January 18, 2008 -
In the past, GamePolitics has reported on various games, both indie and commercial, the very concepts of which have raised hackles.These include the likes of Bully, Super Columbine Massacre RPG and V-Tech Rampage.
Some, like Danny Ledonne's SCMRPG, aspire to a cultural message. Others, like V-Tech Rampage, were released with the specific intent to offend, apparently just for the creator's twisted amusement.
But what if a game designer wanted you to feel outrage, but also hoped to motivate you to do something about it?
That is the case with Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator. National Nine MSN in Australia spoke with Conor O'Kane, who designed the game to raise public awareness of the fight against commercial whaling. O'Kane is particularly troubled by claims of Japanese whalers that they only harvest the animals for research.
O'Kane explained the reasoning behind Harpooned's direct approach:
If people [are] offended by the game they should be even more offended by real whaling... I hope people make the next logical step and realise that reality is much worse than a video game. The more people tell their friends about how disgusting it is, the better … it puts more pressures on the whalers.
Harpooned is a top-down scroller in which you control a "research vessel." Your job is to kill as many whales as you can for pet food, er, research. If you harvest enough whales in a row, you are rewarded with an "ultra-scientific bonus!"
Running into icebergs damages your ship, and colliding with protesters who are trying to protect the whale pods causes a loss of points for legal fees. Each level ends with you transferring your haul of whale meat to a cargo ship for "further research," Congratulatory messages follow, based on the number of cans of pet food and whale burgers your "research" managed to produce.
Harpooned is a Windows-only game created using the Torque Game Builder from Garage Games.
- Reporting from Canada, where he's carefully scrutinizing any pet food that says "Now with 25% more research!", GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes.
Comments
Yeah, their original message is drowned in blood and gore. A shame really...
Does anybody outside Japan even support commercial whaling? I really hope the game comes with a FAQ or some links detailing ways in which we can show our support effectively (donations? petitions? addresses to which we could write letters?), as I'm not sure how telling my Western friends that whaling is barbaric puts any more pressure on whalers in the Far East.
Still... it's the thought that counts? Tbh, I think this probably does more to benefit videogames as serious medium than it does the whale conservation movement.
Seriously, this is a great idea. It shows what whaling is, and what it is used for (although a little exagerated).
We'll see how the world takes it.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Now, I'm not standing in judgement of these things, I have my views, other people may have other views, both of whaling and on the acts of the protesters, but nevertheless, it does sort of go in complete reversal to what is generally assumed.
The Japanese hunt several types of whales. In December, they announced they would no longer hunt Humpback whales, after being threated by the Australian military, who claimed they would board any whaling vessel in their waters (which is basically where the Japanese hunt Humpbacks) and actively dissuade them from hunting. However, they will continue to hunt various other species. They also actively hunt dolphins, which is considered a delicacy in Japan, despite the often high levels of mercury they contain.
If this game increases the awareness about whaling, I'm all for it. I myself thought every country had outlawed whaling until I spoke with a marine naturalist from the Pacific Whale Foundation recently and then did some independent research.
But then, I think that, in part, is the point too, games are fun, real whaling isn't so much.
I've been speaking to the author via email and decided to help him out with hosting the game file. He's had so many downloads that's he's nearly gone over his monthly limit in bandwidth.
It shames me, but I believe my homecountry takes in 500 whales in one year.
But then Jack Thompsons said by simply playing the game I would become a whaler because thats what video games do. Turn people into murderes and or whalers.
The Japanese arnt the only ones that hunt of whales. but eh who cares about the others
Viking - yes, Norway and Iceland still have full commercial whaling programs. America also kills a few whales each year.
Ahh Oh No - The Japanese are the only nation who call their whaling 'scientific research' in an attempt to legalize it. By doing so they are making a mockery of legitimate science, so I am making a mockery of them.
Also, they call it research because it partly is, they analyze them before harvesting them to get their numbers and stuff.
And whales eat more fish than we ever farm and the steady increase in their numbers is causing more depletion than we could ever cause, so either we have to stop fishing or start Whaling.
"They analyze them before harvesting them to get their numbers and stuff"??? LOL. Pity that quote never made it into the game in the first place, it would have fit perfectly alongside the other ridiculous claims made by the Japanese whaling industry. Did it ever occur to you that since they're "analysing them" beforehand "to get their numbers and stuff", that maybe they didn't then have to go ahead and actually kill them? That's the whole point of this game, the so-called research is nothing more than a front for commercial interests.
molto - Fin, Humpback, Brydes, Sei and Minke whales eat krill. Sperm whales eat squid. None of those species eat any fish. Japan catches around 11.9 million tons of fish a year (according to wikipedia).
Well stated, if a bit overgeneralized.
"nuke the whales!"
Hey, you gotta nuke something.
And wouldn't you know it, they had to make it in the style of a 2D SCHMUP. They read the Japanese audience really well!
Have you thought about posting a .plan on GG about the game and work you put into it?
It also points out the futility of protesting: To the whalers, you're just a nuisance. And to the player, they're just a nuisance.
If you look at it that way, then this game becomes a very powerful message of sympathy for the sinners. Because now, you know that if put in that situation, you can understand why you may hunt down those whales without remorse (for money). And I think this is a far more productive way to look at whalers than just "they're evil!"
That is wrong thinking, no matter how you justify it. Yes, the whales are big and have been on Earth far longer than we have, and we should hold deep reverence to the whales and a ton of respect and out of respect for the whales we don't kill them (or hold back our whale homicidal urges), but what groups like Greenpeace are trying to convey is that the whales are superior to humans in every way and that humans don't matter in the larger picture. Is that kind of thinking even right?
Well, I won't bother with your moral standing on the issue, but the game is hilarious.
The problem is not that the Japanese hunt Whales, no-one has a problem with that in theory, if they want to, but they are being killed at a far faster rate than they are being born. That is cause for concern. After all, why should we care about a few Dodo's, or the Javan Tiger or the Hokkaido Wolf?
Hunting for survival is one thing, hunting to extinction, that takes a gross lack of concern, not just for their own future, but for everyone's.
I don't think anti-whaling activists are all saying whalers are 'evil', but saying their activities are in violation of international law seems valid to me. Saying whaling is cruel, that using harpoons that enter the body of a whale and then explode internally, that THAT is cruel, such criticism isn't censorious or arbitrary but descriptively accurate. I am not saying whales are BETTER than humans, but that we should at least have enough compassion as thoughtful human beings in our own right to say NO to this sort of barbarism.
Start your action with ===>>
jAPAN CAR AND ELECTRICAL COMPANIES, 7-ELEVEN, SEALORD, ...
Do not visit the barbaric Japanese. The same applies to Norway and Iceland. There must be NO hunting of the highly intelligent Cetacean mammal family. (It includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Japan's IWC-approved "scientific" whaling is run by the "Institute of Cetacean Reasearch".)
Japan and its international friends (many bribed into kowtowing) should be international pariahs (outcasts). NO hunting should be tolerated. Even Norway says whales take up to an hour to die. Whales are harpooned with explosives. As for dolphins, 23,000 are slashed to death by Jap brutes with knives in several hunts, of which Taijin is well-known. Dolphins and small whales are herded into bays and... The water is thick with blood.
Humanity is much the poorer for allowing de facto commercial whaling. The king of the ocean AGAIN faces being hunted to extinction for sashimi-loving gluttons.
Japan, Norway and Iceland, you unintelligent corrupt thugs !!
Don't let yourself be brainwashed !! PLEASE talk about the whale and dolphin slaughters. Do some Web research. Write up WebSites. Join BoycottJapan (dot) org Please contact me now on econow1 (at) gmail for more suggestions.
As for a game being developed to encourage a bloodthirst for slaughtering the magnificent whales, the most gentle and largest mammal on earth.. that is simply sick. All of you, who think you are 'smart' 'humourous' or somehow 'cool' for wanting to kill these mammals, or think the thrill in killing (even by computer) a creature so magnificent... your DNA is not a very compassionate, deep or caring type, eh?
If anyone knows how to reinvent ANY creature that is endangered, and lets face it, the planet is in dire troubles (cruelty, and 'eat meat': four legs, feathers or fins, to animals is rampant), then go on, keep killing, and watch what kind of world your kids all inherit... without a sense of 'shame', and bereft of any interesting faces of creatures other than our own hard hearted ones; a world without any other type of living thing except humanoids, and concrete. Its not a very nice picture, eh?
Start with your own thoughts... stop inflicting small, cruel and unkind thoughts on other aspects of this awesome creation.. and if you don't like the world you live in, don't make it worse... do something to make the world a better place to live in... trashing, bashing and cashing, do not count for a life lived with a cruel heart.
Oh, and by the way, whales mainly eat krill.. not fish. Humans have depleted the Ocean of fish 90% since the turn of the century. Overfishing is rampant. The Ocean produces 60% of the worlds oxygen, of which whales help with.. they produce excrement which fertilises the plankton, which in turn, gives us oxygen. Whales are the 'Wisdom bearers' of the Ocean... or, is all this just too complicated for small brains of humanoids. The whales brain and heart is ten times the size of ours.... perhaps thats why they are gentle, and we are not! Let the whales live.....