Game People Calling: Dark Games Are Good for the Soul

[Game People]

Game People Calling: Dark Games Are Good for the Soul

Dark gaming moments offer a chance to understand our fears.

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[AvsJoe]

Provided we have an ounce of responsibility

That's a big provision, my man. A lot of people don't and they are ruining the hobby for the rest of us. Good article though. Very engaging.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

No Russian was flawed.

If you don't fire a single shot at civilians, the mission ends the same way as if you slaughtered the entire airport yourself.

SO you can just sit back and walk through it like a cutscene, which it should have been in the first place, instead of of some desperate attempt to cause controversy and give the ignorant game haters more ammunition against our passtime.

 

[Hiphophippo]

This was a highly interesting article. Thanks for the read.

 

[SuperChris]

No Russian was flawed.

If you don't fire a single shot at civilians, the mission ends the same way as if you slaughtered the entire airport yourself.

SO you can just sit back and walk through it like a cutscene, which it should have been in the first place, instead of of some desperate attempt to cause controversy and give the ignorant game haters more ammunition against our passtime.

I think this can still tie in with the article though. As in: Do you shoot the civilians just because you are able to? Like with GTA etc etc It offers up moral decisions which do not appear in real life; I know most gamers who are obsessed with CODMW2 (like my brother) probably wouldn't think too much about this but I think this is interesting because you could argue that it does look at the "darker themes" even if you choose to stand at the side and watch.

Good article, anyway

 

[Andronicus]

So where does a game like The Void [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_%28video_game%29] fit into this? I haven't actually played it myself, but I've only heard good things about it. I read the reviews and it sounds dark as all hell, but all in an obscure, heavily interpretative way.

 

[Fniff]

So where does a game like The Void [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_%28video_game%29] fit into this? I haven't actually played it myself, but I've only heard good things about it. I read the reviews and it sounds dark as all hell, but all in an obscure, heavily interpretative way.

I think it fits in an category I just made up.

Should we disguise ourselves to be truly happy, or stay as we are?

 

[Pimppeter2]

No Russian was the silliest thing I have ever sat through in a game. And this is coming from someone who enjoys viva piniata. I agree with MiracleOfSound, a cutscene would have at least been able to focus more on the innocent civilians. I sat through the entire thing not caring for the civilians at all, and its not because I'm cool and edgy and whatever those douches try to prove. Those civilians did not feel human. Just a big bunch of blobs and polygons that resembled random human bodies. A much more ethical scenario for the game should have involved something like kidnapping and murdering a doctor in whateverzakistan.

 

[DarkSaber]

No Russian was flawed.

If you don't fire a single shot at civilians, the mission ends the same way as if you slaughtered the entire airport yourself.

SO you can just sit back and walk through it like a cutscene, which it should have been in the first place, instead of of some desperate attempt to cause controversy and give the ignorant game haters more ammunition against our passtime.

I think this can still tie in with the article though. As in: Do you shoot the civilians just because you are able to? Like with GTA etc etc It offers up moral decisions which do not appear in real life; I know most gamers who are obsessed with CODMW2 (like my brother) probably wouldn't think too much about this but I think this is interesting because you could argue that it does look at the "darker themes" even if you choose to stand at the side and watch.

Good article, anyway

Personally I think No Russian is more of a reflection on the developers than the people who play the level, however they play it.

 

[SuperChris]

I understand that the No Russian level was probably created just for the controversy but seeing as gaming can be a "tailored" experience, like reading a book or watching a film, you can look at these things even if they weren't ncessarily the developer's intentions. But whatever really, I'm in an odd mood today.

 

[Kollega]

GTA series do not give us "moral freedom". Can main character be an artist or a doctor instead of a criminal? No. Therefore, it's not "moral freedom", it's merely a "mission to" - and i quote Yahtzee here - "fuck this world's shit up".

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

Yes, i remember when i was playing GTA IV awhile back, and the mission where the beginning cutscene for it was you talking to Faustins(i think) wife, and niko is talking about the war and things back home. It's very dark and powerful. That really got me to want to play more. And it also made me want to watch Defiance.

Fallout 3 is deep. thats all i can say, there are too many expamples..

 

[Banana Phone Man]

I think that it can good to play violent/scary/moral questioning games because it means, as long as people have common sence like you said, people won't do it in real life. It lets you express how violent/scary etc. you want to be in a non-violent way. Well that's what it think any way.

Thanks for the article, it was very interesting to read.

 

[Jdopus]

I thought it was a pretty poor article. he didn't actually go into any depth about anything, just listed off a lot of games that he believes have moral choice. It was an interesting topic but there was absolutely no exploration of it, just a dull, pointless list.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

No Russian was the silliest thing I have ever sat through in a game. And this is coming from someone who enjoys viva piniata. I agree with MiracleOfSound, a cutscene would have at least been able to focus more on the innocent civilians. I sat through the entire thing not caring for the civilians at all, and its not because I'm cool and edgy and whatever those douches try to prove. Those civilians did not feel human. Just a big bunch of blobs and polygons that resembled random human bodies. A much more ethical scenario for the game should have involved something like kidnapping and murdering a doctor in whateverzakistan.

Agreed.

It was also strangely immersion breaking that the graphics in that section were atrocious compared to the rest of the game.

The military character models all look fantastic in MW2, but those civilians looked like weird floppy Thunderbird puppets.

It was such a stupid scene. 'Oh look we're so edgy and controversial! Ban us so we get publicity!'

Fallout 3, Dragon Age and the Darkness are, in my view, much better explorations of the dark side of human nature.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

It's a very intriguing subject to examine, unfortunately I felt the article was too short to cover it in much detail and instead skimmed over it...

 

[PrototypeC]

It's a very intriguing subject to examine, unfortunately I felt the article was too short to cover it in much detail and instead skimmed over it...

I thought it was a pretty poor article. he didn't actually go into any depth about anything, just listed off a lot of games that he believes have moral choice. It was an interesting topic but there was absolutely no exploration of it, just a dull, pointless list.

This.

Plus, it seems to me that only very recent, popular games are worth mentioning in this article. Maybe I've been spoiled by the utterly fantastic intellectual university thesis-level articles from The Escapist, but this seemed too simple, too "trendy" and too short. Why would they only mention brand-spanking new games? Even then they didn't go into any real detail in their examples.

It's easy for me to criticize; I've never written for The Escapist. Hmmm... maybe that should change...

 

[Tonimata]

No Russian was flawed.

If you don't fire a single shot at civilians, the mission ends the same way as if you slaughtered the entire airport yourself.

I found a MUCH bigger flaw in the level, and it's the fact that Makarov has heat seeking bullets. Next time you play it, let them get into the van without following them.

"And on the 8th day, God created a magical, heat-seeking bullet-firing Desert Eagle and forgot all about it"

Hence why a single terrorist makes the Russian army engage in invasive armed conflict against the USA. Because of the magical Desert Eagle.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

No Russian was flawed.

If you don't fire a single shot at civilians, the mission ends the same way as if you slaughtered the entire airport yourself.

I found a MUCH bigger flaw in the level, and it's the fact that Makarov has heat seeking bullets. Next time you play it, let them get into the van without following them.

"And on the 8th day, God created a magical, heat-seeking bullet-firing Desert Eagle and forgot all about it"

Hence why a single terrorist makes the Russian army engage in invasive armed conflict against the USA. Because of the magical Desert Eagle.

It was either lag or he switched to the 1887s behind your back.