Sta.sh
"When did Videogames become so violent and scary?
" -Wreck-It-RalphWhat do you feel makes a Video Game "Mature"? And is it possible to create a Mature action game that sells without having to step into the UltraViolence/sexuality territory?
and..
If you don't live in the U.S., what do people in your country considered "M" ratings?
Okay, okay, I kind of know what you're all thinking with this topic, and I just want to state: I don't mind violence in Videogames. I love fighting games, I play FPSes-- heck, I don't mind it in other genres either, like the over the top movie Kickass, or the anime Gantz... To add to that, I don't think that VideoGames contribute to real life violence, after all, people should stop blaming the videogames and start asking where the hell kids are getting access to guns.
It's when the violence takes a step further that makes me cringe.
My friend brought this article to my attention by Warren Spector and his experiences at E3, the videogame convention:
"This is the year where there were two things that stood out for me. One was: The ultraviolence has to stop. We have to stop loving it. I just don't believe in the effects argument at all, but I do believe that we are fetishizing violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it's in bad taste. Ultimately I think it will cause us trouble.
I left Eidos in 2004 because I looked around at E3 and saw the new Hitman game where you get to kill with a meat hook, and 25 to Life, the game about kids killing cops, and Crash & Burn the racing game where the idea is to create the fieriest, most amazing explosions, not to win the race… I looked around my own booth and realized I just had one of those 'which thing is not like the other' moments. I thought it was bad then, and now I think it's just beyond bad.
We've gone too far. The slow-motion blood spurts, the impalement by deadly assassins, the knives, shoulders, elbows to the throat. You know, Deus Ex had its moments of violence, but they were designed – whether they succeeded or not I can't say – but they were designed to make you uncomfortable, and I don't see that happening now. I think we're just appealing to an adolescent mindset and calling it mature. It's time to stop. I'm just glad I work for a company like Disney, where not only is that not something that's encouraged, you can't even do it, and I'm fine with it."
I wasn't at E3, but I also remember an article similarly on Kotaku... [link]
"I asked my father, a definite non-gamer who lives in the Providence TV market, what games he remembered seeing TV commercials for this year."
I think anyone would know without having to refer to the article.
I agree with Mr. Spector's words. I feel like the whole industry is becoming far too over saturated with over glorified killing. There's so much of it that I'm practically immune to it now. Do we really need it? Do we really need to have theatrical shots with ultraviolent methods of killing people to sell a game? Do we really need to talk about how Lara Croft almost gets raped in the new Tomb Raider game to make her backstory more "mature and gritty?"
My friend said, "Well, yeah, of course I want to do things in a videogame that I can't do in real life and pretend to live some glorified fantasy."
I nod in agreement. It is cool.
Then I step back and think, "Wait. Glorified fantasy of wanting to kill people as brutally and horrifically as possible?" Erf.
But what do you guys think?
Thanks everyone for your views, comments, watches, support, etc. I love you guys, and I wish I had the ability to reply to everything!
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I do not believe I have become a violent person because of video games in any sense of things, they are just games to me and I take from them only the positive emotions
what if, in your MMORPG, they decide to up the graphics, make all the monster killing and change it up into gore and bloody, over the top killing scenes? Will it get too disturbing? @___@;
I think personally I would say that it (violence and gore) doesn't bother me enough, like I think it probably should but I think I have been desensitized in a way. Not just from video games, but from movies and TV, you see the crime scene shows, horror movies and etc. and you are bombarded with scenes of dead people, bodies torn to shreds and etc.. I'll never forget some of the scenes from texas chainsaw Massacre. Some movie scenes are so far out there they are not even realistically possible, it's as if people take some sort of pleasure in seeing how dismembered and destroyed a human body can get, which rather disturbs me.
I really start to wonder if the reason they make these games so violent and filled with gore is because the target audience has changed, they don't need a strong, immersive story or relatable characters, or a life's lesson or a different perspective, be it film or video game, if there's enough violence and action, they will be entertained regardless. I think that's what disturbs me the most.
As for the rape scene in the new Tomb Raider...Well, I kind of agree with their decision on this. Call me crazy, call me sexist, etc, but I think it's a really great idea. It screams "human desperation" to me. I mean, SOMEONE is bound to snap when they're on a deserted island, with no food, no water, and no hope. I think the events in the new Tomb Raider are going to be a huge selling point, and I feel their decisions justified because of the hopelessness of the situation in the first place. I view as a human case study, studying what happens when people get desperate, and this can be used to great effect in dark, gritty and mature story-telling.
Besides, the new Tomb Raider is a prequel, telling the story of how Lara came to be who she is in the first place. It tells the story of the struggle and hardship she had to go through just to become mentally whole enough to be who she is now. It's a tale of survival, and you can say what you want, and you can hate me, bash me, and even block me, but I stand firm in my beliefs on this one.
I think this is a great way to show how Lara evolved, despite how sexist it may seem. I would like to see, however, a male character put through the same kind of shit Lara goes through in her new game. You don't just become a super-human badass without a dark backstory to support why you do the things you do; there needs to be some kind of situation that builds them up and makes them stronger as a result.
Basically if the game doesn't have a good reason for making killing an enjoyable activity, then I don't like ultraviolence because it's not about that and it's just a gimmick. But if it does, I'm all for it, and if the character is going to be happily murdering I don't see why they should tone it down. People can seperate real life from fiction, ultraviolence is hurting no-one.
Also, I've seen how beautifully those game designers can make landscapes and people and blood. I just wish they'd use their unbelivable talent differently.
Violence used for violence's sake= gratuitous and often completely unnecessary
"people should stop blaming the videogames and start asking where the hell kids are getting access to guns" I LOVE THIS LINE
and bless this journal because it's so true IMO. Why do people have to stand on one side or another? "video game violence are making our children delinquent" or "fyeah violent games" IMO games have to be analyzed like anything else: is the violence contributing anything to the story/feeling of the game in a tasteful and constructive way, or is it simply gratuitous gore? It would be wrong to have an otherwise mature monster hunter game where there was no blood or even gore. On the other hand, a game's promotion of precisely gunning down enemies just to see the streams of blood erupt from their smashed skulls is overkill (especially when there shouldn't be that much blood in their entire bodies) and crash-burn racing games seem gratuitous at best.
So in my opinion, violence in video games is acceptable if used well, but like anything else, should not be taken to unnecessary extremes.
I don't see anything new, just better textures, but no really good combination. They all remind me of a NFL game for N64, honestly, in terms of graphics.
If they're all about ploy and graphics and the sight of blood and explosions pulling the audiences, this is one customer who is far from impressed to the point of not even watching the commercials anymore.
here's an example
Sonic X, Mortal Combat, Dead or Alive 4, & Beyonetta