Comments on: Pimp: The Backhanding

By: Chrissy

Chrissy — Fri, 13 May 2005 11:58:09 +0000

The key with Pimp is: Don’t take it seriously. Treat it as a fun no brainer game and if you have problems with the content don’t play it.
Personally I’m a fan of the game, despite having friends who have been caught up in the illegal sex trade I can still see the funny side of Pimp: The Backhanding.
There we are any way, a view from the other side on Pimp.
Chrissy

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 14:29:04 +0000

Prostitution only has pimps, crack dependence, backsmacking, and other abuses because it’s illegal. Make it legal and pimps will lose their jobs and hookers can goto the police when they get abused.
All this terrible stuff (like abuse and bad card games) related to prostitution is all thanks to our government.

By: Mikko Saari

Mikko Saari — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 07:47:48 +0000

Perhaps I’m giving the game too much credit, but then again it is distributed by White Wolf and not just by some unknown small publisher.
What’s offensive is of course very personal question. It’s probably impossible to come up with a game based on some blasphemous religious idea I’d find offensive. I, for one, don’t find Guillotine offensive (even though I’m against capital punishment) and I’ve never met anyone who thinks that way. I think it’s far enough of current-day events to make it acceptable for most people. However, I have no trouble accepting that someone might consider Guillotine offensive. Its humour is certainly black, and while that’s usually the best kind of humour, it’s not for all.
Many historical games have to deal with the possibility of being offensive. Puerto Rico tiptoes around the slave issue by calling them colonists; Settlers of Catan pleasantly forgets the natives of Catan (I know Madeira had no natives when the Europeans came, but that’s rare in history). However, in Shadow of the Emperor girls are born just to be given away in marriage or sold to the monasteries. Johanna found that offensive. It’s historically accurate, but still unpleasant, if you consider how women are bought and sold even today.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 03:05:49 +0000

Do you think you’re giving the game too much credit by merely mentioning it in your blog? Because I do.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 16:56:16 +0000

I haven’t seen the game nor other reviews/discussion of it, but “Join the profession so highly regarded for its virtues become a pimp!” sounds to me like obvious irony/sarcasm. I would be amazed if the writer of that text seriously meant it.
This discussion reminds me of some I’ve had about Guillotine. Is Guillotine in poor taste? I theorize that because it involves direct personal brutality against the rich elite, people are less disturbed than if it was brutality against the powerless. Plus the fact that it portrays events far in the past instead of current-day events helps players feel more abstracted from the fact that they are playing the role of executioners decapitating people with the goal of assembling the best collection of heads.

By: Erik Arneson

Erik Arneson — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 15:13:17 +0000

Mikko, I couldn't agree more. When I get around to updating my list of the most offensive games -- http://boardgames.about.com/od/news/tp/most_offensive.htm -- this one will no doubt earn a spot. (Like you, I'm not a politically over-correct wussy nor do I want to ban all games with violence, sex or drugs in them. But there is a line somewhere -- and a game in which it's good strategy to beat up a prostitute is over that line.) Cheers, Erik