Hitman Absolution Trailer: All the Wrong Reasons
What the Hell?
Where to begin with this, I’m sure that there are dozens of others that have covered this section since the trailer for Hitman: Absolution has been released. For those who are not aware, a trailer released for Hitman: Absolution on May 29th had garnered a lot of hate and excitement from different kinds of gamers due to the material that was presented. The trailer has become a representation of what a company is willing to do in order to acquire publicity, unaware of the fact that bad publicity when it is acquired by heinous actions, will indeed be bad publicity. For those of you who are comfortable with a significant amount of blood shed and the sound of broken bones can watch the trailer on Youtube (link provided), while the ones who are will have the trailer explained. Don’t worry, you are not missing anything if you decide to not watch this unfortunate publicity stunt.
The Trailer
The trailer starts off with expert instrumental music playing in the background of split transitioning shots between Agent 47 bandaging himself up and eight women who are dressed as nuns (somewhat, they have on the nun outfit and the cross, but are wearing high heels in different styles). The women apparently reach their arbitrary destination and take off the nun outfits, revealing what they are wearing underneath: highly sexual gear that is not only idiotic for fighting or gun battles, but seem to target every sexual fantasy that is present in gamers. Leather vests with the zipper slid 40% of the way down, leather gloves that almost reach the shoulder, bottoms in the style of a one piece bathing suit that hug the crotch, full body suits, garters, suspenders that move in a diagonal formation from the hips, around the crotch and back up, and finally socks that go past the knee and into the thigh with holes in them. After using a RPG to destroy their arbitrary location, Agent 47 pulls out his guns, shows up, and after silently assassinating 3 of the women, he enters a battle with the other five, which culminates in blood spilled, bones broken, the main character winning, and closing the eyes of one of the women (as if he was doing some kind of religious work).
I will not go into detail about the fight, the trailer can show it off better then I can describe it, but I’m sure that we can all understand what this game company is trying to do. For a long time, the norms of gamers were an arbitrary moral system that was so idiotic, that it remains to be extremely easy to be as ignorant and as “American” as you wanted to be. Games by “American” standards were basically explosions that would give Michael Bay an erection, breasts that would be used for a WWE Diva, and ignorance that would make Fred Phelps look like Mister Rogers. I don’t consider it a coincidence that very popular games tend to follow this three part formula and sell a ridiculous amount of copies. This is the bad side of the gaming world, the side that the intelligent masses do not want to associate themselves with because they are actually trying to improve the public image of gaming instead of being this.
Too Far!
This trailer goes above and beyond to cater to the sexually frustrated gamers, the gamers who adore loads of violence, and the fans of the Hitman franchise. I have not played any of these games, and now because of this trailer, I do not want to. I am sure that the other games can stand on their own merits as their own works, but I am uncomfortable with paying money for a game towards a company that makes a trailer like this. I am angry about this trailer, and I am quite aware that many will dismiss it as the usual “Umad” that I see in 50% of the Modern Warfare 3 clan tags (along with swag), without being aware of the problem that this trailer is bringing up, the aforementioned immoral behaviors that are being repeated and turned up to eleven.
There is no excuse for this trailer. Trailers are idiotic in general since they are created by the company, and are usually waving around what they believe to be the good part of their game, or trying to acquire publicity, which I’m sure I’ve seen somewhere else in America. This trailer does not inform the gamer of the main character, since anyone who has heard of Hitman is already aware of what the main character is, an assassin. Be aware that every single scene, drawing, animation, and music piece is a deliberate move by the company to invoke excitement and desire to buy the game. This is not an assumption, this is truth, based on a pattern recognition theory with proof that I can link over and over and over.
Fuel for the ignorant masses
So at what are the gamers going to have to ameliorate because of this company’s idiotic decision? The main problem is obvious, I am going to bet money that there are going to be a significant amount of web sites or news stations that are going to be using this trailer as a reason to chastise video gaming and claim that it is an immature hobby for immature people and there is not any dignity left in people who use pixels to eliminate pixels (essentially) but are excited by it due to the amount of detail that the pixels create. I will not say that the gaming community is better then this, because it is far from true, but I will say that the video gaming medium cannot be treated seriously until we can positively transcend this public image that gamers have. That cannot be done until this trailer is explained to the fans and condemned.
I am not a politically correct person, because I believe that such a thing is just fear of truth coming out of people’s mouths. There is a fine line between being politically incorrect and acting like a dick, and my reaction to this trailer is not to make others think that a woman should not be in a dangerous profession and should only be in the kitchen cooking. A woman should be able to pursue whatever they wish to the same extent as men, which in our American ideal, should be limitless, even though it isn’t. I came across this comment on the Youtube channel which (at time of writing) had 25 thumbs up, probably given by 25 fans of the game. It read as follows, “You wanna know what I think? People have been calling this mysoginistic. But it’s the most equal the genders have ever been: The girls can get the same job as 47, although their physique and leather fetish meant a somewhat different approach than the one 47 is so famous for. But they’re assassins too! So I don’t get why people call this mysoginistic. Sure, he beats the living shit outta them, but that’s what you have to count on if you get into this business. That’s gender equality.”
All the wrong reasons…
Besides the fact that this person (presumably male) had spelled misogynistic wrong, I will assume that this is the defense for this kind of trailer. It is a shame that this defense is complete shit. Yes, I understand that an assassin job is dangerous, and death is possible at any moment. I will concede to the response that the women have the same job as the man, but the reason that this is considered misogynistic is blatant. The creators of the game had every say in what the trailer would be comprised of, so why would you say that this isn’t misogynistic when Agent 47 (the man) is the one who is treating his wounds for the first few scenes (which passively shows concentration and courage), while the women are desecrating a religious movement by dressing up as nuns despite being murderers (which blatantly portrays an individualistic and riotous characterization in a group format, much like a cult or coup). The man dresses up in a business suit and tie, which characterizes his professional demeanor of assassination in a passive way, while the women dress up in blatantly sexual outfits which do nothing for their character (besides blatantly portray that they are sluts, have high self esteem, or any other assumption, we will never know) since they are killed within 40 seconds of blowing something up. They could have been in completely different outfits, army outfits for example or their own business suits and ties. But the problem with that is that the sales numbers would have dropped, and we can’t have that can we? So essentially the whole trailer follows the professional male assassin with the same amount of immoral activity as the sexual female assassins, and ends with the grouped up team of females having their bones broken, blood splattered, and eventually killed. I am not politically correct, but I am pretty sure that this trailer was not made with the game plot in mind (you know, the reason that trailers should exist)?
