Simone Tagliaferri, editor e fondatore di Ars Ludica propone spesso provocazioni e punti di vista originali sul videogame. Nell’ultimo numero di Bab3l (rivista online indipendente sulla critica e la cultura videoludica) ripropone un argomento interessante già affrontato nel suo post “Shephard, il generale Custer e la crudeltà “. La tematica principale è l’immaturità nel medium videoludico e la sua incapacità di proporre contenuti provocatori, critici, destabilizzanti, in una parola: maturi.
Custer's Revenge (also known as Westward Ho and The White Man Came) is a pornographic video game made for the Atari 2600 by Mystique, a company that produced a number of adult video game titles for the system. The main character was based on General George Custer.
The game was first released on October 13, 1982 and has received significant criticism because of its crude simulation of an apparent rape of a physically restrained Native American woman.. As a result, it has been credited as being one of the most violent games ever made .
Gameplay
In the game, the player controls the character of General George Armstrong Custer, depicted as a man wearing nothing but a cavalry hat, boots, and a bandana, sporting a visible erection. Custer has to overcome arrow attacks to reach the other side of the screen. His goal is to have intercourse with a naked, large-breasted Native American woman, named "Revenge", who is bound to a post.
Controversy
Custer's Revenge gained notoriety for its peculiar plot. The game prompted criticism from women's rights groups who stated that the simulation of having sex with a tied-up woman was a simulation of rape. Other groups such as Women Against Pornography, Native American spokespersons, and critics of the video game industry in general protested the game.
Aside from complaints over the game's sexual content, many found the gameplay simplistic. People also found the pornography element of the game inadequate—the two characters' appearances have been compared to Lego bricks or cardboard boxes.
The focused media attention caused the game to sell approximately 80,000 copies, twice as many copies as Mystique's other X-rated games, Bachelor Party and Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em.
Variations
Like many other video game manufacturers of the era, Mystique went out of business. They sold the rights to their games to Playaround, which continued to market Custer's Revenge as Westward Ho for a time. They made minor modifications to the game, which included making the skin of the "woman" darker and having her extend her arm and gesture to "Custer" to come over to her. They also made a version of the game called General Retreat. In this game it is the "woman" who has to overcome various obstacles to have sex with "Custer"—who this time is the one tied to the post. Instead of arrows, cannon balls are fired at the woman. General Retreat has often been hailed as the better of the two versions, featuring slightly less questionable material.
Due to the game's pornographic gameplay, this game was often banned from stores or hidden behind the sales counter and only could be bought after directly asking for the game and after presenting I.D.
October 13, 1982