From Wiki: "Torture is the infliction of pain to break the will of the victim or victims. It involves deliberately inflicting severe physical or psychological pain and possibly injury to a person , usually to one who is physically restrained or otherwise under the torturer’s control or custody and unable to defend against what is being done to them. "
So then fellow backers, how would our protagonist go about torturing his enemies/victims, and equally important how would you like Warhorse to implement it. Would it be like the really underwhelming torture room from skyrim’s DarkBrotherHood base, or would it be something a bit more intense like 2005 3rd-person shooter The Punisher. Would there be a fine line between showing the brutality of medieval times vs making this a torture porn. Discuss.
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definitely a hard balance. i say go full historical. this is a game for adults. context and presentation determines level of necessity.
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I’d have to study some more myself, but I’ve heard torture wasn’t as prevalent (or at least as brutal) as those “medieval torture chambers” they have at Ren Faires would have you believe.
Honestly, I’m fine with torture being acknowledged, but I’d rather not have it in there as part of gameplay (“Press the Action Button to crank the rack!”).
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you can hack people to death and poison rivals, but causing discomfort and pain is a little too much.
heh
Yep. Agree with guys on this. Allowing player to torture someone is a little too much. As a part of the story in some kind of situation it might be implemented, but not as a player-active feature.
After watching Game of Thrones season 3 I have to say that it’s a powerful thing to watch someone you care about get mutilated. It could be a powerful thing to have if it’s done right, but if it’s just some guy in a black mask whipping you or something than I wouldn’t even bother with the whole thing.
Context makes a difference. I can cheer as superheroes and villains blow the crap out of each other, then wince when I watch Schindler’s List and watch an SS officer beat a frightened woman.
actually i was being sarcastic. i think if you can hack people to death(some people ask for dismemberment), can deal with people burning alive at the stake, you shouldn’t have any trouble torturing someone.
and i agree with ser awesome, it is powerful. watch the movie “unthinkable”, not a good movie, but there’s a scene towards the end where children are involved.
i would like the game to pull no punches. if you can’t handle it. you shouldn’t be playing a mature rated game.
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Perhaps because the people were hacking to death have a chance, the guy on the rack can’t do anything to help himself?
I wonder if people are apprehensive to the act of torture itself or the fact that our protagonist participates in torture, as i said in the OP the dovakiin gets (already) tortured victims as DB listener,he also bashes a priest of boethia to submission(molag bal quest), then there are games like The Punisher and of course manhunt1/2 by rockstar games, where you torture your enemies. So it’s not like the subject is a new thing in video game.
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ahmad, i think it’s because of guantanamo and syria. lots of people think connotatively, so mention torture, and they are reminded of those shameful things and want to avoid it. same as if the media mentions school shootings, suddenly movies featuring massacres or lots of killings, etc need to be delayed.
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Fair point, didn’t stop Skyrim from making their DB and Molag Bal quests though hehe.
My hope is that Warhorse will stay true to the historical narrative, and sod the rest.
I am not saying to avoid torture at all, if it would be useful for any quests or the story. I just don’t consider it necessary, although a torturing minigame still seems really a bit off to me.
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~Faceplam~ Way to get political, now we will have an argument about what is torture, did it happen, and whose laws apply to what situation.
Yes, this. Torture was used in medieval times, of course, but it was mainly during the Renaissance that people started getting really creative about it.
I’d say there’s a fine line between presenting the subject realistically and sensationalising it. It was a fact of life in those times, so it shouldn’t be left out altogether, but I don’t particularly want to play through long, detailed scenes of gruesome torture - particularly if I’m the one performing it. Save it for fairly extreme situations, at least (and definitely no minigames; if you’re going to include a subject like that it should at least be handled with respect).
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good Idea! Master Executioner should be a proper RPG occupation as well as warrior or a thief. Exexutioners used to be fich and respected men, although they were feared also. U can train the art of torture to get better and better… I know its just a dream. They will not include this option into game.
Respected? They usually were not permitted to have a house inside the city walls. They were rather looked down upon. Of course those who were about to get executed had to be on good terms with the executioner, because they could either make it swift or make their final moments very painful.
They could always take a chapter out of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’s book, and inform you of possible graphic scenes, and allow you to opt in and out of them before you even start the game. Then the people like me (who enjoy mature games that don’t tip-toe around controversial content) can be fully immersed and the people who don’t enjoy it don’t even have to see it. Perhaps instead of viewing a torture cutscene, the screen will go dark for them and the torture will be implied. 
That’s my two-cents at least.
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this game lets you murder almost anyone, yet if it lets you perform a torture, suddenly that’s not respectful or crosses the line?
lets be serious here. what is worse, chaining someone up in a dungeon then using a poker to scorch his sides? or hacking a child on the streets to death then hacking her mother and father to death when they come over to stop you?
obviously, the latter is far worse, yet for some reason no one has an issue about it.
lets transcend the knee jerk reactions. there is no reason warhorse cannot treat torture properly like any other “objectionable” content such as violence or nudity. in fact, it may be easier. remember, you are not playing a time traveler.
For the sake of not starting a moral debate on this thread I’ll try to choose my words carefully. [quote=“213, post:19, topic:6216”]
yet for some reason no one has an issue about it
[/quote]It might be a little bit extreme to say people are okay with hacking a child or mother to death. Generally speaking it’s viewed as socially unacceptable to show someone defenseless being hurt. That’s the main reason why the topics of torture and the death of children (which is noticeably absent from the majority of games (eg. Skyrim, and Fallout where the kids are invincible) are so controversial in media (and I say media in general because it’s not very often that you see a child killed on screen during movies or television).
However, you have a valid point that murder is often represented in games, while other adult themes are absent. But you have to remember that it’s a fine line that a game developer or movie producer has to walk. In the process of justifying putting torture into the game because it’s a “mature game”, [quote=“213, post:8, topic:6216”]
i would like the game to pull no punches. if you can’t handle it. you shouldn’t be playing a mature rated game.
[/quote]
you’re also setting a precedent for games filled with other adult (and generally avoided topics) such as rape and for the sake of argumentative purposes, even pedophilia. I think it’s safe to assume (even though it does make an a** out of you and me 
) that the general populace doesn’t necessarily want to see the majority of these topics, and therefore won’t buy a game that includes them. Which is why you don’t see a lot of edgy material in games. Media is a business, and you sell to the largest demographic; which typically are not sadists.
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