Why did Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 feature a booby trap banned by the UN?
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Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 30
-josho5423
Occam's Razor can be applied to this question to deduce with near certainty why this appeared in the game. Why was a spike pit in THPS2? Well, spike pits, as mentioned earlier in your video, are a staple trope of video games since the dawn of the 8-bit era. Since the THPS series revolves around skateboarding and ramps, they felt compelled to program objects to jump over/avoid in the game to increase the challenge, similar to scrolling platformers. They had busses and helicopters as well, but those are difficult to create. In a create-a-course, they need elements that don't take up much resources so they can be repeated within reason. Spikes are easy to draw, need zero animation, and increase challenge in games with little effort from programmers.
Why a spike pit instead of a snake pit, fire, or pile of barbed wire? For the same reasons they were used in 2D games, no animation, easy to make, and programmers don't need to do much to make them functional. In 3D games, it's even more advantageous as spike pits can use a single texture and the same, identical few polygons to create a realistic depiction, thus saving resources during game design. For example, fire would require a semi-transparent animated texture in the least, and then how the player interacts with the hit-box would need to worked out. Would a player die by grazing the fire for a split second, would they die if they stood in the fire for 10 minutes, does that mean we need to program a health bar, should the player catch on fire, will there be smoke, do we play a fire sound effect constantly within x-space of the fire, etc. A spike pit is MUCH easier, can have a single rule for player interaction, and uses extremely little space in resources.
Why did they name it -Pungee Pit-? Likely because in the create-a-course mechanic, the names of the items are displayed. I'm sure someone initially named them -Spike Pit-, and the team wanted to verify that this was the actual name. Upon googling or looking up -spike pit- they found the term -Pungee Pit- and went with it. This would have been common since the game designers were almost certainly not experts in skateboarding, and had to look up what each piece/type of a ramp or rail was called in the community. Trying to find and then verifying the -official- name of their game assets would have probably been a key part of the process. The pungee pit went through this same process and thus research was done to name it correctly.
An Occam's Razor's analysis on this question provides rather clear, mundane and obvious origins for every part of this mystery.
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Occam's Razor can be applied to this question to deduce with near certainty why this appeared in the game. Why was a spike pit in THPS2? Well, spike pits, as mentioned earlier in your video, are a staple trope of video games since the dawn of the 8-bit era. Since the THPS series revolves around skateboarding and ramps, they felt compelled to program objects to jump over/avoid in the game to increase the challenge, similar to scrolling platformers. They had busses and helicopters as well, but those are difficult to create. In a create-a-course, they need elements that don't take up much resources so they can be repeated within reason. Spikes are easy to draw, need zero animation, and increase challenge in games with little effort from programmers.
Why a spike pit instead of a snake pit, fire, or pile of barbed wire? For the same reasons they were used in 2D games, no animation, easy to make, and programmers don't need to do much to make them functional. In 3D games, it's even more advantageous as spike pits can use a single texture and the same, identical few polygons to create a realistic depiction, thus saving resources during game design. For example, fire would require a semi-transparent animated texture in the least, and then how the player interacts with the hit-box would need to worked out. Would a player die by grazing the fire for a split second, would they die if they stood in the fire for 10 minutes, does that mean we need to program a health bar, should the player catch on fire, will there be smoke, do we play a fire sound effect constantly within x-space of the fire, etc. A spike pit is MUCH easier, can have a single rule for player interaction, and uses extremely little space in resources.
Why did they name it -Pungee Pit-? Likely because in the create-a-course mechanic, the names of the items are displayed. I'm sure someone initially named them -Spike Pit-, and the team wanted to verify that this was the actual name. Upon googling or looking up -spike pit- they found the term -Pungee Pit- and went with it. This would have been common since the game designers were almost certainly not experts in skateboarding, and had to look up what each piece/type of a ramp or rail was called in the community. Trying to find and then verifying the -official- name of their game assets would have probably been a key part of the process. The pungee pit went through this same process and thus research was done to name it correctly.
An Occam's Razor's analysis on this question provides rather clear, mundane and obvious origins for every part of this mystery.
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-SumeaBizarro
I forgot about this, I listened to the descriptions, still went -I do not remember this- and when I finally see the actual screenshot of placeable Punji Pits in THPS2 I went -OH YEAH THOSE I FILLED MY LEVELS WITH THOSE. - Which is not the best way to admit to potential of war crime you hold but to my defence when I played THPS2 (3, 4 and not five, but underground 2) I was so little and English was still going to be my 2nd language it wasn't it yet so I double missed the reference with it's name, which is still fascinating to learn about.
Also, given this is under polygon among other big gaming journalism, I do have to kinda commend the fact that this was not seen as a racism move or anything, there was very creative and teen like atmosphere to weird creativity of THPS games combined with teen striking edginess had insensitive reasons at bottom of the list.
Sure, commendation for the lack of Punji Pit in 1+2 park creator is sad to re-awoken Pungee Pit enjoyers like myself But really the lack of Punji Pit is more than made up by extreme upgrades to all kinds of park building upgrades 1+2 has.
One thing I have extremely ghostly slight memory of is putting the Pungee Pits around my level and seeing what happens when you drop into one and thinking -well of course it is like that- But also, as just a child, knowing and being able to slightly imagine what the pit would really be like when your Bam Margera or Careem Cambell I'snt able to touch a big spike and teleport with sound effect of a weird splash. Smallest things can make you think about the darker things even as a child and really how THPS2 handled the actual -death to spikes- a child or young teen does need a reminder now and then that they are not indestructable and being a bit careful generally keeps the destruction away.
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I forgot about this, I listened to the descriptions, still went -I do not remember this- and when I finally see the actual screenshot of placeable Punji Pits in THPS2 I went -OH YEAH THOSE I FILLED MY LEVELS WITH THOSE. - Which is not the best way to admit to potential of war crime you hold but to my defence when I played THPS2 (3, 4 and not five, but underground 2) I was so little and English was still going to be my 2nd language it wasn't it yet so I double missed the reference with it's name, which is still fascinating to learn about.
Also, given this is under polygon among other big gaming journalism, I do have to kinda commend the fact that this was not seen as a racism move or anything, there was very creative and teen like atmosphere to weird creativity of THPS games combined with teen striking edginess had insensitive reasons at bottom of the list.
Sure, commendation for the lack of Punji Pit in 1+2 park creator is sad to re-awoken Pungee Pit enjoyers like myself But really the lack of Punji Pit is more than made up by extreme upgrades to all kinds of park building upgrades 1+2 has.
One thing I have extremely ghostly slight memory of is putting the Pungee Pits around my level and seeing what happens when you drop into one and thinking -well of course it is like that- But also, as just a child, knowing and being able to slightly imagine what the pit would really be like when your Bam Margera or Careem Cambell I'snt able to touch a big spike and teleport with sound effect of a weird splash. Smallest things can make you think about the darker things even as a child and really how THPS2 handled the actual -death to spikes- a child or young teen does need a reminder now and then that they are not indestructable and being a bit careful generally keeps the destruction away.
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polygon
I was introduced to the pungee pit through Tony Hawk's 3 instead of the second one, but I remember asking my mom -what the hell is a pungee pit? - and she had no idea. She thought it was something related to skateboarding. My dad had a friend named Uriah who owns a skate shop here in Chicago called Uprise, and my mom told me I should try asking Uriah, since he's a skater and he'd probably know. The next time Uriah came to visit my dad, I asked him what a pungee pit was and he was very confused as to why I was requesting an explanation of a guerrilla warfare booby trap.
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I was introduced to the pungee pit through Tony Hawk's 3 instead of the second one, but I remember asking my mom -what the hell is a pungee pit? - and she had no idea. She thought it was something related to skateboarding. My dad had a friend named Uriah who owns a skate shop here in Chicago called Uprise, and my mom told me I should try asking Uriah, since he's a skater and he'd probably know. The next time Uriah came to visit my dad, I asked him what a pungee pit was and he was very confused as to why I was requesting an explanation of a guerrilla warfare booby trap.
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-myes6916
My father had stepped on a punji trap in Vietnam. All his squad mates jumped away thinking it was an explosive trap at first. My fathers leg fell in and a stick pierced his boot but snapped after getting slightly in his foot. Turns out it was an old trap left over from when the French were there. My father could continue to stay there but always had an infected spot on his foot that he would have to shave down with a knife.
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My father had stepped on a punji trap in Vietnam. All his squad mates jumped away thinking it was an explosive trap at first. My fathers leg fell in and a stick pierced his boot but snapped after getting slightly in his foot. Turns out it was an old trap left over from when the French were there. My father could continue to stay there but always had an infected spot on his foot that he would have to shave down with a knife.
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-esobelisk3110
i haven-t watched this video since the evening of halloween of 2020, dressed as a sloth demon, sitting on a mattress in a tunnel, freezing slightly because my costume didn-t include a jacket, waiting to get a message that said the first group of our peers had been sent towards our post (the last one, so we could prepare for our first performance.
i miss it.
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i haven-t watched this video since the evening of halloween of 2020, dressed as a sloth demon, sitting on a mattress in a tunnel, freezing slightly because my costume didn-t include a jacket, waiting to get a message that said the first group of our peers had been sent towards our post (the last one, so we could prepare for our first performance.
i miss it.
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-XperimentorEES
I wouldn't be surprised if it got pulled from the remakes due to political correctness or some other inept excuse claiming they're avoiding offending someone.
I miss the days when games could have wacky details without all the reason and regulations, on the other hand I've been enjoying fridge horror.
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I wouldn't be surprised if it got pulled from the remakes due to political correctness or some other inept excuse claiming they're avoiding offending someone.
I miss the days when games could have wacky details without all the reason and regulations, on the other hand I've been enjoying fridge horror.
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-ohhello9957
It was more than the pits removing just one soldier from the field. From what I understand it took on average 2 additional soldiers to remove them from the pit and carry them back to the base or whatever. Effectively removing 3 highly trained soldiers with some sticks tipped with feces and a dream.
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It was more than the pits removing just one soldier from the field. From what I understand it took on average 2 additional soldiers to remove them from the pit and carry them back to the base or whatever. Effectively removing 3 highly trained soldiers with some sticks tipped with feces and a dream.
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-ModelLights
'a booby trap banned by the UN? ' Because it's a video game and not real? The purpose is an easily identified hazard area for a video game. Not realism, or actually killing a skateboarding human being.
Of course the obvious, real answer would lead to not bothering to make a video about it.
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'a booby trap banned by the UN? ' Because it's a video game and not real? The purpose is an easily identified hazard area for a video game. Not realism, or actually killing a skateboarding human being.
Of course the obvious, real answer would lead to not bothering to make a video about it.
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-thatgreenfur6584
plot twist: it was Tommy Tallarico's idea. He created the sound of someone getting impaled on a poo covered stick and the rest of the Original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater team came up with gameplay for it. He worked hand in hand with Tony Hawk for five years to make the game from scratch.
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plot twist: it was Tommy Tallarico's idea. He created the sound of someone getting impaled on a poo covered stick and the rest of the Original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater team came up with gameplay for it. He worked hand in hand with Tony Hawk for five years to make the game from scratch.
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-T1Oracle
Pungee sticks sound tame compared to firebombing, cluster bombs, and mines. If I was a British/US person adding to the Geneva conventions, I would be embarrassed even mentioning pungee sticks.
Which is probably why pungee sticks are in a skating game, while that other stuff is not.
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Pungee sticks sound tame compared to firebombing, cluster bombs, and mines. If I was a British/US person adding to the Geneva conventions, I would be embarrassed even mentioning pungee sticks.
Which is probably why pungee sticks are in a skating game, while that other stuff is not.
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-AnthonyRusso93
Neversoft so the game developer with a opening credit animation self locamoting eye and optical nerve slithers escaping the falling letters of Neversoft before being impaled by a railroad spike to become the -o- in neversoft. Had a dark humor joke in there why would they do that?
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Neversoft so the game developer with a opening credit animation self locamoting eye and optical nerve slithers escaping the falling letters of Neversoft before being impaled by a railroad spike to become the -o- in neversoft. Had a dark humor joke in there why would they do that?
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-daverstar2002
Things like the missing pungie pit in the new game, are a sign for bad times. years after years people who fighted censorship. now exactly the same people who scream -freedom- are the once who try to censor everything.
I hate woke people's minds
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Things like the missing pungie pit in the new game, are a sign for bad times. years after years people who fighted censorship. now exactly the same people who scream -freedom- are the once who try to censor everything.
I hate woke people's minds
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-chrisgoblin4857
I think this has more to do with the image and culture of skateboarding than anything else. Skaters can be crazy dudes and the tricks have so many mad names that -Spike trap- just wouldn't fit the bill. Punji Pit however does.
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I think this has more to do with the image and culture of skateboarding than anything else. Skaters can be crazy dudes and the tricks have so many mad names that -Spike trap- just wouldn't fit the bill. Punji Pit however does.
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-lazylazymule
I think the true answer to this question is: -there is a pungee pit in the skateboarding game because the developers truly understand the mindset of the average gamer. -
Also, I remember putting these everywhere in my maps.
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I think the true answer to this question is: -there is a pungee pit in the skateboarding game because the developers truly understand the mindset of the average gamer. -
Also, I remember putting these everywhere in my maps.
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-powderedwater67
late to the punch but fun fact, the pungee pits usually employed human feces on the sharpened sticks, a poison buff for extra hit damage. if the wounds didn't game end you, the infection likely would.
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late to the punch but fun fact, the pungee pits usually employed human feces on the sharpened sticks, a poison buff for extra hit damage. if the wounds didn't game end you, the infection likely would.
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-cidmon4566
The part about punji pits that was really messed up was the animal and human poo slathered on the tips, not only taking out enemy combatant but causing long painful infections death.
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The part about punji pits that was really messed up was the animal and human poo slathered on the tips, not only taking out enemy combatant but causing long painful infections death.
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-NoPantsBaby
No they didn't ban mines. They banned mines that don't kill you quick. 3: 19
The Geneva convention is basically telling nations to use mines that are sure to kill soldiers.
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No they didn't ban mines. They banned mines that don't kill you quick. 3: 19
The Geneva convention is basically telling nations to use mines that are sure to kill soldiers.
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-azthrashordie
It-s haunting you now because you are a neurotic zoomer and your parents failed you, it-s a spike pit obstacle in a video game. PLEASE WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT PLAY PITFALL.
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It-s haunting you now because you are a neurotic zoomer and your parents failed you, it-s a spike pit obstacle in a video game. PLEASE WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT PLAY PITFALL.
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-Ash-gv7uj
because its a video game and they can be creative without causing any actual harm to people. I don't get the issue, it sounds like worthless whining about nothing.
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because its a video game and they can be creative without causing any actual harm to people. I don't get the issue, it sounds like worthless whining about nothing.
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-sharkysharkerson
That' what I would have guessed. Developers of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 are at the time of age where they were likely influenced by movies in the 80's.
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That' what I would have guessed. Developers of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 are at the time of age where they were likely influenced by movies in the 80's.
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-monad_tcp
3: 19 This aged like wine. 3 -Its is prohibited-, yeah, butterfly mines are fine thou.
prohibited, sue me, muahahahaaa. every evil dictator ever.
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3: 19 This aged like wine. 3 -Its is prohibited-, yeah, butterfly mines are fine thou.
prohibited, sue me, muahahahaaa. every evil dictator ever.
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polygon
People like you ruin modern day games by complaining about things that unique and different. Please stop complaining and reaching out to developers.
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People like you ruin modern day games by complaining about things that unique and different. Please stop complaining and reaching out to developers.
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-bobsucks9647
Sounds like the pungee pit helped a small nation of people fend off an invading force. Doesn-t sound like a bad thing in that scenario.
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Sounds like the pungee pit helped a small nation of people fend off an invading force. Doesn-t sound like a bad thing in that scenario.
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-NebulonRanger
The thing is, the pungee pit has appeared in games as recent as Underground 2 with mods, so the community keeps adding this back in.
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The thing is, the pungee pit has appeared in games as recent as Underground 2 with mods, so the community keeps adding this back in.
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-thegeth4293
If you didnt know, the viet cong also put human feces on the pungee spikes so the wound would get infected,
So. skate with caution
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If you didnt know, the viet cong also put human feces on the pungee spikes so the wound would get infected,
So. skate with caution
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-DarthEyesDragon
More then 2 years later.
Are you going to go on a mission to ask them who decided on nixing the punji pit in the new game? -
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More then 2 years later.
Are you going to go on a mission to ask them who decided on nixing the punji pit in the new game? -
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-bananaman9717
Fun Fact: During the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese would use feces in their pungee pits so that US soldiers would get infections.
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Fun Fact: During the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese would use feces in their pungee pits so that US soldiers would get infections.
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-aboveblazin
They could of made it much worse by making those punji sticks filthy and Those that get stuck will have thier wounds infected
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They could of made it much worse by making those punji sticks filthy and Those that get stuck will have thier wounds infected
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-GazettiSF
They probably just thought that was the proper name for it and went with that. I have a feeling there was very little thought.
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They probably just thought that was the proper name for it and went with that. I have a feeling there was very little thought.
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-ItsLifeJim_VB
man forgets the sticks had not only poison, but urine and human poo smeared on them to cause deseases and infections.
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man forgets the sticks had not only poison, but urine and human poo smeared on them to cause deseases and infections.
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