily, there's an internet that isn't completely controlled by the oppressive, quasi-religious, corporate-owned governments. Yet. So, I got lucky and landed a copy of the M-rated version of the game. Good luck finding it now.

The point is that I played a game that said, among lots of other profanity, the g-word. It didn't bother me the least, and I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. My girlfriend's jaw dropped the first time she heard what was coming out of my speakers as I played.

Seriously, though, I was playing a game that was trying very hard (and succeeding) at portraying U.S. combat in the Vietnam war. There were, to say the least, some unpleasant aspects of that conflict, and I knew that going in. More to the point, I wanted that. I'm an adult. I can differentiate right from wrong, and I'm sure as hell going to support my freedom to do so on my own terms, not those dictated to me by the pigopoly publishing industry. So when an M-rated game comes along that isn't just an insultingly sophomoric collection of boobs and fart jokes, but rather a serious, mature look at an inflection point in our nation's history, I'm going to pony up the cash and vote.

But let's not lose sight of the fact that Vietcong is still just a game. It's just a shooter. You run around and shoot stuff. If Wal-Mart can't trust its employees to enforce the ratings-related purchasing rules, then that's their problem. I'm happy to buy my entertainment elsewhere.

Go read the review.