Something that divided people in one fell swoop back in 2013 was GTA V's Trevor, a character who's completely devoid of any moralistic worth, stomps peoples' faces to death after sleeping with their partners, invades homes of people he's exploited and even alludes to eating people at one point. Understandably, you're either going to be with him, or firmly opposed. Rockstar went one step further though, having a mission where playing as him you'll torture a suspect who's allegedly got information on a target that needs taking out. The whole thing was supposed to be a comment on forced coercion and the unreliability of information attained through duress, but it was all so cack-handed and glorified through animation, specific controller actions (wiggle the stick to pull his tooth out!) and camera shots that you'd have to bury your head in led-lined sand to miss the point. Still though, despite heavy criticism the message boards lit up with people saying they enjoyed it, that it 'wasn't a big deal' and that they'd replayed it multiple times just for fun. Gaming can be a great force for empathy and the literal act of putting you in someone else's shoes, but if one of the biggest developers in the world can't get it right, it makes you wonder about all the people who only saw fun in the brutality on screen.
