Mortal Kombat Devs traumatised by creating the gore in the game

[CaitSeith]

maybe you might have to check out gore or horror movies in order to gleam ideas for how to make the violence in the game have impact and meaning.

Horror movie gore is nothing like real-life gore. I'm almost sure no one knew what they were getting into when they started to research the latter.

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Nope. That's just a nihilistic and unemphatic argument, otherwise why bother to have laws at all? World is a terrible place; it's absolutely evil to go and make it even more terrible to others.

 

[CaitSeith]

I mean, no one is forcing these people to work on Mortal Kombat games.

Yeah, they're not "holding a gun to their head"...

I suspect that has nothing to do with it; and more that they thought they could handle real-world violence footage. Jim Sterling pointed out the difference years ago in a Jimquistion about violence in videogames.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

At one point its mentioned that part of the research for the work included watching videos of executions, and animals being slaughtered

Jesus Christ. Whoever came up with that idea and forced it on their employees needs to be fired immediately.

 

[Casual Shinji]

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So because other people have it worse they're not allowed to complain about their own situation?

And 100 hour work weeks aren't the end of the world? Are you serious?! This type of shit is par the course in Japan, and it's so common there of people working themselves to death that they have an actual word for it. And these people aren't working in coal mines or on oil rigs. You think the director of Smash Bros. needed hook himself on to an i.v. because it's so easy to sit in an airconditioned office, or that the director of Whisper of the Heart worked himself to a fatal heart attack because working in animation is such a cushy job?

You seem under the extremely false impression that a job can't be stressful to the point of it endangering your health unless it's physical labor. Way to downplay these people getting worked into nervous breakdowns, because hey, they're not working on an Alaskan fishing boat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I mean, no one is forcing these people to work on Mortal Kombat games.

Yeah, they're not "holding a gun to their head"...

If these accusations are correct they probably had to watch real-life people with a gun to their head.. and then the trigger getting pulled.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yeah, I wouldn?t have done it. COULDN?T have done it. I?m perfectly alright with fantasy violence, but graphic reality is nearly a phobia of mine. This was wholly unnecessary ?research;? I don?t think any fans of MK have been turned off by its lack of realism, at least not enough of them that it was worth traumatizing their employees.

 

[CritialGaming]

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So because other people have it worse they're not allowed to complain about their own situation?

And 100 hour work weeks aren't the end of the world? Are you serious?! This type of shit is par the course in Japan, and it's so common there of people working themselves to death that they have an actual word for it. And these people aren't working in coal mines or on oil rigs. You think the director of Smash Bros. needed hook himself on to an i.v. because it's so easy to sit in an airconditioned office, or that the director of Whisper of the Heart worked himself to a fatal heart attack because working in animation is such a cushy job?

You seem under the extremely false impression that a job can't be stressful to the point of it endangering your health unless it's physical labor. Way to downplay these people getting worked into nervous breakdowns, because hey, they're not working on an Alaskan fishing boat.

No I'm not saying it isn't.

Look 100 hour work weeks are not good when they are the norm. But they aren't. They are almost always fairly short periods of time, which is just normal in ANY business not just the games industry. And frankly it's part of those jobs, lawyers, draft engineers, business folk all over, at some point everyone goes through periods of overtime. It's the way of the business working world.

In the case of Japan, they have a culture of doing a good job everytime, no matter how long it takes. This tends to breed work-a-holics, and leads to cases of developers like that guy in smash. But those people are outliers.

If periods of overtime are too much for you than you should leave your job, whatever that job is, and find something in which you don't have that problem.

And here's the thing these 100+ hour work weeks never report. They never tell you all the time the developers got to piss about during the work day. Easy bug fixes, texture work, small coding corrections, all the standard 9-5 work days, or the days in which your department doesn't have to do much of anything but be ready for a new section of code.

I've worked in game development before and I've seen it. Devs getting paid to play basketball in the yard because they were waiting for the texture artists to finish some character model or something.

But no, they never will report that. They'll only ever tell you how terrible life is trying to make a game. It's exhaggerated to an incredible degree to try and score sympathy and outrage points.

 

[Silvanus]

Look 100 hour work weeks are not good when they are the norm. But they aren't. They are almost always fairly short periods of time, which is just normal in ANY business not just the games industry.

No, no it's not normal at all. I've never spoken to a single person who has ever been expected to work over 14 hours a day, without days off or weekends. And I work in the centre of a capital city, and have done for years. Complete nonsense.

 

[CritialGaming]

Look 100 hour work weeks are not good when they are the norm. But they aren't. They are almost always fairly short periods of time, which is just normal in ANY business not just the games industry.

No, no it's not normal at all. I've never spoken to a single person who has ever been expected to work over 14 hours a day, without days off or weekends. And I work in the centre of a capital city, and have done for years. Complete nonsense.

With all due respect. I am a traveling business man now, and I travel all over the country (U.S.) and I know loads of sales people, small business owners, and corporate buyers that all put in LOADS of extra hours into work periodically throughout the year. So just because you don't personally know anyone that doesn't do it (or just don't tell you that they do), doesn't mean it isn't a common practice.

We can only speak with personal experiences, and that's my experience, which btw includes 4 years working in game development for AAA companies.

 

[WindKnight]

Seems it?s tough to find balanced perspective in anything lately. It?s always a case of extremes to garner a favorable or sympathetic reaction from as many eyes and ears as possible to feel validated.

Is the idea of watching gore for videogame or movie research disturbing? Sure.

Is it really more disturbing than the actual jobs of people who have to deal with such content (trauma surgeons, CSI?s, coroners, slaughter houses, basically any of these for starters [https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/10-of-the-scariest-jobs-in-america], etc.) in their everyday occupation, hands on?

*raises eyebrow*

 

[Casual Shinji]

Look 100 hour work weeks are not good when they are the norm. But they aren't. They are almost always fairly short periods of time, which is just normal in ANY business not just the games industry. And frankly it's part of those jobs, lawyers, draft engineers, business folk all over, at some point everyone goes through periods of overtime. It's the way of the business working world.

It's not the norm yet it's the way of the business working world. Right.

In the case of Japan, they have a culture of doing a good job everytime, no matter how long it takes. This tends to breed work-a-holics, and leads to cases of developers like that guy in smash. But those people are outliers.

No, Japan has a culture of living for your work, because you must cypher yourself away to add to society, which is a bad line of thinking. And it doesn't even seem that effective seeing as Japan's economy is still in the slump since the early 90's. And again, they have a word for working oneself to death. That doesn't happen because of one or two cases.

If periods of overtime are too much for you than you should leave your job, whatever that job is, and find something in which you don't have that problem.

Or maybe adress it to a Union.

And here's the thing these 100+ hour work weeks never report. They never tell you all the time the developers got to piss about during the work day. Easy bug fixes, texture work, small coding corrections, all the standard 9-5 work days, or the days in which your department doesn't have to do much of anything but be ready for a new section of code.

I've worked in game development before and I've seen it. Devs getting paid to play basketball in the yard because they were waiting for the texture artists to finish some character model or something.

But no, they never will report that. They'll only ever tell you how terrible life is trying to make a game. It's exhaggerated to an incredible degree to try and score sympathy and outrage points.

Crunch wasn't invented for sympathy points. It's been part of gaming for decades and it's a bad practice that for some reason only rarely gets brought up. You're acting like people can't shut up about it, well that's only for now. People were complaining about it during Red Dead Redemption 1 and L.A. Noire, and then it died down. The same thing happened when the whole Rhythym & Hues Life of Pie controversy shined a light on how these people are generally treated like dogshit, and the same is likely going to happen this time. So don't worry, I guess, you don't have to listen to these "bunch of babies" for long.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Is the idea of watching gore for videogame or movie research disturbing? Sure.

Is it really more disturbing than the actual jobs of people who have to deal with such content (trauma surgeons, CSI?s, coroners, slaughter houses, basically any of these for starters [https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/10-of-the-scariest-jobs-in-america], etc.) in their everyday occupation, hands on?

*raises eyebrow*

Is that claim being made though? Because it's not.

When you're made to watch executions and other disturbing things for your job when there's zero need for it, than that's a tad questionable to say the least. And I don't think it's too much a of stretch that, for some people who really didn't expect this from their job, it might have a bit of an impact.

 

[CaitSeith]

Is the idea of watching gore for videogame or movie research disturbing? Sure.

Is it really more disturbing than the actual jobs of people who have to deal with such content (trauma surgeons, CSI?s, coroners, slaughter houses, basically any of these for starters [https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/10-of-the-scariest-jobs-in-america], etc.) in their everyday occupation, hands on?

*raises eyebrow*

Is that claim being made though? Because it's not.

When you're made to watch executions and other disturbing things for your job when there's zero need for it, than that's a tad questionable to say the least. And I don't think it's too much a of stretch that, for some people who really didn't expect this from their job, it might have a bit of an impact.

I don't know where it was stated that the higher-ups came up with the idea. My main question is: who chose what material to watch for the research?

 

[Erttheking]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

I am just amazed people still posting Kotaku after they have been exposed as a yellow journalist/clickbait article website. This whole article reads like vacuous clickbait.

Yeah except the site does do fairly good investigative journalism, as seen with the whole Anthem incident. Again, if you want to ignore the article, please prove it wrong. Also don't confuse "they have been exposed as yellow journalism" with "I think they're yellow journalism."

Well I find it very convenient this bit of news came out with MK 11 is struggling with controversy already.

Because the people running that team seem to be dispicable people. Please give me more than you not wanting controversy aground a game you like.

 

[skywolfblue]

Is the idea of watching gore for videogame or movie research disturbing? Sure.

Is it really more disturbing than the actual jobs of people who have to deal with such content (trauma surgeons, CSI?s, coroners, slaughter houses, basically any of these for starters [https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/10-of-the-scariest-jobs-in-america], etc.) in their everyday occupation, hands on?

*raises eyebrow*

Is that claim being made though? Because it's not.

When you're made to watch executions and other disturbing things for your job when there's zero need for it, than that's a tad questionable to say the least. And I don't think it's too much a of stretch that, for some people who really didn't expect this from their job, it might have a bit of an impact.

^That.

The issue as I see it is not whether it is more disturbing then those jobs, but rather that this was not necessary, and it was not an understood part of the position.

Would it be ok if a kindergarten teacher was forced to watch the same horrific videos? I would say no, their job does not require it, so it would be cruel to put them through that.

EMTs/Nurses/Etc have it as a necessary and understood part of their position.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

I am just amazed people still posting Kotaku after they have been exposed as a yellow journalist/clickbait article website. This whole article reads like vacuous clickbait.

Yeah except the site does do fairly good investigative journalism, as seen with the whole Anthem incident. Again, if you want to ignore the article, please prove it wrong. Also don't confuse "they have been exposed as yellow journalism" with "I think they're yellow journalism."

Well I find it very convenient this bit of news came out with MK 11 is struggling with controversy already.

Because the people running that team seem to be dispicable people. Please give me more than you not wanting controversy aground a game you like.

Look I have been mostly warned away from Kotaku by second hand accounts from people that probably researched and knows more about them better then me. Especially Razorfist's video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ga4txLxteU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_OEkOaJus

And I would have had this negative recation if it was another piece of news sourced from Kotaku.

 

[Erttheking]

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Razorfist? Dude, you gotta stop letting Youtube forming your opinions.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Snip

Razorfist? Dude, you gotta stop letting Youtube forming your opinions.

These are old opinions that I have been given to for years now and I never bothered having it challenged.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

not cool. and unnecessary. there are other avenues less traumatising for the mentally unprepared to learn what they are asked for the task. maybe a heads up on the whole long-term exposure to snuff videos would've been appreciated

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Bring back Babality and Friendship moves.