Duke Nukem Forever's 'Capture the Babe' mode is a slap in the face

@Cleric

Or if the babe in question is ugly, it'll be okay.

@Cleric
or turn the slap into a bullet wound and again, it magically becomes ok.

Turn it into a kiss or sex, and it'll become 10 times worse than a bullet.

Magic. It's real.

@Captain Planet Planeteer Power

Or fat.

@Cleric

What if you slapped a gay man?

I went there...

@Mmmmz well yeah that would be worse, that's called rape.

@Uncle Jesse

Hahahhahahahaha I went there he said lol

@Cleric

Make sure the man is white, otherwise you're just jumping from sexist to racist.

@TheDarkWayne

So sex is rape? I worry about the intimate side of your life.

@Uncle Jesse There are no gay men in Duke Nukem's world.

@Faceless Troll

In comparison to the Duke is everyone gay!

@Mr Bundy
No one that excessively butch *isn't* gay. He's gayer than a christian conservative republican in a bathroom playin' footsie under the stall.

@Bighouse - What did you think rape was? Of course it's sex, albeit non-consensual sex.

I think we are thinking about this mode all wrong. Do you remember the other classic game that allowed you to slap women? That's right folks: Goldeneye for the N64.

(Also, this game is one big misogynistic train wreck, and we're focusing on this one mode? It could be worse you know, the woman in question could be a stripper that has run away from Duke's favorite strip club, that has to be "put back in her place" by means of "slapping dat ass" and "making it rain". This is tame by comparison.)

@TheDarkWayne
Rape is called rape. Sex is consensual and thus called sex. I don't ever hear someone say, "He had sex by rape". It's "He raped..." the "Victim was raped". Not "The Victim was sexed up by force of rape"

So, point taken but denied.

If I meant to have rape implied, I would have said rape. It's like saying captain obvious is obvious.

@Mmmmz given that this situation is discussed in the context of the babe being carried as if a flag, slapped, and potentially hit with bullets, I feel pretty justified in assuming it would be rape.

@daevv What next, "Knock my bitch up"?

@daevv - That video...on MTV at night back in the day...c'est magnifique.

@Uncle Jesse I sure hope that Wayne Brady is unlockable for that mode.

@Uncle Jesse

Well if your avatar shows your reaction to that mode then I'm sure we've nothing to worry about.

@Uncle Jesse

No. No. No. It's pronounced "Cho-ca-bo"....but why would a yellow ostrich even HAVE a mode in a Duke Nukem game, let alone a cameo? lol

@Ghen So The Duke will just start calling women the "Offended Forces"?

@Apakal

Wait for the Kinect mode down the line.

@CaptainProtonX

Better have a co-op option.

@alucard3000

I thought it was widely assumed at this point that it wasn't going to be very good and that people were only planning on buying it out of some weird sense of brand loyalty.

@alucard3000

ummmmm... this is still Duke Nukem right? Whether or not it's good, it doesn't have controversial issues in it to sell games, it has controversial issues because that's what Duke Nukem games are about. Not sure if you've ever played some of the older ones, but they aren't just trying to stir up controversy, they're trying to be loyal to the source material. If they made a Duke Nukem game without nudity, extreme violence, offensive as hell commentary. etc. etc. etc. everyone would call foul.

@alucard3000

I still think the biggest story surrounding this game is that IT'S ACTUALLY BEING RELEASED! Seriously, no one would have guessed that Duke Nukem Forever would ever see the light of day after all these years.

@CaptainProtonX

Meant as reply for Alucard3000 up above.

@Mmmmz
There is no real math to comedy and what is too far. It's all about context, not the act itself. When they all line up to slap the lady in Airplane, it's funny. It's a nod to those 50's chauvinistic male lead tropes in films. It's also way over the top, with the whole line of people gag.

I'm not offended as some fort of feminist, only as someone who enjoys comedy. I's a lousy joke with no more meaning than "hah, he hit her", and frankly, this is the last thing a videogame needs right now. It's a culture drowning in negative stereotypes.

All the people that say "oh you just can't take a joke". I refuse to take it, because it's a lousy joke that shames me to admit to someone (especially a woman) that I like to play video games. South Park pushes the boundaries all the time, but guess who else did, Andrew Dice Clay. Only one of those two is funny.

@MLS
If it were a man being slapped it'd still be a joke and no one would flinch. If it were a woman slapping a man, no one would flinch.

So I refuse your argument because, again, men can be treated like crap in EVERY context if it's a woman doing it. Explain that or even excuse it.

So, sorry, this isn't debasing to gaming or women. Only to those that find offense in something that isn't offensive. Especially in the culture where you can kill and maim someone and that's more tolerable than sex or "violence" against women.

It's always funny to kick a man in his balls, possibly forever destroying his chances at procreation, but it's never ok to look at a woman below her chin (even then it's offensive if she's "pretty") or use a woman for any sort of comedy unless the woman is the one committing the act on a man or another woman.

You can't pick and choose what's right for equality. True equality means this sort of humor isn't tolerable on any sex.

@MLS

You claim comedy is all about context,

then claim you are offended without ever seeing it in context...

@Mmmmz I think MLS' point is less about the inequality of the act, and more that it's just not funny. If it were a woman slapping a man, it probably wouldn't be funny either

@Mmmmz
And I don't approve violence against women or anything that "desensitizes" violence against women. And I understand the argument against "media" portraying women in a negative light but it's mostly people making something out of nothing.

A woman can oggle a man and that's fine. She can want his "package" all she wants.

A man can never appreciate a woman's body or face. It's "chauvinistic", it's wrong.

If you want context to be brought in, it has to be brought in on both sides. This isn't a one-way battle.

If women really want equality they need to fix their perceptions on men just as much as men need to fix their on women and if you look at it, assuming the women is willing, women are always treated better than men. They're things of beauty whereas men are things of crime against nature and beasts.

A woman can say a woman is beautiful but a man can't say a woman or man for that matter, is beautiful.

Again, it's a two way street. Women need to stop blaming everyone while not addressing how they view men themselves.

@TheDarkWayne
I disagree. In plenty of movies and sitcoms you see this kind of comedy. 3 stooges? Almost every sitcom?

When someone is screaming hysterically, you almost always get slapped... Regardless of gender.

@Mmmmz

I cannot accept your "if". When that happens, you can bring it up, but you can't just point to an imagined parallel universe and say "it's ok with them!" This is the situation as it is, and it's embarrassing.

Embarrassing is the key word here. Like I said before, this isn't a sexism rant, it's a rant on shite humor that makes gamers look bad. Also, you can't try to call me out for choosing a side and saying it's only my personal opinion; then chose the other side and claim that to be the objective truth.

It's a dumb joke that embarrasses all parties involved. Not that I'd expect this game to do any better, or that I was going to play it anyway. Also, to the guy who guy who said I don't know the full context of the joke. You got me there; I am sticking my neck out a bit. Maybe there is something more to it that - oh who am I kidding? Something more to Duke Nukem? Hah!

The rest of your rant is going way off into this rabbit hole of what is sexist and what isn't. Not even worth talking about. Especially since I had already explained that off-color comedy thrives when done right, and that you CAN make those jokes if you've got the wit, which Duke obviously has never had.

@MLS You really live in your own bubble it seems. Power to ya!
My "ifs" are happening every day and if you want to get smacked in the face with it, watch Lifetime "for women". It's simply offensive how they portray men. Almost every instance is degrading. It's also extremely degrading to women because it basically hypes every stereotype against them.

Why is this humor degrading and embarrassing in gaming when it's everywhere else? How does this define the genre? I chose the sexism route because I assumed that's where your perspective was. (also, not because you proclaim to be a woman). I simply don't understand your complaint to taking offense on this. I could totally understand you not finding it funny, but to say it's degrading and offensive, especially to gaming on the whole? Makes no sense to me.

You're letting it define the genre.

It's like saying porn is embarrassing to the movie industry. It makes no sense.

@Mmmmz
IT'S NOT HAPPENING IN DUKE NUKEM!

God, you are daft. As if slapping/spanking a women to win a videogame is comparable to some Lifetime TV movie. Two different forms of entertainment on two entirely different cultures. It is not applicable. Stop talking about everywhere else. Whether or not it works there, doesn't excuse it from not working HERE.

Also, no. Terrible analogy to pornography and film. Duke Nukem is being sold on the same shelf as Deus Ex, Portal 2, Katamari Damacy, Madden... It's going to be just as contestable for GOTY, and reviewed on all the sites just like every other game.

It doesn't work like that in the film industry. A more logical comparison would be like a Rob Shnieder movie.

@Mmmmz

Yes, the problem is that men are the majority of rape victims and have to be careful because who knows when 11 women might gang rape a man. Husbands are so physically abused by their wives that we have shelters across the country for them. And 70% of all serial murders are men.

Wow, you're right. It is a two-way street.

@guttertalk
Yep, a minority makes a majority!

If you think how women are portrayed in media affects these men who commit crimes then one has to admit that violence in general, not just against women, affects them.

But that's a less comfortable approach, isn't it?

Did you even try to understand what I am saying? This isn't all for one, or all for none discussion.

Men are abused by women, though. It's also vastly under reported. Is it an epidemic? I don't know or truthfully care, but it's not exactly the argument I am positing here.

Of all violent crimes, how many are men on men? Does it matter what the gender is? I mean, a violent crime is a violent crime and I do find it more offensive against a woman, but in reality no violent crime should be diminished just because of gender. It's all crap.

Also, the fact that people find it more offensive to be violent against a woman exhibits the deep stereotype that women are inherently weaker. Do you support that? Sounds like it subconsciously. We all do. We all want nothing to happen to women. We don't want them to fight for wars, we don't want sexual violence committed against them, but why outside of them being a woman, does it matter more?

THINK! about it.

I'm not saying our societal views need to change in those respects, but I DO think we need to actually admit where they're BASED.

Men are naturally stronger than women. Not always, but that's the majority, it's how our bodies are grown. It's human nature.

If we had another sub-human species where women were physically stronger in general to their male counterparts, but the same in every other way I'm sure there'd be a flip there.

Just calling it sexism isn't doing anyone any favors. It's ignoring some aspects of the issues.