Over the Line: Violence in Video Games

[BreakABone]

This is an interesting editorial from a writer over at 1up.com
I would bump the editorial thread, but thought this was worth the read.


Honestly, I don't even remember which game was being demoed -- Medal of Honor? Black Ops? All the shooters I saw at this week's conferences kind of blurred together for me in a stream of non-stop explosions and guns and "ripped from the headlines" power fantasies... and my rigid E3 schedule and general lack of sleep certainly didn't help. I think it was the former, but I suppose that doesn't matter so much as what I do remember... namely, the sensation that the games industry has forgotten how to communicate by any means other than screaming at the top of its lungs about the awesomeness of lovingly rendered gore.

http://www.gamespite.net/verbalspew/archives/entry_1604.php

I'm not opposed to violence in games, but I do think we're getting to the point where it is just becoming a bit much.

[Typhoid]

There's been violence in video games since video games have existed.
Especially after video games stopped being targeted solely as 'Little kid' things.
It's just that since technology progresses, that violence can be construed more realistically.

[Vampyr]

I don't have a problem with gratuitous violence, but I think it's funny how much more accepting we are to violence than we are to sex in media.

[Professor S]

I don't think violence is the issue, but a lack of creativity in the shooter genre. It seems developers are so invested in creating a sensory overload they forgot about the "less is more" philosophy. Violence is not effective if you are inundated with it at all times, but when it is used to enhance the story and experience.

Violence in video games is an inevitability, especially in shooters (they are called "shooters" after all) but I think shooters are due for a switch to more thoughtful gaming.

[magus113]

I don't think violence is the issue, but a lack of creativity in the shooter genre. It seems developers are so invested in creating a sensory overload they forgot about the "less is more" philosophy. Violence is not effective if you are inundated with it at all times, but when it is used to enhance the story and experience.

Violence in video games is an inevitability, especially in shooters (they are called "shooters" after all) but I think shooters are due for a switch to more thoughtful gaming.

I'm gonna just go out there and say that most shooters are getting tired and boring. They have to be just phenomenal in story or concept to be able to wow me. A lot of them are just throwaways.

[BreakABone]

I don't think violence is the issue, but a lack of creativity in the shooter genre. It seems developers are so invested in creating a sensory overload they forgot about the "less is more" philosophy. Violence is not effective if you are inundated with it at all times, but when it is used to enhance the story and experience.

Violence in video games is an inevitability, especially in shooters (they are called "shooters" after all) but I think shooters are due for a switch to more thoughtful gaming.

I think that's actually one of the main problems with the "emergence" of violence in games is that shooters have become the dominant genre of gaming.

Personally, violence really depends on the victims. I find stuff like Gears of War okay since you are fighting essentially monsters who they don't really try to humanize at all. But if its a game that has me mowing down innocents for a kick, well who knows.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Well it's just like everyone forgot about Borderlands, or maybe no one considers it a shooter?

<3 Borderlands

[BreakABone]

Well it's just like everyone forgot about Borderlands, or maybe no one considers it a shooter?

<3 Borderlands

I am confused.

What did we forget about Borderlands? Or what does Borderlands have to do with this conversation?

[Xantar]

I think there's a bigger philosophical question at stake.

Violence exists in videogames because (almost) all videogames are adversarial in nature. The goal of the game is to defeat somebody or something and try to prevent them from defeating you somehow. I'm not sure how sports games or something like The Sims would fit into this, but if we set those aside for a second, I think we got where we are because games are just giving us more of what they've historically given us in the past. They've always given us something to kill. Now there's more things to kill. And we keep buying them, so why should anyone stop?

[Professor S]

I think that's actually one of the main problems with the "emergence" of violence in games is that shooters have become the dominant genre of gaming.

I don't think violence is emergent in gaming. Just ask a Space Invader of Koopa Trooper if they think old school gaming is violent. Technical advancements has just allowed us to be more graphic with the violence.

[BreakABone]

I don't think violence is emergent in gaming. Just ask a Space Invader of Koopa Trooper if they think old school gaming is violent. Technical advancements has just allowed us to be more graphic with the violence.

I don't know if you see the flaw in your logic.

Video games were always violent they just appear more violent now because we can make em more graphic.

Which is exactly the problem. Is all people use tech for is to enhance the type of violence you enact.

And did you really compare Space Invaders and Mario to something like Call of Duty or God of War?

Its like comparing the fight in I don't know, Aladdin to the sword fighting in Kill Bill.

[TheSlyMoogle]

I don't think violence is the issue, but a lack of creativity in the shooter genre. It seems developers are so invested in creating a sensory overload they forgot about the "less is more" philosophy. Violence is not effective if you are inundated with it at all times, but when it is used to enhance the story and experience.

Violence in video games is an inevitability, especially in shooters (they are called "shooters" after all) but I think shooters are due for a switch to more thoughtful gaming.

that's what borderlands was in response to.