Comments on: "bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do"

"bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do"

Fizz — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 08:55:48 -0800

Video Games Have To Reckon With How They Depict The Police [Kotaku] "The depiction of police in video games has taken many forms over the years. Officers might appear as antagonists exemplifying corruption and violence, or as benevolent forces doing their best to protect and serve. Recent weeks of protests against police brutality and racism have upended video games' ability to depict the police as neutral arbiters of justice, which should make game developers reckon with how they will present the police in the future. [...] But given recent events, it is difficult not to reflect back on how Spider-Man and other video games offer a rigidly positive portrayal of police. That uneasiness, born from the game's utopian depiction of law enforcement, has begun to crystallize for many. Many video games depict police as purely altruistic, not reflecting any of the bitter reality of prejudice and violence. Those that might not have understood that before are now starting to get it, and that might be a problem for future video games."

• The People Who Roleplay As Cops In Grand Theft Auto [Kotaku]

"They want to play as the law. The series wasn't built for it, but, with the help of mods, chat-rooms, and some imagination, players of recent GTAs, including the hugely popular GTA V, have found a way to roleplay as cops. Thousands of people use the LSPDFR mod, for example to turn GTA Online into a sort of police simulator. Some do it for the fun of pretending to arrest other players who roleplay as criminals. Others do it to satisfy the fantasy of driving in to save the day. The ones I've met do it with unabashed admiration for law enforcement, drawing no connection between their fantasies of what police can be like in a video game and the frequent headlines about police killings of people of color in America or even of the killing of police. [...] The people who play as cops in GTA have a variety of motivations. Some players are into the thrill of being helpful. "I have always found it pleasurable to help people when they are in need," explained Corporal Smith, a Youtuber who records himself and friends roleplaying as police officers. Smith uses GTA Online to handle things like mountainside crashes and even suspicious clowns. People can have problems in the game."I enjoy being the one to point them in the right direction," he said. Some, like Corporal Smith, say they want to join a real-life police force. Smith explained that GTA V roleplaying was, in his mind, a way to help him experience some of the scenarios he might face as an actual police officer. Another roleplayer, SteveTheGamer, wanted to be a GTA V police officer because it was a means of restoring order to the otherwise unhinged game. "Even though this is a video game, it seems like it always bring the worst out of everyone, " he said. "I wanted to do something different then just being a criminal.""

• You're a Loose Cannon: The Challenge of Making a Good Police Game [US Gamer]

"Though smaller efforts such as Police Force 2 have popped up over the years, Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, and Battlefield Hardline seem to be more the norm as the police steadily become more militarized and action games continue to dominate. "Turning actual police work into a game is hard and skews towards ridiculously violent sensationalism," says Jeremy Stein, a developer who previously worked for EA but has since moved on to mobile development. "It's seemingly the same problem devs often face when making Star Trek games. They're peacekeepers with guns, but since it's easier to make gunplay fun versus diplomacy, they opt to make a shooter." But when the conversation turns to the notion of a more realistic Police RPG, he seems a little more optimistic: "That is an encouraging aspect of games today: we're getting a little better as an industry at trying on new themes and subject matter. A police RPG feels inevitable instead of silly, the way it would have at the start of last generation.""

• Cops and robbers: how the police became our new favourite video game villains [New Statesman]

"The list of people and things that it is acceptable to mercilessly slaughter in video games is not that long. Mostly it consists of Nazis, cultists, criminals, monsters and robots. To get onto that list you have to be seen as less than human, or to have divested yourself of your humanity to the extent that a player can not only stomach violence against you, but enjoy that violence. We can safely say given recent trends in games design that police officers are now on that list too. Why are so many games portraying police as cannon fodder or villains? Who, if anybody, is to blame? I would contend not the games developers themselves - they serve the market, and if games about shooting cops didn't sell so well we would not have so many games about shooting cops. Nor would I blame the media at large. We're still seeing movies about hero cops, good guys and bad guys, natural justice being served and that old timey morality. The old media has remained loyal to those ideas and you would never see anything like a movie with the profile of a game like GTA V or Saints Row 3 show that same level of disdain for the police. It seems more plausible that the blame for how police officers are being portrayed lies with the police and law enforcement agencies themselves. The simple fact is since the turn of the century the reputation of police officers, around the world, has been sinking faster than a socially awkward submarine. Plenty of groups have had problems with law enforcement over the years for legitimate reasons - particularly those from ethnic minorities - but in the 21st century mistrust and hostility towards police has become normalised to an extent few could have predicted."

• Why Are There So Many Games About Cops ~~This Year?~~ [Vice Gaming]

"In some ways, it's to be expected. Games about police and policing have been kicking around every now again for the past couple decades, after all, and the recent past has given us some big ones. Doorkickers made a big splash as an indie strategy game about cops in 2014, Battlefield: Hardline took the familiar genre of the first-person shooter and put it in the context of cops and robbers in 2015, the SWAT franchise recently returned to the minds of the gaming public with the re-release of SWAT 4 earlier this year. Nostalgia, blockbuster games, and indie hits are all ways of setting the stage for a resurgence, and the release of This Is The Police, Beat Cop, and the alpha for tactical game Police Stories in the last calendar year all seem to be following on a trend of games about cops. [...] I'm not bashing the creators of these games. They are, after all, only creating games, and each of the people that I spoke to over email was reflective about what a game about the police can mean. What is worth focusing on and thinking about in the future is how the fantasy of the exciting, heroic cop jumps from media representation to actual life (and then back again). These games are holding a mirror up to the world, though. They show us a world where police can always squeak by without consequence and where the rules of engagement always bend toward forgiveness of those figures and rarely justice for all. And that world, that fake world presented to us within the game, that's the world we live in now. How those worlds operate is how our world operates."

• A police game that asks you to think before shooting [PC Gamer]

"I like it when action games like Metal Gear Solid and Dishonored challenge me to minimize how much violence I dish out. One of my recent favorites, Watch Dogs 2, gives me every opportunity to tackle fun action scenarios with non-lethal melee and a stun gun. Other times, I have to be more creative or simply give up the playstyle altogether. But with Police Stories, that constraint is the game. It's a cop game that looks and plays like Hotline Miami but has more in common with the slower, more tactical first-person SWAT series in practice. To achieve the best score in a given level, not a single shot should be fired, nor a single body dropped. Instead, it's about arresting suspects while utilizing a kit of police gadgets, like tactical cameras, stun grenades, pepper spray, and breaching charges. Yes, you and your partner have guns. Yes, you may have to use them when a suspect tries to kill you. But you don't just shoot first and ask questions later. Killing a suspect without first tapping E to shout "HANDS UP, GET ON THE GROUND" will dock you with an "unauthorized use of force" penalty. The same goes for a suspect that's carrying a gun but has yet to raise it to you. I commanded an armed drug dealer to stand down, and they replied with "I'm not afraid," creating a high-tension standoff. My instinct was to shoot. He wasn't shooting at me, but he had a gun and wasn't putting it down. Then I remembered a loading screen tooltip—something about "warning shots.""

• The left-wing gamers who love Call of Duty [Inverse]

"The clan tag for Joe Cristando and Tom Browne in Call of Duty: Warzone is ACAB. The four-letter tag ("All Cops are Bastards") next to their user names in the online battle royale game informs other players, in a tongue-in-cheek style, exactly how they feel about police culture. "Dudes have MAGA clan tags in there all the time," says Cristando. "So Tom and I recently changed ours to ACAB. We'll just talk trash nonstop. Especially the dudes with MAGA tags. I'll fucking go off. I can't help it." "I am, admittedly, extremely left," says Browne, 32, a chef who lives in London. The same goes for Cristando, 35, a gym co-owner who lives in Brooklyn. Since the Covid-19 quarantine measures went into effect in March, the two play Call of Duty together about three hours a day, usually seven days a week. The tension between the game's military cosplay and their firm political beliefs is something they talk about often, especially after the protests and marches formed worldwide following the killing of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. "It is weird," says Cristando, who has been playing the game for 10 years. "I've actually thought about this stuff a lot, just the dichotomy of it. "I'm anti-war, anti-militarization, anti-imperialism. And like, I'm playing a game that's just killing people." Browne and Cristando both recognize the contradiction in their politics and the military action game they love. Cristando says Call of Duty feels like gambling — "just one more game" — and they play into the late hours, shooting, looting, camping, and sometimes actually winning."

By: philip-random

philip-random — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:36:16 -0800

Video Games Have To Reckon With How They Depict The Police I was mucking around on Youtube last night watching trailers for upcoming (or recently released) movies. There sure a lot of them trading on COPS as tough guy heroes protecting us all from agents of chaos. Same as it ever was, I guess. Except things aren't the same now, are they?

By: rhamphorhynchus

rhamphorhynchus — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:42:57 -0800

Miles Morales' dad is a cop, isn't he?

By: Lorc

Lorc — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:46:01 -0800

In 2015, DICE released Battlefield: Hardline. It took a game template created for Allied and Nazi soldiers and reskinned it as cops and robbers. It was exactly as abhorrent and uncomfortable as you would imagine. I still find it hard to believe someone had that idea and got a whole company to follow through on it.

By: Lorc

Lorc — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:50:09 -0800

To clarify, I realise Hardline is mentioned in the links, but I wanted to emphasise that it's not just a police first person shooter - it's a competitive shooter about which team can get more headshots, just where one side wears badges and the other "dresses urban".

By: Fizz

Fizz — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:50:13 -0800

So thinking of other games and their depictions of the police, there's Astral Chain. This Polygon article interviews the director Takahisa Taura:

In the United States, playing as a police officer in a video game is complicated. Our country deals with police brutality and police shootings. I recognize in Japan that the police are very different. Can you tell me what the perception of the police is in Japan, and how a Japanese audience responds to playing as the police? Hmm. Let's see. Well, I don't think there's people within Japan who have an extreme view on the police department. Through this game we want to give the police the image of being a hero. You can't do things in this game like hurt people. We want to have the player feel like they're being heroic as they progress through the game. Also, I think it'd be good, too, if you generally have a negative image of the police, but you play through this game, that your image or opinion of the police changes as a result of playing the game.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:53:36 -0800

philip-random, exactly. But given recent events, it is difficult not to reflect back on how Spider-Man and other video games offer a rigidly positive portrayal of police. Can't the same thing be said about super heroes? It's the same issue with the difficulty in making a "good" police game (disregarding, for now, how we consider a police game good in the first place), with the added problem of how do you sell a "good" police game. The big title games (and movies) are generally escapism, where you're not asked to wrestle with complicated matters like who deserves what, or who's really in the wrong. Instead, so much of popular story-telling is the dichotomy of Good vs Evil, and police are generally put on the side of Good. So shoot-em-ups put you against what New Statesman listed as Nazis, cultists, criminals*, monsters and robots, a very clear Us vs Them. You're good, so you shouldn't feel bad about shooting zombies or Nazis, because they're bad. * You're not asked to consider what makes someone a bad criminal and what justifies you shooting them, matched by public coverage of crime. Crime is at its lowest rate in four decades. Yet it remains the number one topic on local news, because it's an easy way to catch public attention (previously) and the stories are pre-written, even if they're always incomplete. The "perps" in orange, their names, ages, and accusations published, but there's rarely the follow-up to see if those accusations were justified, or supported by the legal system. Guilty until proven innocent. Lorc, I'll be flippant and say "have you seen anything else that comes out of the very broad tech field?" Represented by a majority of well-off white men whose world-views are projected as true and complete. After all, equations can't be racist (previously), can they?

By: Fizz

Fizz — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:04:50 -0800

it's a competitive shooter about which team can get more headshots, just where one side wears badges and the other "dresses urban". That last Inverse article on left-wingers who play CoD is fascinating because it forces you to interrogate the problematic faves we have in gaming. Like, why do I love the sound design of sniper bullets, why am I so impressed with this, it's so "cool" (the 14 yr old boy in me screams). But it's super fucked up.

By: Fizz

Fizz — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:06:13 -0800

Also, as a tangent, Vice Games did a whole series on Guns and Video Games, it's worth checking out.

By: Mayor West

Mayor West — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:09:19 -0800

In the 1995 Super Nintendo role-playing game EarthBound, Ness finds himself dealing with belligerent, incompetent police who very quickly resort to violence. While these examples can hew surprisingly close to an uncomfortable reality, they're also few and far between. Maybe I'm not playing the right video games, but this feels... not true? I can't remember the last game I played that portrayed the police as anything more than lawful-evil impediments to progress, either to be avoided or neutralized. The cops in GTA are trigger-happy sociopaths who will happily gun you down for causing a fender-bender. The guards in Dishonored are mercenaries working for a corrupt and ruthless aristocracy, and the many and varied ways you can incapacitate them are both hilarious and exhilarating. Nethack's lawgivers are actually called Keystone Kops. Like I said, selection bias, but outside of reskinned military shooters (which are inherently problematic for a host of other reasons) and Spider-Man, it feels like police in video games have actually become less sympathetic in the last thirty years.

By: ishmael

ishmael — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:12:06 -0800

There is a definitely a bit of fratty/reactionary psychopath hagiography in game development, but there is starting to be a bit of a pushback to this. Here is an example of an exchange where an aspiring game developer pushes a toxic opinion, and gets gently steered toward a more nuanced argument by more veteran forum members. Granted, it's couched in "I'm not an SJW, but..." language, but it's a start.

By: figurant

figurant — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:30:18 -0800

Like I said, selection bias, but outside of reskinned military shooters (which are inherently problematic for a host of other reasons) and Spider-Man, it feels like police in video games have actually become less sympathetic in the last thirty years. As I'm currently playing Arkham Knight, I'd add the Rocksteady Batman games to that list. Starting that up immediately after finishing Watch Dogs 2 and right when social media was presenting endless examples of police brutality was a bit of whiplash in terms of attitudes to law enforcement.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:58:19 -0800

Obligatory Mass Effect post: The franchise is all over the map. Fan-favorite squadmate Garrus Vakarian is an ex-cop (still on the job when you meet him), dedicated but getting burnt out on the bureaucracy and corruption (you also meet a corrupt cop, Harkin, in the first game) and eventually sort of becomes space Punisher before you meet him again in the second game. The second (and third) game also has Bailey, a generally decent cop who's still not above a little corruption to be encouraged to look the other way when organized crime does its thing. Andromeda has Liam Kosta, who was a cop back in the Milky Way; he's generally amiable but can be kind of a dick to Vetra Nyx, the former bureaucrat who is kind of a wheeler-dealer in terms of getting stuff not always through legal channels. Mostly, Liam is just not very well written. (I almost made a comment in Fizz's previous thread about people of color in video games about how Liam and Jacob Taylor in the original trilogy were written by a white writer whose dialogue for them is sometimes almost hilarously awkward, a problem generally not shared by the other POC in the game.)

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:00:05 -0800

Oh, and the second game also has a space cop who's openly prejudiced toward a quarian, member of a race who are kind of the Romani/Travelers of the galaxy.

By: mandolin conspiracy

mandolin conspiracy — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:33:17 -0800

Not all games are entirely trustful of police, often presenting them as inordinate threats to civilians. In the 1995 Super Nintendo role-playing game EarthBound, Ness finds himself dealing with belligerent, incompetent police who very quickly resort to violence. While these examples can hew surprisingly close to an uncomfortable reality, they're also few and far between. They sit on a line of absurdity because it is difficult for some people to believe, after years of entertainment conditioning them otherwise, that the police as a group could be anything other than protective. Then there was the time Daryl Gates was brought in to help develop several installments of Police Quest: But bad press didn't worry Williams. He wrote to Gates asking if the former Chief would want to design the next Police Quest, which Gates—who didn't use a computer—read with near-total disinterest. But vaguely aware that some kids in his neighbourhood "really love[d] those eye-hand coordination games," Gates had his secretary write back to request free copies. That was Williams' foot in the door. Williams and Gates got to know one another over the phone, and the more Williams learned, the more he liked. He liked that Gates made time for surfing in the mornings. Both were fans of Rush Limbaugh's radio show. For Gates' part, he saw in Sierra and Police Quest the opportunity to "maybe say something important about law enforcement... [and to] try and give people a better appreciation for what officers face on the job and encourage a willingness to support them." [...] In 2018, SWAT teams operate across the United States, the military donates grenade launchers and armored vehicles to local police departments, officers are routinely acquitted for murders they film themselves committing, and everything about Police Quest: Open Season feels dated except for the ethos. Gates might have lost his job, but the police commissions and reformers ultimately failed to turn back his transformational vision of policing. In fact, it's like he never left. Daryl Gates has always been the Chief.

By: thecjm

thecjm — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:34:44 -0800

Hmm. Let's see. Well, I don't think there's people within Japan who have an extreme view on the police department. I'm curious how Zainichi Koreans in Japan feel about playing Japanese cops in games.

By: parm

parm — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:44:37 -0800

> Hmm. Let's see. Well, I don't think there's people within Japan who have an extreme view on the police department. Perhaps that's because the Japanese police have a track record of using forced confessions, extended detention and solitary confinement to achieve prosecutions, so people don't like speaking out about it - a conviction rate of 99% sure looks a lot like an election result in a dictatorship.

By: subocoyne

subocoyne — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:05:48 -0800

Thanks for that article on left-wing CoD players. It is not surprising to me that there is a broad representation of political viewpoints among players, just as there are among the developers. We all enjoy problematic media, and frankly I'd much rather have a kill-or-be-killed action game be depicting military personnel than law enforcement. Hardline was very problematic, but at least gave players the option to arrest criminals instead of merely gunning them down. I played through the campaign as a "pacifist", arresting everybody and enjoyed it much more than I think I would have had I played it as a traditional shooter, as hilarious as it is to rapidly handcuff a whole building full of people. Re-skinning war gameplay as cops vs. robbers in multiplayer though, that rubs me the wrong way for sure. I think in general depictions of the police have gotten more nuanced in video games. Police Quest is an early notable exception, but thinking back to the arcades of the 90's, they were packed with "law-enforcement" games solely about shooting: Virtua Cop, Police 911, Police Trainer, Undercover Cops, ESwat Cyber Police, N.A.R.C., Lethal Enforcers, etc.

By: bartleby

bartleby — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:14:49 -0800

forces you to interrogate the problematic faves we have in gaming. Like, why do I love the sound design of sniper bullets Welcome to gaming kinkshaming! I jest, but people being worried about themselves, or others, about how much they like [transgressive thing] in games has been around a while. The sniper mechanic is a common one. Another is the sneak up and neck-knife attack. Sweet petite soccer moms with a controller whispering "yeah, you just go nighty-night there buddy. Shhh." as a sentry gurgles onscreen. Some vegans like gory horror movies, some radical feminists like to be spanked, some perfectly lovely people get a little frisson from a double headshot. Shrug emoji, takes all kinds. I'm looking through my library, and other than 'well actually Batman's a cop', the most copaganda thing I'm finding is Crackdown, from way back. So what's cop-game role play like? I'm out of that loop.

By: subocoyne

subocoyne — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:17:45 -0800

Without mentioning spoilers, I will say that the ending of Crackdown puts kind of a different spin on things.

By: subocoyne

subocoyne — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:23:39 -0800

Also speaking of cops and arcade games: There was a Cops (the TV show) laserdisc arcade game, which was only about, you guessed it, shooting and car chases (YT link).

By: atoxyl

atoxyl — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:24:34 -0800

There was a period where I played a bit of SWAT 4 with my buddies. We shot a lot of people by accident or by "accident" which makes it one of the more realistic depictions of police, I suppose.

By: aspersioncast

aspersioncast — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:50:35 -0800

It's hilarious that there are idiots role-playing cops in GTA - if anything the real world has demonstrated over and over that cops behave more like the maniacal, escalating, incompetent and short-memoried cops of the GTA games than most people would expect.

By: rodlymight

rodlymight — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:14:39 -0800

Through this game we want to give the police the image of being a hero. You can't do things in this game like hurt people. We want to have the player feel like they're being heroic as they progress through the game. Also, I think it'd be good, too, if you generally have a negative image of the police, but you play through this game, that your image or opinion of the police changes as a result of playing the game. Astral Chain, the game in which you, a cop, literally use a chained slave to fight battles for you?

By: SoberHighland

SoberHighland — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:41:20 -0800

I can only think of two games I have ever played as a cop. L.A. Noire, which certainly did not portray the cops in a flattering light. Or rather, it portrayed everyone in an unflattering light. Ultimately, I did not enjoy the game. The ultra-realism combined with smashing through light poles and civilians while having serious conversations was just so ridiculous that It's one of the main things I remember about it. The other was Crackdown. Which was a really stupid game. And not even semi-realistic. You were a superhero-type super-cop with super powers. But pretty much everyone in the entire city that you encountered were cartoonishly over the top violent, murdering maniacs. And I believe (from what I remember) the twist was that the police organization turned out to be the real bad guys. I can think of other games where police played a part, but they were generally there as a plot device because police exist in the real world, and it would be weird to not have some kind of police presence. I played one of the GTA games, didn't like it. Cops were there, but mostly they were just things you ran away from. I can't even think of any police-centric games that I have played, and I have played many, many games. It's kind of weird now that I think about it.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:53:54 -0800

I recently learned that John Turk, who played police officer Stryker (among other characters) in Mortal Kombat 3, is a full-on MAGAhead. What further significance this fact possesses I do not know.

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:21:36 -0800

i just like that rdr2 lets me feed this klansman to gators without losing honor points

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:21:45 -0800

which is also how it should work irl

By: paper chromatographologist

paper chromatographologist — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:23:49 -0800

The cops in rdr2 are insane. I kicked a pig and they nearly called in the cavalry.

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:26:16 -0800

cops don't like being kicked irl either so that checks out

By: theodolite

theodolite — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:37:59 -0800

IMO the Saints Row Monster Factory is the definitive statement on the intersection of policing and video games

By: grumpybear69

grumpybear69 — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:42:53 -0800

The great joy of GTA is firing a rocket launcher to get the cops' attention, then holing up in a Cluck-N-Bell where you can just keep gunning them down as they come in to get you. The GTA cops are very clearly a mindless hive of brutal authoritarianism with infinite respawning capacity. Perfect for target practice.

By: Apocryphon

Apocryphon — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:53:47 -0800

Are Sam & Max considered actual police officers?

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:06:31 -0800

Duke Nukem caught flak when it came out ages ago for portraying cops as demonic swine.

By: SoberHighland

SoberHighland — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:26:14 -0800

RDR2 police have telepathy and the ability to materialize from nowhere. Easily the most organized cop force the earth has ever known, way back around 1900.

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 20:21:15 -0800

Are Sam & Max considered actual police officers? They're Freelance Police, which would make them loose-cannon vigilantes.

By: happyroach

happyroach — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 23:53:48 -0800

I spent the evening watching my partner play Streets of Rage 4, a big part of which involved escaping from a police stration by beating up cops. It's was kinda cathartic.And the French evidently don't have that religious notion that cops must be good guys.

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 11:05:45 -0800

"Violence Is Funny: A Re-evaluation of Cop Media"—Jack Saint, 15 June 2020

By: Apocryphon

Apocryphon — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 14:09:09 -0800

Anecdotally, I always thought that most portrayal of police in games is similar to how they are in horror films or even many comic book movies- in order to heighten the stakes and make the player character more heroic, they have to be defanged and rendered as incompetent, corrupt, or otherwise unavailable.