In a bizarre attempt to educate the public about domestic violence, a women’s advocacy group in Denmark developed a game called “Hit the Bitch”.  In the game, a Danish-speaking female faces the camera, while the player controls a disembodied hand.  While she makes various comments to the player, the player is supposed to strike her across the face repeatedly.  In so doing, she receives increasingly large facial bruises.  There’s also a meter across the top of the screen that rates your damage, going from “100% Pussy” to “100% Gangsta”.  After enough damage is scored, the woman falls to the ground, crying.  The player at first receives the accolade that he’s “100% Gangsta” across the screen in large letters.  But — this is the big twist, see? — that message suddenly changes, chiding the player, telling him he’s really “100% Idiot”.

We here at Wandering Goblin get the message – domestic violence is wrong.   Thanks so much for “educating” us.  But is this the way a PSA is done?  Well, obviously, some well-meaning Danish beaurocrat thought so.   However, this is a public service announcement gone wrong way out into left field.  The terminology is offensive throughout, (c’mon, “100% Pussy”?), and the game insists on using Americanisms (”gangsta”) to affirm the suspect/boyfriend/player as he beats the woman/victim. What’s more, it seems to be written by 50 year old men trying to sound edgy and cool so as to appear to a younger crowd.  Nice try.

In perusing the ol’ intertubes (and traditional media), we found that the reaction across the board to this ‘educational experience’ has been negative.  Fundamentally, this one seems to be striking the same chord as the Baby Shaker game we covered some time back:  the concept is simply too offensive to be made into a game.  Another medium would suit the topic better.

The Danish website, where you could play the game for yourself (I’m sorry, did I say “play”?  I meant to say, “Where one could partake in a interactive educational simulation with an edgy feel that appeals to young people”) is now closed to everyone outside of Denmark.  It seems that the developers are getting an education, too.

Here’s a pair of videos of the game (the game is, as we mentioned, now closed to non-Danes):

In case you haven’t had your fill of offensive video “games”, here’s the Baby Shaker iPhone game we mentioned earlier:

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

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