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[Theognosis]

Blood oozing out of decapited bodies adds nothing to gameplay. It was a novelty back in 1992 but it's boring now although it's good for a few laughs. Now give us Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks for Switch.

Finish him!!!

 

[Silvawuff]

I think violence has lost its charm. I guess it depends on the context and focus of it. Looking at my library 'o games, a lot of them are not violent or bloody at all.

 

[iconmaster]

"No, I can separate reality from fiction" is such a facile response to this question. Of course you can, we all can, or we couldn't be having this discussion.

Go beyond reiterating the bare premise. Are there any limits to the amount or kind of fictional violence with which you're willing to engage? Are the limits different for games than for films or books?

 

[bukowski81]

So you have no empathy for people dying by the droves in movies like Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Letters from Iwo Jima, etc.?



What about games that treat each individual deaths as tragedy. Have you ever played Red Orchestra games? The music is quite sombre and you can hear "dead" players shouting pretty ghastly things, like here you can hear what the American troopers are crying. I think it must make most people stop for a moment and realise that what you are playing many people had to actually live through. I know I am not alone in this simply by reading the comments on that video.

Havent played Red Orchestra, not sure how i would feel about it.

 

[Bolivar687]

Sometimes I feel like the games I played as a kid were more violent than the ones now, although that has a lot to do with changing tastes. I can't say it's much worse now although the visual fidelity has obviously gone way up.

 

[deriks]

So you never got emotional watching a film, theatre performance, reading a fictional book or anything. Of course I know it is fake but so is everything else besides real life and literal history books, that doesn't mean I can't form an emotional connection with a fictional character. Or maybe I am not understanding you properly?

If I see a real person suffering, I have empathy. When I'm playing something, I want to have fun. But of course, there's cases and cases. I was very emotional with The Last of Us, Persona 5... but I really didn't care to kill all those guys (or shadows, if that matter) that I killed, and if this was real life, chances are that I'll do the same.

I don't judge you if you connect to someone, even if is just a character, but I guess that you should think that videogames are made to have fun in the first place, so sometimes you will have to rip and tear some guts (demons or humans). If you don't like to do it, well, just buy a non-violence game.

 

[Ballthyrm]

I think violence works when it is not abused, in most of video games violence has not consequence for the players, so we just don't care. Even when the violence has an impact on the characters, the ludo-narrative dissonance present in most game is so striking that we just don't buy it.

Most of the violence is physical violence and just like in most movie it is very far from the truth. I am still waiting to see a game where i can see in-game the direct effect of that violence. WE are still far from the beach scene of Saving private ryan where people are looking for they mangled arms and legs.

Right now most of the violence consist of NPC falling like dominos, there is no gore, there is no pain, there is no scream of agony (cut-scene excluded). The player doesn't "do" the violence, you don't even see the consequence of what you have done most of the time (dead body despawn, no pool of blood and part of bodies).

I haven't seen that many examples of good video game violence yet, stuff like the White phosphorus scene from Spec ops the line or the "chemin des dames" level from Valiant heart. Theses are few and far between, we tend to remember them because they aren't like what we are used to.

TLDR: Real video game violence, you know it when you see it.

 

[TheWatcher]

"No, I can separate reality from fiction" is such a facile response to this question. Of course you can, we all can, or we couldn't be having this discussion.

Go beyond reiterating the bare premise. Are there any limits to the amount or kind of fictional violence with which you're willing to engage? Are the limits different for games than for films or books?

No. I will beat, kill, and rape through a game if I have too and I will thoroughly enjoy it.

 

[EventHorizon]

Violence in video games doesn't bother me, and I like when it is included because it adds to the realism. The closest I've come to sympathizing with the enemies or NPCs in a game was deciding whether to harvest or rescue the Litter Sisters in Bioshock. I understand why it wasn't done, but showing a bit more of the consequences of choosing the harvest option would have greatly increased the impact of making that decision.

As for mowing down an endless stream of enemies in a game, it has no emotional impact on me other than the joy of doing it. I feel the same of any hero in a movie doing the same. It is not the visuals of the violence that is important, it is the emotional connection the game creates between you and those you affect that is the biggest determinant of the impact of your killing spree. Admittedly better visuals can help form that emotional connection, but its only one factor. For example, real life actors in a movie don't make me feel for the bad guys if they are just anonymous extras.

If a game can make you feel, that is a good thing and is not something to be avoided. A movie making you feel that level of unease is considered a good thing, and usually is given an award for doing so. However, that doesn't mean I want every game to be as emotionally draining as possible just like I don't want every movie to be as heavy as Schindler's List. Games aren't at that level yet so it is not a problem, but when they do get there just remember: Violence is just a genre and variety is good.

 

[mcz117chief]

If a game can make you feel, that is a good thing and is not something to be avoided. A movie making you feel that level of unease is considered a good thing, and usually is given an award for doing so. However, that doesn't mean I want every game to be as emotionally draining as possible just like I don't want every movie to be as heavy as Schindler's List. Games aren't at that level yet so it is not a problem, but when they do get there just remember: Violence is just a genre and variety is good.

Honestly I feel much more emotional with games than with movies. For one the fact that you constantly see the same few actors takes away some of the drama and the other thing is that you are not an active participator in the story, which you are in a video game. So I feel a lot worse for shooting a Russian soldier in the chest and see him squirm on the ground calling for his mother than seeing that in movies like Stalingrad or Enemy at the Gates.

 

[billythemule]

I definitely feel empathy towards characters at certain moments. Mowing down random enemies usually doesn't bother me, even when the action is very gory, but once you introduce a character through dialogue and emotions, killing him/her in a gratuitous way can make me feel a little sick. I think that today's graphics and inflated budgets are bringing these characters more to life than before and even though ''it's just a game'', it's enough to stir something in me at times. Games just weren't this realistic when I grew up.

 

[sigrad]

Nope because I relaize it's fake.

Spot on.

 

[EventHorizon]

Honestly I feel much more emotional with games than with movies. For one the fact that you constantly see the same few actors takes away some of the drama and the other thing is that you are not an active participator in the story, which you are in a video game. So I feel a lot worse for shooting a Russian soldier in the chest and see him squirm on the ground calling for his mother than seeing that in movies like Stalingrad or Enemy at the Gates.

I can't tell you how you feel about killing in games, but I can speak for myself when I say killing that Russian soldier means nothing to me in a game. I would applaud anything that actually did make it seem more real.

However I can see the potential for emotional overload, because games do have the capability to make you feel far stronger emotions. Feeling fear in games is already at this point. I know games can make me feel fear where movies mostly can't. I haven't tried VR yet, but from what people say, fear in VR has already reached the point of being too intense for a mass market. I can extrapolate that out to all the other emotions eventually, so I can see your point. I just don't currently see that level of intensity outside of the relatively easy to pull off horror genre for most gamers.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Not in the slightest. People trying to tell developers they need to tone down the violence makes me much more uncomfortable than the violence itself. (not saying that's what op is doing btw)

That's exactly how I feel. Video games are a form of entertainment, much like films, shows, and music. There's a large variety of genres to choose from. Some are great for families and children, while others are dark, graphic, and gory. I often find it fascinating that there are people that question video game violence, but then don't question television or film violence. Especially when one is clearly a video game and the other is using real human beings. Which I think is a connection that's much harder for kids to make, unless properly informed by their parents.

I've been playing video games since I was a child (roughly about 4/5), and my mother (while certainly protective of me) never cared about how violent the games were that I was playing. But she had established that what happened in video games wasn't real, and if they WERE to happen in real life it'd be a horrible and awful thing. I carried that knowledge with me for the rest of my life. So when I'm playing a gory or unsettling game, it doesn't impact me emotionally at all. I'm 34 now, and that feeling has never changed. When I play games that contain a pretty graphic (or a messed up scene/segment) I kind of shake my head, say "that's messed up", and move on. It doesn't affect me emotionally, or upset me in any way. I mean, unless of course it's something that's related to an important character or the story.

 

[Manus]

So you never got emotional watching a film, theatre performance, reading a fictional book or anything. Of course I know it is fake but so is everything else besides real life and literal history books, that doesn't mean I can't form an emotional connection with a fictional character. Or maybe I am not understanding you properly?

I would say fictional violence and being emotionally attached to fictional characters are two different things.

 

[Manus]

Double post by accident.

 

[Hotel Security]

Of course it doesn't bother me. Because, like any well-adjusted adult, I can separate real life from fiction. The people complaining should try it some time.

 

[Droxcy]

Doesn't bother me none.

 

[Majid]

Nah lol. Violence in the news does.

 

[mcz117chief]

Of course it doesn't bother me. Because, like any well-adjusted adult, I can separate real life from fiction. The people complaining should try it some time.

Just because you are a well-adjusted adult doesn't mean you can't show emotions or be emotionally compromised by a heartbreaking scene in a video game, movie or a book.

 

[lifa-cobex]

So you never got emotional watching a film, theatre performance, reading a fictional book or anything. Of course I know it is fake but so is everything else besides real life and literal history books, that doesn't mean I can't form an emotional connection with a fictional character. Or maybe I am not understanding you properly?

I can get emotional up to a point of relevance of what i'm perceiving on screen/ reading, but only up to a point or what I allow myself to be invested in.
If that point is pushed to e.g a tragic romance or a death of a character to where i'm negative, Then that's probably due to the said scenario being relatable or if it's being portrayed well. You're able to understand the character and you have a form of sympathy you allow yourself to convey in.

Around your topic of violence.
Again it's only to a point of what I allow myself to be invested in. I've never been in a scenario of extreme violence that games portray so no, I can't relate to it. I've never witnessed the type of brutality conveyed in say TLOU. The limit I've ever been up to is "wow that was fucking brutal".
But i'm still very much aware of a controller in my hands.
I could only imagine the types of people who are bother by it are PTSD sufferers /war vets who are actually triggered by images of violence. But then i can't imagine suffers are recommended or advised to play these types of games.

But hey, everyone is different in their own way. If it's bothering you that you've become more sensitive towards certain scenarios around certain games, I might recommend watching "the making off [insert game title]".
It might draw your brain back to a more observing state.
Every game I've very played in the past ten years or so has always given me a minute to appreciate the amount of coding, art and detail it took to create said game.

 

[LSWilson]

Read post 11 and try to answer that question. I am really interested to know.

I understand what you are saying. I was just being honest to the point of violence.