Outcry Over Original Mortal Kombat Understandable, Says Series Creator

[Logan Westbrook]

Outcry Over Original Mortal Kombat Understandable, Says Series Creator

NetherRealm's Ed Boon thinks that the lack of a game rating system back in 1992 meant that the amount of violence in Mortal Kombat took people by surprise.

The violence and gore of the original Mortal Kombat [http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-Playstation-3/dp/B003O6E1JS/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1290178463&sr=1-1] prompted a lot of discussion about the terrible harm might it might be doing to children. But rather than be annoyed by this attitude, series co-creator Ed Boon says that he can actually understand where the critics were coming from.

Boon said that he wouldn't want his ten year old son playing a game like Mortal Kombat. Midway hadn't made the game with children in mind, he said, but rather for older gamers who were looking for more mature content in the games they played. Boon thought that the lack of a rating system at the time was a contributing factor to the outcry, as it was difficult for parents to know what games might be inappropriate for their children to play.

The popularity of Mortal Kombat was actually one of the factors that led to the creation of the ESRB, so essentially it helped fixed the problem it caused. The amount of violence in videogames has remained a hot topic ever since however, as the case put before the US Supreme Court earlier this month, which - if successful - will give states the power to make the sale of violent videogames to minors illegal, shows.

The new Mortal Kombat, which is also not appropriate for ten year olds, comes out for Xbox 360 and PS3 early next year.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=276782?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]



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[Keith K]

There is still no rating system for arcade games, where Mortal Kombat featured prominently in it's heyday. One has to wonder what effect this has played in the demise of arcades in North America.

 

[JackRyan64]

I've never understood why Mortal Kombat's over the top violence ever outraged people. Sure, it was one the first bloody games, but have any of you actually gone back and played it? It's hilarious how over the top it is. It's not exactly gritty or realistic.

 

[SaturdayS]

Maybe I'm just a prude but I don't understand what kind of parent looks at the title "Mortal Kombat" and thinks "Maybe this will be good for my preteen child?"

 

[TheRealCJ]

Perfectly understandable, after all, up until that point videogames = kids.

Suddenly here's this videogames that's NOT for kids. Of course people were going to be thrown for six.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I wonder if the new Mortal Kombat will finally introduce solid fighting mechanics to the series...

NAH. Wishful thinking.

That said, before a rating system, why didn't the parents just look at the back of the fucking box?

 

[Jamash]

I don't think it was just the violence and gore that caused concern (as there were already more violent and gory games before 1992 e.g. Moonstone: A Hard Day's Knight or MK's arcade contemporary, Timekillers), but it was a combination of the fact it used digitised graphics of real people rather than entirely fictional sprites, the fact that it gave players the choice whether to spare of murder their vanquished opponent and actively encouraged the latter, and also the fact that this level of violence towards "real" people and dubious moral decision making was easily accessible to any child with a pocketful of change and a local arcade, which was exasperated when it was released for the home consoles children's toys.

It's interesting to note that the home console versions were both censored and had the blood locked out or replaced with sweat and the Fatalities were toned down and renamed Finishing Bonus.

 

[Evilsanta]

I wonder if the new Mortal Kombat will finally introduce solid fighting mechanics to the series...

NAH. Wishful thinking.

That said, before a rating system, why didn't the parents just look at the back of the fucking box?

Because most parents seems to be idoits or atleast got some kind of brain damage. Hell, when i was browsing games at a gamestor a mom asked if Dead Space was a good game for her 10 year old soon...But i did tell her to look at the back of the box...I do think that a severd hand is a give away on what type of game it is...

 

[twm1709]

I would have called Mortal Kombat a lot of things, but "Mature" wasn't one of them. The moment I saw Smoke blow up the world with a fatality was the day MK died for me

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I've never understood why Mortal Kombat's over the top violence ever outraged people. Sure, it was one the first bloody games, but have any of you actually gone back and played it? It's hilarious how over the top it is. It's not exactly gritty or realistic.

To be fair, the argument could be that its over-the-top, silly nature of it could undermine the underlying brutality to the point where kids would think emulating it in life would be acceptable. To me, this is a more reasonable argument than "kids simply want to do everything shown in games just because."

I don't agree with the former argument, but I can see the logic in it.

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

I was like 9 or 10 when i started playing it, i loved it and played with friends quite a lot up to MK 4, didn't find it to be anything more than a fun game. When i look back at my childhood, i realize a lot of my life was not what i thought it was back then, but it is certain that the MK series was never more than an innocent past time for me. So no, i really don't find any outcry understandable.

 

[toastmastah_extravaganzah]

Actually, the original Mortal Kombat gave me nightmares.

We can't just point out how unrealistic it is, we have to take into account what it looked like at the time when it was released. In 92 I was ten. I had never seen anything as violent. And these were real people. The thought that all that blood was taking artistic liberties didn't even cross my mind back then. I thought this was what fights in the real world actually looked like.

Of course, my parents set me straight on that pretty fast.

 

[Kinokohatake]

That said, before a rating system, why didn't the parents just look at the back of the fucking box?

Or the title of the game. I would be upset if I had bought my child "Pretty Princess' Cupcake Parade" and got a Mortal Kombat style game. BUT IT WAS CALLED MORTAL KOMBAT!

 

[VanityGirl]

*waits for new Mortal Kombat*

Ed Boon, I'm so glad you want make it like the old ones.

 

[JackRyan64]

I've never understood why Mortal Kombat's over the top violence ever outraged people. Sure, it was one the first bloody games, but have any of you actually gone back and played it? It's hilarious how over the top it is. It's not exactly gritty or realistic.

To be fair, the argument could be that its over-the-top, silly nature of it could undermine the underlying brutality to the point where kids would think emulating it in life would be acceptable. To me, this is a more reasonable argument than "kids simply want to do everything shown in games just because."

Fair enough. That makes more sense.
I don't agree with the former argument, but I can see the logic in it.

 

[Irridium]

Maybe I'm just a prude but I don't understand what kind of parent looks at the title "Mortal Kombat" and thinks "Maybe this will be good for my preteen child?"

A parent who doesn't seem to care too much I guess.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Maybe any game rated M for Mature or '18' should be forced to have the C-word emblazoned across the front cover, along with a big pair of tits and a severed head, then MAYBE idiot parents might notice that's it's not ideal babysitting material for their darling child. I'd of course allow Mortal Kombat to have spelled it with a 'K'

(No it's not a serious proposal, but damn, I'd love to find some way of shifting the responsibility onto parents, it seems to be offensive to make them spend 5 seconds glancing at a rating.)

 

[BoogieManFL]

And that was important enough to necro this thread?

Eh.. Could be worse I guess. At least it's less than a year.