When Law & Order: SVU takes on video games, the results are usually not pretty. Tonight’s episode — a GamerGate special — was no exception.
“They’re playing a game,” Ice-T’s character says at one point, referencing a group of misogynistic terrorists who have kidnapped a female video game developer. “We’ve gotta play too.”
If just reading that line made you cringe, you probably don’t want to watch this episode, which is simultaneously horrific (said game developer is beaten and held at gunpoint) and embarrassing (at one point, a character calls people “FALs,” an acronym that Ice-T says stands for “Fails At Life”).
It’s corny, terrifying shlock that demonizes hardcore gamers and turns complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil. Even as SVU’s writers imagined up a terrifying, totally feasible kidnapping scenario, they just couldn’t help but pepper it with cartoon villains (who frequently talk about how they don’t want women in video games, because of course) and painful one-liners. “There’s no reset button in the real world,” one cop explains. GAMERS, AM I RIGHT?
Even the fake games they drew up here look like they were ripped straight out of a 90s PSA or a campaign by Mums Against Gaming.
Amazonian Warriors is particularly hilarious:
So, yeah. If you missed the episode, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Also, um, this happened.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.
Comments
33 responses to “So That Was Law & Order’s GamerGate Episode”
Sounds like kotaku
Judging by the third video, the writers are fans too
BEEEWWMMMM… M
“I read on Kotaku that it’s better than Civ 5 with the Brave New World Expansion Pack”
Oh bless them all!
bwahaha, painfull
I literally can’t even….
Exactly what happens to me when people type “I can’t even…”
Now… Ice T is actually a huge gamer… would love to get his honest appraisal of this ep in a few years time when the shows finished.
He’s also a former pimp!
His AMA would be glorious
If you don’t follow his Twitter, you should. He posts some golden stuff.
Ta for the advice! Will do!
Ice-T Just wants to play some Xbox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9jXnZS3ouU
(NSFW)
Like the other rappers of his era, they expanded their skills to make money elsewhere 😛
It all hurts. Am I laughing or crying?
Oh god, does that banner say, “Kill or Be Dead” for a game title? Ahahahahhaha. I want to write for Law and Order sooo badly, what a frigging cakewalk.
Anyway, I will totally watch this episode, and then wonder what Stabler and Wong and Munch would have said. Ah, glory days.
Munch would have just glowered over his glasses and put his hat on passive-aggressive like.
God I miss Munch.
Me too, friend, me too.
Lol she even has the Sarkeesian earrings. Subtle.
The media taking a controversial subject and trying to force their misguided opinion on people?
Say it isnt so Kotaku.
I don’t doubt it’s a terrible episode of a terrible show (US police procedural dramas aren’t really my thing) – but really, when dudes on the internet threaten violence towards female developers/critics – isn’t that just giving these shows fodder to sensationalize?
So maybe if these gamergaters stop being bumclowns, the media wouldn’t have the opportunity to portray exaggerated stereotyped sensationalized bumclowns.
Upvote purely for the term “bumclowns”.
Just added “Bumclowns” to my list of insults. Cheers.
if people who hide behind the name gamergate were actually part of its core movement it wouldn’t be a problem, extremists do not make the group. The same can be said for any large group of people, i mean look at all the Muslims in the news with isis and what not, that doesn’t make every Muslim bad by association does it?
Marry me, JimmyDanger.
Watching now, holy shit, this is terrrrrrrrrrrible. lol
Oh my god, it went total ‘mazes and monsters’ there at the end. “They can’t tell real life from the game!”
Who wrote the script? Jack Thompson!?
“It’s corny, terrifying shlock that demonizes hardcore gamers and turns complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil.”
Kinda like… KOTAKU.
You bred this kind of rubbish oversimplification Kotaku. You made your bed. Lie in it. Don’t pretend you didn’t support this view.
Probably the only thing more braindead than this Law and Order episode is the drivel that spills forth from the verbal rectum that is Kotaku on a daily basis.
So why are you here? I’m sure there are some other brotastic gaming sites just waiting for your lucid and engaging commentary.
Those games look like something you’d see on Steam Greenlight.
A TV show misrepresenting gaming/gamers/gaming culture/video games/nerds/geeks/GamerGate/anything else to do with games?
….. Must be a day ending in Y
I watched this last night and had a proper LOL.
KOBS. FAL. NOOB. Doxed. Swatted.
It had it all, ICE-T looked in the zone. Solid episode.
this is what he thinks of it all…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9jXnZS3ouU&list=RDX9jXnZS3ouU#t=0
so glad to see him back behind the mic
I’m late to the party, but Kotaku should take some of the blame for crafting such an over the top, reactionary narrative. They live off the “us/them” mentality when it comes to controversial topics.
Exactly. Let’s not forget the entire “gamers are dead” story that was shoved down our collective throats when gamers were being called every name under the sun not too long ago.
(also loving how every comment I make seems to take 3-4 days to get “moderated”)