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Is Spider-Man: Miles Morales still gonna work with NYPD cops?
- Thread starter Messofanego
- Start date
Following in his dead pop's footsteps. Either way, I'm hyped for whatever the magicians at Insomniac have up their sleeves.
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Hope he can bring in more of the reality of NYPD and criticism of the violent institution. Would be disappointed if it became "one of the good ones".
People bringing up the classic "my [insert family member] is a cop and they're a good one" dismissal, even for a video game character
if this game continues to gloss over issues with NY/American police, it will undermine the story to some degree. Even if the plot doesn't focus on Miles reconciling his dad being a cop with how terrible the NYPD are, it can still address it without using kids gloves.
if this game continues to gloss over issues with NY/American police, it will undermine the story to some degree. Even if the plot doesn't focus on Miles reconciling his dad being a cop with how terrible the NYPD are, it can still address it without using kids gloves.
The better question is whether the country will still care about police brutality in 4-5 months. Our collective attention span does not always last so long. (Though perhaps there is hope with this, as the wounds of BLM have stayed raw for years, but...). I'm gonna predict that not only will nothing change in the game, I imagine many people will dismiss it away quite easily.
Sorry should have clarified, i am talking about cops in my country and their role in general.
Don't have any experience with US ones, just what i see on TV, will edit my post.
No its just not Amietcan centric despite what soke people want to believe.
After Spider-Man was release, there was a lot of buzz about Peter working with the cops, so hopefully Insomniac has taken that into account. Unfortunately, with it coming out this holiday it might be too late in development to make any drastic changes.
Much like Wolfenstein 2's coincidental release timing with the growing rise in open Neo-Nazi beliefs, I very much doubt this game will address the issue we're currently trying to make radical change of. Just like with Wolf 2, it was simply too late for any real change to the story to address real-world events. The marketing sure did get a really good inspiration though.
It's too far into development to start changing story beats for this. Unless it was already baked into the game, in which case I doubt it'll take as hardline of a stance as you might expect at the moment. The best you might get is a side quest or two that address it. I very much doubt it'll be anything major, if anything at all.
Now, proper Spider-Man 2 though, that's perfect for them to make more of a statement. In fact, with the whole surveillance network Peter set up in the first, it would actually be perfect for him to become so disillusioned with the cops that he no longer trusts them with a surveillance network, goes around and breaks the entire network, and only works with them because he's essentially forced to.
I don't see them removing Peter or Miles working with the cops entirely, just because logistically that would be insane for how they deal with handling supervillains and where to put them, but they can at least make it clear that they are not fans and change is needed. In fact, could even have moments where you stop the police from police brutality.
It's too far into development to start changing story beats for this. Unless it was already baked into the game, in which case I doubt it'll take as hardline of a stance as you might expect at the moment. The best you might get is a side quest or two that address it. I very much doubt it'll be anything major, if anything at all.
Now, proper Spider-Man 2 though, that's perfect for them to make more of a statement. In fact, with the whole surveillance network Peter set up in the first, it would actually be perfect for him to become so disillusioned with the cops that he no longer trusts them with a surveillance network, goes around and breaks the entire network, and only works with them because he's essentially forced to.
I don't see them removing Peter or Miles working with the cops entirely, just because logistically that would be insane for how they deal with handling supervillains and where to put them, but they can at least make it clear that they are not fans and change is needed. In fact, could even have moments where you stop the police from police brutality.
They should start the game with this as the opening message! :D
The question is whether white folks will care in 4-5 months. People like me don't get a choice.
I understand the concern, but isn't what we are asking for?
Police to work peacefully and without being stupidly aggressive agaisnt the black community?
Don't think it's a problem in the context of the game, just a bad time to use the reference.
By the way, and not totally off topic, I really liked the amount of Diversity presented in the games yesterday. Miles being the main protagonist in the blockbuster title of 2020 for the PS5 is awesome.
Police to work peacefully and without being stupidly aggressive agaisnt the black community?
Don't think it's a problem in the context of the game, just a bad time to use the reference.
By the way, and not totally off topic, I really liked the amount of Diversity presented in the games yesterday. Miles being the main protagonist in the blockbuster title of 2020 for the PS5 is awesome.
Good point.
It's going to seem very jarring for Miles to be all chummy with NYPD after what's happened this year. Hopefully the story doesn't lean on that relationship too much.
Any media featuring Miles going forward will be affected by the disgusting way the US police operate. Hope Marvel are brave enough to tackle it head on.
It's going to seem very jarring for Miles to be all chummy with NYPD after what's happened this year. Hopefully the story doesn't lean on that relationship too much.
Any media featuring Miles going forward will be affected by the disgusting way the US police operate. Hope Marvel are brave enough to tackle it head on.
We'll a little tip of lip service about the reality of being a black teenager in New York it'll be a blink and you miss it bit of dialogue or two and many a puff piece will be written about how "Insomniacs reckoning with the realities faced by people of color" even though they will have done less than nothing, and then we kick the can down the road and nothing ever changes.
I'm betting there's going to be a couple corrupt cops and so the many many crimes of the NYPD will be shuffled off to just a "few bad apples" who will of course have been peacefully arrested by the end of the game and a few white folk will finish their video game and pat themselves on the back for having solved racism.
I'm betting there's going to be a couple corrupt cops and so the many many crimes of the NYPD will be shuffled off to just a "few bad apples" who will of course have been peacefully arrested by the end of the game and a few white folk will finish their video game and pat themselves on the back for having solved racism.
Hopefully it's just gonna be a wall of text on a black background describing that they are aware of the problems with the real-life police in the US but decided that the focus of the game should be on the on the stuff that people actually buy these games for, which is swinging around as Spider-Man, fighting thugs and super-powered enemies + story about growing as a person.
The police brutality protests started very, very recently, there is no way in hell Insomniac would be able to shift the focus of the game in the couple of months that are left to release.
This is one of those examples where real-life politics should stay away from the game. The police as a concept is not an evil thing that needs to be demonized in video games, especially ones that are gonna be sold in a crapload of countries, most of which do not have the problems the US are currently facing.
I do not intend to downplay or hand-wave the issue in any way whatsoever, the things you guys in the US are facing now are horrible, but most people from the rest of the world really don't care about it all that much, not necessarily because they're racist and think the police is doing a good thing by targetting black people, but because they have their own countries' problems to worry about, and when they play a superhero game they expect some sort of escape from real life politics.
Again, I really am not one of those 'GET UR POLITICS OUT OF MY VIDYA GAEMZ' people, but I have some expectations of certain types of video games. Real-life politics being integrated somehow into games like Assassin's Creed, any Tom Clancy game, GTA, Metal Gear and so on is something that is expected out of those games, but when I play Spider-Man I want to swing around, web people up and punch super-powered people dressed as animals, not ponder on the horrors of police brutality in current-day USA.
The police brutality protests started very, very recently, there is no way in hell Insomniac would be able to shift the focus of the game in the couple of months that are left to release.
This is one of those examples where real-life politics should stay away from the game. The police as a concept is not an evil thing that needs to be demonized in video games, especially ones that are gonna be sold in a crapload of countries, most of which do not have the problems the US are currently facing.
I do not intend to downplay or hand-wave the issue in any way whatsoever, the things you guys in the US are facing now are horrible, but most people from the rest of the world really don't care about it all that much, not necessarily because they're racist and think the police is doing a good thing by targetting black people, but because they have their own countries' problems to worry about, and when they play a superhero game they expect some sort of escape from real life politics.
Again, I really am not one of those 'GET UR POLITICS OUT OF MY VIDYA GAEMZ' people, but I have some expectations of certain types of video games. Real-life politics being integrated somehow into games like Assassin's Creed, any Tom Clancy game, GTA, Metal Gear and so on is something that is expected out of those games, but when I play Spider-Man I want to swing around, web people up and punch super-powered people dressed as animals, not ponder on the horrors of police brutality in current-day USA.
Since when have comics, especially Marvel, shied away from what's happening in the real world?
I'd do bad things for a Nighthawk game, I don't even need a series just one.
Please no more Spider-Cop, both in earnest and in jokes.
If anything gives me hope for Spider-Man: Miles Morales - as already mentioned on the first page - it's Evan Narcisse's new involvement in the series.
I can't so much say that I'm familiar with his work in storytelling yet as much as I think he has dope associations in games journalism and that he has cool politics. Within video games, Narcisse is also collabing with Brass Lion Entertainment (ResetEra thread).
If anything gives me hope for Spider-Man: Miles Morales - as already mentioned on the first page - it's Evan Narcisse's new involvement in the series.
I can't so much say that I'm familiar with his work in storytelling yet as much as I think he has dope associations in games journalism and that he has cool politics. Within video games, Narcisse is also collabing with Brass Lion Entertainment (ResetEra thread).
On the issue of systemic racism and ongoing police brutality against minorities? The comic industry is an industry dominated by white men it's rarely a topic given any real attention.
I remember beating the shit out of police in Batman: Arkham Origins
Probably, considering his father was a police officer. I am curious if it will touch on the themes of being an African American and police's tendencies (to put it one way) toward them. I doubt it, but would be interesting to see.
I think Gordon wasn't a commissioner yet in Origins. He's presented as the last good cop in Gotham, after all.
The way I see it fictional cops are actually decent people and not the nightmares we have in the real world.
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Much like how zombie films focus on both combating the zombies and then revealing how humans can be monsters so there's interpersonal conflict.
Police brutality and BLM are possible to have as a main plotline along with stopping supervillains. Maybe not in a simple expansion but if devs were creative and well-intentioned, it can be done. Spider-Man is all about juggling various conflicts, from supervillains, love life, and the cops.
Maybe Miles turns up at protests in solidarity, which would utilise the power of PS4/PS5 for large crowds, and it acknowledges that when cops arrive they can make it worse by instigating violence so you have to do as much as you can to de-escalate the situation. Or it plays into the unwinnable conflict that Miles can investigate and turn over some corrupt cops but scenes would still play out where cops brutalise the general public during protests and he has to live with that, become disillusioned with the institution itself being corrupt, so he works to incite changes for police to be more community based, defunded and divested so that social services get more funds, and many more actions. Peter already helps out as a volunteer for food banks with Aunt May, so expand more on that aspect with Miles. This would be on the levels of Mafia 3 of tackling corrupt and racist American institutions so this would have to be baked into the game design and mechanics. Insomniac I'm guessing is a diverse team who can tackle such complex problems much like they do with making an open world that has a lot of disparate elements. If Hangar 13 with it's mostly white writers could do it, I'm sure Insomniac are talented enough to be up to the task.
Or Spider-Man just webs enemies up and doesn't interact with police in missions at all, they're just in the background as cleaning up the mess.
Police brutality and BLM are possible to have as a main plotline along with stopping supervillains. Maybe not in a simple expansion but if devs were creative and well-intentioned, it can be done. Spider-Man is all about juggling various conflicts, from supervillains, love life, and the cops.
Maybe Miles turns up at protests in solidarity, which would utilise the power of PS4/PS5 for large crowds, and it acknowledges that when cops arrive they can make it worse by instigating violence so you have to do as much as you can to de-escalate the situation. Or it plays into the unwinnable conflict that Miles can investigate and turn over some corrupt cops but scenes would still play out where cops brutalise the general public during protests and he has to live with that, become disillusioned with the institution itself being corrupt, so he works to incite changes for police to be more community based, defunded and divested so that social services get more funds, and many more actions. Peter already helps out as a volunteer for food banks with Aunt May, so expand more on that aspect with Miles. This would be on the levels of Mafia 3 of tackling corrupt and racist American institutions so this would have to be baked into the game design and mechanics. Insomniac I'm guessing is a diverse team who can tackle such complex problems much like they do with making an open world that has a lot of disparate elements. If Hangar 13 with it's mostly white writers could do it, I'm sure Insomniac are talented enough to be up to the task.
Or Spider-Man just webs enemies up and doesn't interact with police in missions at all, they're just in the background as cleaning up the mess.
Yeah, that's true. I just mention it because Batman stories have involved police corruption, and the Commissioner Gordon-era GCPD has had to earn their "good" status on some level.
And that's with a completely fictional city—if Marvel wants to have stories set in a fictionalised NY, then they must take the good with the bad. It wouldn't cheapen the experience to address these real-life issues in their considerably real-life setting.
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But then you're just softening the image of NYPD which makes for copaganda which is common in media and affects people's perception of real life institutions (hence why so many people can defend the police in police brutality cases), so either not have them represented at all or be more believable.
His dad was a cop, and I never understood why people think devs even have the time to react to current events this quickly.
maybe 5 years from now they will work it into a mission in Spider-Man 3.
if anything the NYPD should play the game and see the cops they are supposed to be.
maybe 5 years from now they will work it into a mission in Spider-Man 3.
if anything the NYPD should play the game and see the cops they are supposed to be.
Of course because Spider-Man is a vigilante. What he does is illegal. But he never blames the cop. He blames the Buggle for his image. Spider-Man is pro cop. That arc about a demon breaking up his marriage is in the end of the Strazinsky run, in which september 11 happens near the beginning of his run, which shows militaries, nurses, firemen, doctors and workers, but also a bunch of cops, and it says "those are the real super heroes".
In this arc, Spider-Man even works with a cop, which is very similar to what we have in the Insomniac's game.
Most mainstream comic books are pro cops, it is what it is. Super heroes help the cops. And when a comic book portray a bad cop, it's a cartoonesc as fuck evil, like in Batman, where they literally work with the mob as a side job during night and go to dinner with them. It never portrays your everyday cop who will overuse his power.
Doesn't stop me from loving to death those comic books, but let's be honest, comic books are pro cops. Cops are the good guys, and when there's a bunch of evil cops, there's always a bunch of Eliot Ness.
Ahhhh shit I forgot about this. The disgusting narc aspect of the first game was probably more of a turn off to me than the violence of TLOU2 will be. I can't imagine they'll really be able to work around this in the context of the IP. Oh well, I guess I've done worse things in video games than beat civilians half to death for petty crimes.
I've seen stories linked here (at the old site) about NYPD for almost a decade—police brutality in NY doesn't seem like a "current event," let alone police in general
This is an alternate timeline where Spiderman exists and the majority of cops are decent people.
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And even though The Dark Knight but especially Dark Knight Rises had some copaganda, there were full plot threads for corrupt police and how it corrupted and disillusioned Harvey Dent. This corrupt police also included how POC cops were thrown into the mix as inevitable, which made it more depressing and believable. Sure this works better in the tonally darker world of Batman but Spider-Man doesn't always to be full of good times or people.
It's kind of ironic that Marvel, which uses real-life cities, has a far more idealistic portrayal of cops than DC, which uses fictional cities and yet so many of the cops in Gotham are dirty, especially before Gordon took the reins.
User Banned (Permanent): False equivalence between criticism of police violence and racism; prior bans for inflammatory behavior.
I mean placing values on an entire population of people because of a few bad ones is profiling. Muslims, blacks, chinese, cops, should not be judged as a whole. This is the stuff we need to be careful of. Saying that all cops are bad is a disgrace. See how long you'd last if there were no police. Judge everyone individually by there actions.
