Red Dead Redemption: Increase Your Gamescore For Violence Against Women
I play video games, but I’m picky. As a huge fan of Deadwood, I was excited when I learned about the release of Red Dead Redemption – Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West, stealing horses instead of cars. Like a video game version of one of my favorite television shows. And then yesterday, I learned of a hidden achievement in the game, and
all my excitement and anticipation was flushed down the toilet.
In trying to pay homage to the classic westerns of yesteryear, where women were tied up on train tracks by a cartoon-y villain with a handlebar mustache, the game offers an achievement for tying up a woman and throwing her onto a set of train tracks. Except there’s no hero to save the day and untie her before the train comes, the points
are only awarded if you stand and watch as you let her be run over. It’s unfortunate that they made the achievement gender specific. Why couldn’t it have been a man or just a person? Rock Star Games does not exactly have a stellar record when it comes to females in their video games – most in the Grand Theft Auto series are prostitutes, drug addicts, victims, and strippers. While they were a little better in Red Dead Redemption – it’s a woman who saves the main character in the intro and women are shown talking about religion and politics in the opening credits sequence, they negated the little good they did by offering five measly gamer points for violently assaulting and killing a woman.
Youtube is already filling up with videos of gamers recording themselves getting the “Dastardly” achievement.
