The argument has clearly been raised that in the Western world, people have become desensitized to violence due to overexposure via the mediums of film, art, and especially video games. The latter has raised the most concern because players must actively commit virtual violence against another being. When our culture is so integrated with artificial violence we must ask, are we truly numb to it?
When playing a game such as Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament, players kill each other with guns, resulting in a somewhat bloody but always immediate death. In Fallout 3 (and many other titles), things get a bit more gruesome with gibbing, exploding body parts, and slow-motion kill scenes. But again, once the deed is done, the enemy is dead and the player quickly moves on to the next thing. Violence exists in a wide variety of forms in a vast array of games- from stomping a 20-pixel Goomba in SMB1 to splattering eyeball across the screen in Fallout 3.
Despite our massive overexposure to film and game violence, we always retain the knowledge that what is happening on the screen is not real. While we have some idea of what death might look like, we are never truly prepared for if/when it occurs in the real world, in front of our eyes. For most people, witnessing violence in reality is a very disturbing experience, even though they grew up on action films and violent video games. Even witnessing a real death in a video or image will leave many folks shocked. We seldom think about all the aspects of death when we see it in a game or vaguely hear about it in the news, but when all the details are clearly present during a firsthand experience, things change for people.
This ultimately leads to the question of how far game writers will take the violence in their games. If it gets to the point of including every realistic detail of death in a game, it would likely lose a large portion of the market. For example, if in a fairly rudimentary shooting game like Counterstrike every shot resulted in anguished screaming and slow, bloody, panicked death scenes, it would simply leave too many people in shock. Of course there will be the self-proclaimed hard-asses who will find this amusing, but once the line of established, so-called "taste" in gaming violence is crossed, most people will be put off by the realism.
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I hope that game developers don't take violence in video games much farther than they already have. The occasional gorey, realistic death is interesting, but not in excess. I like the incredibly fake head explosions ad blood splatters. Much more satisfying than something realistic.
ReplyDeleteYeah, in the event that the death scenes in videogames were any more realistic people would shy away from them. Anytime people just kill over with exaggerated blood in shoot em ups or people who just disappear after being killed your just playing a game, and that absence of realism will get people to do anything virtually.
ReplyDeleteI love blood in video games and in the past I always felt there was a lack of a good gore scene. The first time I saw Gears of War 2 being played, I stopped what I was doing and took a second look. For the first time I was seeing blood and body parts going everywhere. It was kind of nice to see something a little more realistic. There is an audience for everything and video game designers have to tap into every market in order to make money. Sadly, as we become more desensitized to violence, which apparently I am, the more realistic they will have to make the games.
ReplyDeleteAs graphics get more and more advanced, the violence ratio is only going to get increased. With increased hardware the graphics are going to more and more detailed and then you'll really be able to more than just an arm or head exploding and blood gushing everywhere. I just feel that developers are putting violence in because well it sells just as sex does.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe we've become desensitized either as parents and even the government are taking actions to ban these types of games from being sold. Also, some people don't know how to separate video games from reality. Many people try to reenact these types of games on a daily basis.