Frank the farmhand -racist

[DGMacphee]

What's with this sudden hippie ranting?
Since when did hippies become reactionary and prudent?

Sometimes I wish less people could share their two cents in threads like this one

The hippie thing was just a silly joke I started. Don't worry, I don't hate hippies (Some of my best friends are hippies), and I'm sure no one else here hates them.

They also make top-notch brownies!

[fovmester]

Hello!

I finally browsed the General Discussion forum and what do I see? Four pages of lovely discussion over my little game! I guess most of you guessed that this was something I wanted when I made the game as it is: To be provocative and see how people would react. Let me explain:

Firstly I must react to what flinnt're saying, that

Ive just had to stop playing Frank the Farmhand as i found it quite offensive. To have to watch cut scenes of Klu Klux Klan members trying to burn a boy on the steak and having the word 'nigger' said every few scenes i think that it should not just come with a language warning (as pointed out on ags games site,) but with a racism warning also!

.
Well, first of all I must say that I don't understand the magnitude of your reaction. I'm not exactly portraying the racists as heroes. They're actually supposed to be stupid inbread illiterates who unjustly blame the black guy for something they're all afraid of. And this has happened so many times in history it's an indeniable fact that racists do so. (I.e. Nazi Germany and 19th century US). 

Besides, nothing much racist happens except for the mouthlashing. The black kid doesn't get burned. And he definately doesn't get beaten up or anything.

I'm only trying to make a statement: Racists are scared. And they're scared because they don't understand the blacks. And they don't understand them because they haven't been educated about them (or spent time with them for that matter).

I've gotten some reaction to why the main character (Frank) treat Ben (the black guy) so badly in the beginning of the game. Those of you who've played the game knows what I'm talking about. He does what you often do in adventuregames; you use other people for higher goals. Had Ben been white, very few would have raised an eyebrow. Therefore I wanted to show that you can make fun of black people in games without it having to be racism. Frank treats Ben bad, but then saves his life because Ben's such a good friend.

Lastly I want say that I don't think it's necessary for Frank the Farmhand to have a warning (or even a note) about its content. Like so many have pointed out in this topic I must say that the racist themes in the game are not very grave. There's no racist violence, and the strong language has already been rated.

Potch said it best:

Being a person who has fought against racism and the n-word (I refuse to even type it) for many years, you would think that I would find this game offensive.  But, in fact, I do not. /.../  We should not be censored to the truth.  The KKK has committed such attrocities on the human race, that is important to show it everyone to show just how wrong they are.  In reality, the scene was very true.  Things like that really happen.  The characters in the scene are in fact racist.  But the scene is true to life.  If the game was saying something bad about black people, then I would say... yes.  Put a racist warning on it.  But it is not.  It is depicting a very true, and terrible scene.  We can't shelter ourselves from the truth.

Another point to consider:  I am against racism in any form, but I think sometimes people take the censorship of it way to far.  /../
When we start sheltering ourselves from the truth, this is what happens.  There is no way to draw the line.  We would just lose too much.

I would like to ask Chris to remove the note from the game description if he feels that he can. I agree the game's provocative, but a warning like that could make people miss a game that they could find both entertaining and lecturing.