Violence in games

[axle 19]

?

 

[peterwolfe]

i beleive violence is necessary to the gaming world, for the same reason it's necessary to the movie world: if it suddenly disappeared overnight, we'd lose about five genres, leaving the already f***ed hardcore gamer more f***ed than ever before.
however, i think there's far too many games where senseless violence is the only saving grace. let's face it, it's downright fun to blast a zombie's arms off with a shotgun, or beat in a hookers head with a baseball bat, but if you end up playing a million games where that's not only present but required to beat the game, you'll get all bored and desensitized and you'll end up proving jack thompson was right, and nobody wants that stupid g4 comedy bit to come true.

 

[daedrick]

Yes it is. You know after a bad day... a very bad day. Then you sit at your computer, load up a game, choose your favorite weapon and then unload a clip in a dead body of the guy you just sniped 2sec ago. Well, its very satifiying... even relaxing.

edit: said the guy with a doom avatar. >

 

[stompy]

Violence is usually the resolution used to end the conflict in the video game, and thus is shown. As such, I really have no problem with it.

My problem with violence comes about when games go over the top and the violence is so, well, violent, that the game really serves no other purpose than to pander violence to the audience.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I think violence will always be part of any storytelling medium.

After all, the essence of drama is conflict, and the purest form of conflict is violence.

And violence is enjoyable, people will always sell something fun once they figure out that they can make money doing so.

Be honest, how many read that and immediately thought of whores? Perverts

 

[RazielDethAngel]

Y'know what I hate? How when you can make it rain blood from the freshly sliced throats of teenage thug in games and get away with it. But the second a game has a bit of nudity in it or a sex scene it suddenly becomes like someone anounced the the game would teach how to rape children! Whats up with that?

The reason I think that happens is because we have become so desensitized that violence isn't a big deal, while the media cries bloody hell upon a game that has more then a quick kiss on the cheek in terms of sex.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Y'know what I hate? How when you can make it rain blood from the freshly sliced throats of teenage thug in games and get away with it. But the second a game has a bit of nudity in it or a sex scene it suddenly becomes like someone anounced the the game would teach how to rape children! Whats up with that?

The reason I think that happens is because we have become so desensitized that violence isn't a big deal, while the media cries bloody hell upon a game that has more then a quick kiss on the cheek in terms of sex.

Of course, Europe's the opposite. *Badly immitated French accent* "Nude characters and sex minigames? Why would ze foolish Americans condemn zis? Sacre bler! Zat corpse is not intact zrough actions of ze player! Ban it!"

Ah racial stereotypes, so funny to the right audience.

 

[Bakery]

You know that was cool? In Serious Sam you could change the colour of the blood from red to blue, green or 'hippy'.

Instead of mutilated limbs and swimming pools of blood spraying out of enemies, hippy blood shot bunches of flowers out at you from shotgun holes and oversized pieces of fruit.

I don't really know what point I'm trying to make here, I just thought it might be worth a mention.

 

[Wolfwind]

What we need is a game called super mario fun, in which the goal is to kick baby hamsters as far as possible, bonus points if it dies.

Why good sir, I do believe you are a genius!

I'd play that.

As for the topic, is lots of violence necessary? Nah... not really. But it's sure a lot of fun sometimes.

Anyways, I've been playing violent video games for years, and it hasn't affected me at all. So I don't see anything wrong with violence in video games, and I'll kill anybody who disagrees with me.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

How is it that we can make it from reasonable discussion to increasingly un-subtle attacks on character in less than 2 pages? Saw is not a gratuitously violent series. I have not seen the others you mentioned, but the violence in Saw serves a purpose, an ARTISTIC purpose. The purpose is to bring one into the headspace of the person, to show you what you might feel like in their place. The whole idea is to say "what would I do to survive in X situation?" I won't get into any specifics because this forum is nazid so hard I'd be banned before I hit 'post,' but it faces the characters with the question of how much pain are they willing to endure to avoid a quick painless death.

The immaturity lies in those who see extreme violence and make blanket assumptions, declaring it to be artless and gratuitous without watching.

For my perspective, however, I have to say that violence is part of the human experience, just like sex, love, hatred, and friendship. The problem comes when they are over-applied, no matter which it is, and begin to overpower. That being said, I think that no matter which of these is overapplied, or to what degree, there is no need for anyone to intervene and stick their big governmental stiffy into the middle to say what we should and shouldn't be allowed to buy.

I don't think there is any amount of gaming violence which can be damaging to society or to any rational individual. The only limit is the one which is placed by art, the one that says "this is no longer improving things, I'm bored let me walk away."

Who's character was I attacking exactly? For your information, I've seen all 4 of the Saws, and they are in some ways worse than the other splatter flicks (which I've also seen) because they pretend that there is something moral about them. Jigsaw is portrayed as a somehow logical man, whom you have sympathy and maybe even empathy with. You should not and do not, respectively. He is a psycho and more importantly a hypocrite - his sole reason for trapping people in unnecessarily gruesome traps (why not make them simpler? Because there wouldn't be enough blood, says the director) is that he claims that they do not love life or some such BS, whilst ironically devoting his own entire life, little of which remains, to devising said horrific contraptions. No, they're gore films, and silly ones at that.

I agree with the rest of your comments, although I still think some rating standard is required - we shouldn't make all material freely available to everyone of any age.

 

[axle 19]

Thats true some games go more than the extra mile to provide extreme gore but im gonna hafta agree with daedrick it is relaxing in games like gears of war to shoot someone and watch them explode. However, i think violence should exist only when necessary like in games such as gears or gta. I mean how can someone complain when the game is about killing people anyway

 

[danielabens]

No doubt you own an X-Box and can't go twenty seconds without killing something (sorry about that, that joke has been made many times, had to use it though) And since Halo and all it's wanna-be games are so popular yes, violence is necessary. Even the "E" and "T" games have violence (even if they just grunt when they get hit, or die off the screen and come back blinking with invincibility *cough* SSB) The bitching in the media targets weapon violence and I'm not talking about a stick that throws stars *cough* SSB. Gun violence (bullets not lazers *cough* SW Battlefront, sorry I'll stop) isn't telling kids to go out and kill all his school mates, if anything it prevents it. "I was going to get back at that bully but I'm exausted from murdering street walkers in gta 4 late last night so I guess I'll let him be." Unlikely, but the fun in killing wears off after a while, it's like immersion therapy. Here's an idea, get convicted murderers to play shooting games around the clock and they'll be model citizens in a week.

 

[electric discordian]

Is it not ironic that the people who are responsible for the war in Iraq, the propogation of horror on the news and a closed minded mentality towards other faiths and creeds are the ones telling me that violent games lead to me turning into Dexter!

I am of the opinion that the moral majority always need someone or something to be annoyed about, were not allowed to criticise people for their race, creed, weight or age so the popular press need us gamers we are a minority.

In britain at the moment we have a problem with Knife crime, this has been blamed on games amonsgst other things surely it would be better if the teens were at home on their xbox than milling round the streets with carving knives

Just a thought