Westworld Is A Lot Tamer Than Video Games

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
It always makes me cringe when I see someone compare an R rated show to video games. It's almost like video games these days are the default comparison when people want to show that <insert whatever> isn't "as bad" as mature rated video games.

Now we have point-and-shoot games, intensely realistic in their depiction of violence. And we have “Westworld” as an extreme version of a game, where people are interacting with robots. I would venture that [HBO’s] “Westworld” is a lot tamer than [today’s] video games, and the world we live in today, versus the movie “Westworld,” which was much more intense than the video games of its era.
 
Though, I'm going to keep watching, I am bored with the show already. Also, basically no story so far, just confusion.
 
Last edited:
Article summary: A blog writer is asking a former entertainment studio exec if violence in movies and TV shows is bad for society and other stupid questions.

My response: How the fuck would this guy know? He isn't a psychologist or human behavior researcher or anything close to it. He's a former studio executive that made film entertainment for money. No bias there, right?

Pointless, useless article. I am now dumber for having read it.
 
Probleminfected said:
Though, I'm going to keep watching, I am bored with the show already. Also, basically. I story so far, just confusion.
Click to expand...
Stop not liking what I like! :mad:
Azrak said:
He isn't a psychologist or human behavior researcher or anything close to it.
Click to expand...
I like the explanation that was provided already, that at its core, people desire to exercise power over others, and they can't (or shouldn't) in the real world, so they do so harmlessly (assuming the machines are really just machines, and not new sentient lifeforms) in the Westworld sandbox game. Whether they go white hat (good) or black hat (bad), being able to dispense ultimate justice on others or raping/pillaging the land, either way you're exercising your power which makes you feel in control.

This essentially allows Westworld to act as a pressure relief valve, for those that can afford it, so that they don't feel the urge to abuse their power in the real world against real people.

So in effect, they are saying that the desire is simple human nature, and this is a harmless diversion to actually REDUCE harm/violence/subjugation of real people, making for a more harmonious and peaceful society, and that makes sense to me. The one exception of course that out of all that are there, there is a "whale" gamer that becomes addicted and spends all his time and money on the game and gets too sucked in to it, which is a real problem in the real world for video games, for a tiny fraction of players.
 
Last edited:
Lets see espouse and promote a world where rape, more rape, physical violence, murder and mayhem for the sake of it (bad guy story lines) and the ability to role-play sociopathic tendencies ... yay video games are horrible!
 
Westworld is like running a tabletop RPG with a few people who are not really interested in the game. Tons of leads for quests, party hangs in town and fucks the whores and shoots random people.
 
There should be a lot more whoring around in games, alas its not often an option. The irony...
 
Probleminfected said:
Though, I'm going to keep watching, I am bored with the show already. Also, basically no story so far, just confusion.
Click to expand...

While I think more power to you, I will disagree that there's no story. I think for 3 episodes theres a huge amount of story and intrigue.

Eamples
Delos - Why is the main lobby in ruins. What is the agenda of the parent company

Bernard - What's his motivation now influenced by his child

Ford - What's the story ford is coming up with, is it as simple as a religious fanatic thing.

man in black - who is he, did he actually rape Delores or just reprogram her. Is he arnold since Arnold's goal was to find conciousness in the host, and she's getting there.

so much more

It's slow paced but it's so much like Blade Runner to me that I love it. Once again it's each their own, and I don't think you are wrong if you are personally bored. I just find a lot of intrigue in it.
 
It is 500 years in the future, the world is in ruins after a war, and everyone in Westworld is a robot. The techs, when they talk to their loved ones on those video phones, they are talking to other robots.
 
finally got around to start watching, episode 1 was pretty good I liked it. just starting episode 2. I like what they did with the music, olde timey black hole sun and paint it black was cool!

Ducman69 said:
The one exception of course that out of all that are there, there is a "whale" gamer that becomes addicted and spends all his time and money on the game and gets too sucked in to it
Click to expand...
first thing that popped into my head when I read this was:

 
Azrak said:
Article summary: A blog writer is asking a former entertainment studio exec if violence in movies and TV shows is bad for society and other stupid questions.

My response: How the fuck would this guy know? He isn't a psychologist or human behavior researcher or anything close to it. He's a former studio executive that made film entertainment for money. No bias there, right?

Pointless, useless article. I am now dumber for having read it.
Click to expand...

It's not pointless. It presents me with an opportunity to share with all of you that I fell asleep during the 3rd episode. Show's already boring.
 
I really like the show. Ed Harris's character being the flip side of Ule Yul Brynners is very cool. Also, the memory glitch is intentional not just a software issue. Cannot wait to see the MAZE
 
I also like the lover level, signs of the Delos corp from the first movie. Not to mention, where is WW? They talk about long rotations... could it be on another planet? And what about the Incident? is that a reference to the software malfunction of first movie?
 
The original westworld era games were Chainmail aka the prequel to Dungeons and Dragons that started in 74. Im sure many a d&d adventure was far more violent then the original westworld
 
jpm100 said:
Sounds like its shaping up to be another 'Lost'.
Click to expand...

Heh I've had that thought myself, but this story seems to be far more contained than the "we don't know where we are going with this" crapfest that was Lost.

cptnjarhead said:
I also like the lover level, signs of the Delos corp from the first movie. Not to mention, where is WW? They talk about long rotations... could it be on another planet? And what about the Incident? is that a reference to the software malfunction of first movie?
Click to expand...

I've wondered that too because when Hopkins comes across a snake he knows it is a robot. If Westworld was on our planet and not an entirely fabricated environment wouldn't he have to be careful that it wasn't a real snake? I don't know if we will ever find out where it is, and it's not terribly important. I kind of like the mystery, actually.
 
Steve said:
It always makes me cringe when I see someone compare an R rated show to video games. It's almost like video games these days are the default comparison when people want to show that <insert whatever> isn't "as bad" as mature rated video games.

Now we have point-and-shoot games, intensely realistic in their depiction of violence. And we have “Westworld” as an extreme version of a game, where people are interacting with robots. I would venture that [HBO’s] “Westworld” is a lot tamer than [today’s] video games, and the world we live in today, versus the movie “Westworld,” which was much more intense than the video games of its era.
Click to expand...


Well, the chicks in my video games never run off upstairs together to have a good time...... just saying.
 
Gweenz said:
I've wondered that too because when Hopkins comes across a snake he knows it is a robot. If Westworld was on our planet and not an entirely fabricated environment wouldn't he have to be careful that it wasn't a real snake? I don't know if we will ever find out where it is, and it's not terribly important. I kind of like the mystery, actually.
Click to expand...

Exactly, if the park was on earth, there is no way they could control the wild life in such a large area, unless its underground or a huge ass dome! And whats with all that water in cold storage? Then there is the conversation about other projects and influence besides a robot filled Disneyland.
 
Actually, West World is not really grabbing me.

I may keep my HBO sub going a little while longer. I'd like to see Game Of Thrones finish up but this last season is supposed to be shortened and late. But it is getting hard for me to keep watching West World, I think I'd rather watch Deadwood again. I could binge that one for a while, perhaps it would last me until GoT Season 7 releases, if not, I can pick WW back up.
 
Ars Technica has a podcast called Decrypted, originally made for Mr. Robot, but they're covering Westworld now*. This was similar to a topic discussed in yesterday's podcast episode: how does the game in Westworld compare to video games. Very rough tl;dl: Westworld has no stakes involved for the players who visit (it's basically invulnerable god mode), so that's a weak spot for the game element.

* it's pretty interesting, and last week one of the hosts (watched and) discussed the original Westworld and Futureworld films and another watched and discussed the short lived TV series based on the books. It's a little spoiler-ish, but the HBO series seems to be more loosely based on the books and those prior iterations, so it's not revealing anything major. It's worth listening to if you like the series.
 
Last edited:
Steve said:
It always makes me cringe when I see someone compare an R rated show to video games. It's almost like video games these days are the default comparison when people want to show that <insert whatever> isn't "as bad" as mature rated video games.
Click to expand...
In this case, though, it's not a generic movie comparison to generic game, it's a movie about a game being compared to games so it's at least relevant.
 
jpm100 said:
Sounds like its shaping up to be another 'Lost'.
Click to expand...

I've got no problem with this. Lost was good tv on some parts, but it was also network tv. HBO money, tits and ass, and more substance over commercial breaks...yeah I'm okay with that.

Lost was also incredibly shitty in some parts, but I blame that more on them trying to stretch out things to fit abc's network demands.
 
Steve said:
I would venture that [HBO’s] “Westworld” is a lot tamer than [today’s] video games, and the world we live in today, versus the movie “Westworld,” which was much more intense than the video games of its era.
Click to expand...

This is bullhit at it's finest. Obviously Pong was more intense than Westworld. #AuthorIsAnIdiot
 
cptnjarhead said:
Exactly, if the park was on earth, there is no way they could control the wild life in such a large area, unless its underground or a huge ass dome! And whats with all that water in cold storage? Then there is the conversation about other projects and influence besides a robot filled Disneyland.
Click to expand...

There is another possibility, that the show exists in a post-apocalyptic world where those species don't exist anymore. However even if that was the case I would be hesitant to walk right up to a rattlesnake. If you're familiar with the original movie, there was a "Medieval" and "Roman" world. I wonder if those other projects they mention might be hinting at this.

trentchau said:
I've got no problem with this. Lost was good tv on some parts, but it was also network tv. HBO money, tits and ass, and more substance over commercial breaks...yeah I'm okay with that.

Lost was also incredibly shitty in some parts, but I blame that more on them trying to stretch out things to fit abc's network demands.
Click to expand...

What sucked about Lost is that it became glaringly obvious right around the beginning of season 2 that the writers had no answers for the mysteries they introduced in season 1. They were making it up as they went. That's bad writing, and in the end the explanation for everything was SO DUMB.
 
Gweenz said:
There is another possibility, that the show exists in a post-apocalyptic world where those species don't exist anymore. However even if that was the case I would be hesitant to walk right up to a rattlesnake. If you're familiar with the original movie, there was a "Medieval" and "Roman" world. I wonder if those other projects they mention might be hinting at this.



What sucked about Lost is that it became glaringly obvious right around the beginning of season 2 that the writers had no answers for the mysteries they introduced in season 1. They were making it up as they went. That's bad writing, and in the end the explanation for everything was SO DUMB.
Click to expand...

The end explanation was almost identical to what fans thought it was after the pilot first aired.
 
Gweenz said:
There is another possibility, that the show exists in a post-apocalyptic world where those species don't exist anymore. However even if that was the case I would be hesitant to walk right up to a rattlesnake. If you're familiar with the original movie, there was a "Medieval" and "Roman" world. I wonder if those other projects they mention might be hinting at this.
Click to expand...

Could be, but after reading the Delos terms of service i think it could be on earth.

(d) All livestock within the Delos parks are Hosts, with the notable exception of flies.
Click to expand...

(e) Delos, Inc. shall not have a liability to you by reason of any delay or failure to perform if the delay or failure to perform is occasioned by circumstance beyond our control, which shall refer to any act of God, storm, fire, casualty, unanticipated work stoppage, power outage, satellite failure, strike, lockout, labor dispute, civil disturbance, riot, war, national emergency, Governmental action, Host malfunction, or other circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top