A couple weeks ago, we saw the emergence of a new downloadable game coming up on the PlayStation Network, titled Fat Princess. It has an amusing premise: A princess is kidnapped and grossly over-fed by her captors. So once the hero arrives to rescue yon fair maiden, she’s become so big and heavy that escaping with her alive is more of a challenge than normal. You have the option of playing either end of the scene, whether you wish to save the princess or ward off invaders wishing to reclaim what you’ve rightfully stolen…and engorged.

After the gaming community enjoyed a good laugh, this game quickly stirred up controversy with groups suggesting that it enforces an offensive stereotype of overweight women. Counterarguments aside, once I’d caught my first glimpse of some more detailed screenshots, I’m now very curious to see how the controversy wages on. Mostly because as sexist as the game may or may not be, it is incredibly violent. What should be a cutesy romp of “tee hee hee”-style capture-the-flag (with cake!), Fat Princess opens up the opportunity of a 32-player blood-pooling slaughter!

I’m sure that the consummate reaction by the gaming audience will rear its true head closer to the game’s release. Whether it be further outrage by chunky feminists, protest by conservatives weary of video games creating desensitization of violence, or if the entire matter fizzles into apathetic obscurity. As it stands, I find it quite telling of how our culture values the standards of discrimination, sex, and violence…the third appearing to be at the bottom of the obscenity totem pole.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.