Violence in Video Games

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

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Pranked.

You just got pranked, bro. This is in fact not a thread about the nonexistent link between violence in video games and violent actions by those who play them.

For almost as long as video games have existed there has been one common gameplay element: killing people. From the early days of Pac Man to the latest Call of Duty: Battlefield Revengeance'd, death has been a staple. Whether it's the player killing someone or the player being killed, death as a mechanic has existed in some form since video gaming's earliest days. When watching reviews or gameplay overviews of things you're interested in it isn't uncommon to hear people talk about "time to kill" or how weapons just don't have the right amount of punch when they're killing people. Franchises like Mortal Kombat sell themselves on the level of physical trauma on display. Games like Callisto Protocol advertise extra content by mentioning that they will be adding a bunch of new death animations for the protagonist.

Video gaming is about the only medium where this sort of thing is the norm almost across the board. Sure, death and its doers are common in books, movies, and television, but unless you're wandering down the horror hallway then it isn't usually normalized to the same extent that it is in games. Even something like the Legend of Zelda drops the player in Link's shoes with free reign to murder monsters, offering only the thinnest of assurances as it whispers, "Yeah, those are all bad dudes. Take our word for it."

And that's... pretty ****ed up, isn't it?

Though I'm sure more exist I can only think of five games that really tackle the messed up way that violence is handled in gaming, and that list only includes three developers. I don't really see it as a thing that can be fixed, but I do think gaming could stand to take a step back and reevaluate itself. Is horrific violence really the best tool a developer has in their arsenal to engage players?

 

[GZ Zelda]

PRUUUUUUUUUUUDE!

No I totally agree: I just think it speaks to how much closer we are to violence than we generally think. "Kill 99 people" is the objective of one of the most popular games we made. There's obviously a scale here, from "Minecraft Pig" to "Torture someone in GTA," but we make art about "exceptional circumstances" and violence, especially graphic, is one of the major exceptional circumstances.


This is a great video by Alex O'Connor on the Ethics of violence using GTA and COD as an example, tw extreme violence:

The Ethics of Grand Theft Auto

Go to https://ground.news/AlexOC to see through media bias. Subscribe through my link this month only for 40% off unlimited accessTo support me on Patreon (t...

www.youtube.com

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

Nah that's fair, you do have a point. There's not really any consideration over things like, how sentient are Goombas and did they really deserve to get stomped. It's essentially the baseline for gaming. I can't really say video game studios are to blame for it though, because we gamers tend to make it ourselves. They gave us so many enemies to fight in TotK and yet we all decided we wanted the koroks to suffer instead lol. It's just how games and the people that play them tend to be.

 

[OGSniper]

Nah that's fair, you do have a point. There's not really any consideration over things like, how sentient are Goombas and did they really deserve to get stomped. It's essentially the baseline for gaming. I can't really say video game studios are to blame for it though, because we gamers tend to make it ourselves. They gave us so many enemies to fight in TotK and yet we all decided we wanted the koroks to suffer instead lol. It's just how games and the people that play them tend to be.

Wait. Why would want the Koroks to suffer. Those cute little guys dont deserve to suffer.





They deserve a far crueler and sinister reward...

 

[thePlinko]

I think part of it is that games inherently require some form of resistance against the player, and it’s rather hard to contextualize that without resorting to “theres an enemy you need to kill/harm in order to progress” or “you are going to be killed/harmed if you fail this,” particularly if you want any sort of stakes involved from a storytelling angle. Sure, games like Undertale subvert that, but I’d argue that it really only goes halfway since even if you spare your opponent, it was still an opponent that was trying to kill you and expected you to try and kill it.

The only other context that I can think of that games gravitate towards falling back on without resorting to death are sports/racing games, but even that I’d argue is less so a context and more of a simulation of games that we never put context with to begin with.

Basically, as long as we give games stories, then we are going to continue to focus on death and violence as a topic because that is the easiest way to make the player feel like what they’re doing matters.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I mean it all depends on the game, there isn't much violence to be had in a typical puzzle game or something like nintendogs

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

View attachment 73596​

Pranked.

You just got pranked, bro. This is in fact not a thread about the nonexistent link between violence in video games and violent actions by those who play them.

For almost as long as video games have existed there has been one common gameplay element: killing people. From the early days of Pac Man to the latest Call of Duty: Battlefield Revengeance'd, death has been a staple. Whether it's the player killing someone or the player being killed, death as a mechanic has existed in some form since video gaming's earliest days. When watching reviews or gameplay overviews of things you're interested in it isn't uncommon to hear people talk about "time to kill" or how weapons just don't have the right amount of punch when they're killing people. Franchises like Mortal Kombat sell themselves on the level of physical trauma on display. Games like Callisto Protocol advertise extra content by mentioning that they will be adding a bunch of new death animations for the protagonist.

Video gaming is about the only medium where this sort of thing is the norm almost across the board. Sure, death and its doers are common in books, movies, and television, but unless you're wandering down the horror hallway then it isn't usually normalized to the same extent that it is in games. Even something like the Legend of Zelda drops the player in Link's shoes with free reign to murder monsters, offering only the thinnest of assurances as it whispers, "Yeah, those are all bad dudes. Take our word for it."

And that's... pretty ****ed up, isn't it?

Though I'm sure more exist I can only think of five games that really tackle the messed up way that violence is handled in gaming, and that list only includes three developers. I don't really see it as a thing that can be fixed, but I do think gaming could stand to take a step back and reevaluate itself. Is horrific violence really the best tool a developer has in their arsenal to engage players?

I've only played one game that actually delves into the morality of your actions, and also let's you see things from the perspective of your "enemies", and that's Nier Automata.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I've only played one game that actually delves into the morality of your actions, and also let's you see things from the perspective of your "enemies", and that's Nier Automata.

The five I were thinking of included both Nier games, Undertale and Deltarune, and Spec Ops: The Line. They all confront it in different ways, but they all end up pointing the finger back at the player and saying, "Did it make you feel good?" In the case of Spec Ops it's about pointing at the player's enjoyment of war shooters and saying that such enjoyment is pretty ****ed up.

 

[BloodyKun]

For some reason I remember an acting class I took when I was a young teen. Not sure why, didn’t really end up being my thing. I was more interested in writing a scene for the play we’d be putting on. I recall the instructor giving mine (and others’) some critique in that if there is no conflict, you don’t really have a story. You have all different kinds of conflicts, sure, but I feel that is mostly true, and given many games try to be on the simpler side, it can often feel a bit stripped of any nuance.

There’s maybe a handful of games I know of that stray a bit farther away from violence or at least killing. Animal Crossing is one, I would say Stardew Valley is similar but there are monsters in the mines. Undertale and Deltarune are examples that let you get by, but definitely give the option. Some mgs games try to urge the player not to but I feel it’s often a half hearted attempt. Perhaps some of the better ones are Moon RPG or Chulip, wherein the goal is to rescue monsters or kiss people, but the player can very likely die still.

Then you have your games that are sort of on the opposite end of the spectrum that encourage you to kill but also criticize this trope. Infamously there’s Spec Ops: The Line. To a lesser extent, Far Cry 3? Kind of arguable. The Nier games are pretty blatant with their messaging, but Yoko Taro has gone on about how he made each ending of the first Drakengard progressively worse in outcome as you have to murder so many more people for each one. Pretty basic in practice but kind of effective.

Then you have nonsense like Death Stranding, seemingly made to be bland and boring, and crybaby kojima blaming Americans for having to put guns in his walking sim. Thing is, he’s pretty talentless because those are actually the worst parts of the game anyway. It’s just a terrible premise and execution all around by someone full of himself.

I’m not sure how I feel about it myself. Everyone’s played GTA, and No More Heroes being my first really over the top exposure to violence and other such stuff in games. I tend to love it and feel anyone in their right mind would refute the idea it has any negative basis in reality. However, said games like Chulip can be very intriguing in what else they set out to do when the goal can be something entirely unique. I’m all for creativity done right in general. And speaking on that, I would love a sort of flipside to happen where the western audience realizes sexual taboos are nowhere near as reprehensible as violence, and that nothing fictional regardless deserves to be outright banned or shunned.