In Perspective- Saints Row 4 ban

What you've heard

Saints Row 4 is an abomination! First, there is a space mission where you take “alien drugs” to enhance your performance. This isn’t optional; you can’t progress in the game unless you give into drug use! Pretend drugs made by aliens, but drugs none the less!. Worse, the game has an alien weapon where you launch people into the air by ramming it up their backside. Sure, both are extremely tongue in check and clearly over the top comedy, but we can’t stand for sexual references or drug use of any kind in video games! Australia has already banned this game, and we should follow suit!

Except

Saints Row is an open world game where the story involves nothing more than various reasons to go around shooting people in the face. There are side missions and distractions that take this to the point of “A Clockwork Orange” style ultra-violence. You can drive tanks around blowing up city blocks for kicks, gaining rewards based on how much damage you do and how quickly you murder the law enforcement officers sent to stop you. There is a racing game where you score points for running over civilians (bonus points for setting them on fire!). Your main method of travel around town is carjacking. In short, it’s one of the most violent experiences you will ever come across, and it never even tries to justify this violence. You’re not fighting a war, you’re not saving the princess; you are most probably the bad guy or at best the anti-hero (you have some level of choice in your character's actions), using violence to get whatever you want. Saints Row is not at all unique in this. One of the main criticisms of Saints Row among the gaming community is that it is a shameless clone of Grand Theft Auto (which you might notice is a game named after a felony). In games like “Dungeon Keeper” you even play at the villain with no plot beyond "find the most horrid and amusing ways to kill the heroes sent to bring you to justice". Yet no one suggests banning these games, and the over the top level of violence isn’t a factor in the outrage to Saints Row.

So what’s the deal?

The fact that we have evolved a society where sex is more shocking and has a harsher social stigma then violence or even murder is nothing new, and it has lead to apathy and acceptance of arbitrary morality. Something is morally objectionable not because of an inherent right or wrongness, but because of outcry from the right people, and because we hear that outcry often enough in the right places. Ironically, Saints Row speaks to this in one of its own mini-games. In Professor Genki's super ethical reality climax, you take part in a blood sport that has you killing people in plush animal costumes for the amusement of others ... but you can’t shoot the pandas because that would be unethical. In doing so it briefly shows its true colors as a brilliant satire.