• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Oldergaf - getting more sensitive to violence in games?

Having kids made me more aware of violence in games, but in general I've felt pretty consistent about it: tone and context matter.

It's gory as heck to shoot a barrel in DOOM and turn an imp or zombie soldier into a puddle of red splatter, but it's also over the top, cartoony violence on non-human (and non-humanized) enemies. It had the combined effect of being kind of hilarious despite the gore.

The sniping scenario in the OP exists on the end of the spectrum where I am not comfortable. I don't own any realistic war games (no Call of Duty's, etc.) because I'm uncomfortable with vivid human on human violence in games, particularly when the humans are expressing pain and suffering. I get no enjoyment from inflicting it. It's the same reason I gravitate to sci-fi or fantasy games where the enemies are largely non-human or more cartoony (Halo, Destiny).

On a related note, I tend to have a code when I play games where neutral, non-violent NPC's appear: I only kill when I am in danger. So things like mammoths, giants and wildlife in Skyrim were left alone; I don't enjoy violence for the sake of it, but rather only when needed in the context of the story or game world.
 
I don't think I'm getting more sensitive to violence in games. Maybe a little bit. Haven't paid any attention to the newest Mortal Kombat game, though.

I am definitely getting increasingly BORED and ambivalent about all the violence, though. I don't think my age has much to do with that, though. It's a sure bet that if there's a whole lot of something, people are going to get tired of it.

In many games, the violence seems rather pointless. It's as if it's just there to tick off a checkbox on a list compiled by suits.

I feel the same way about swearing in some games.
 
Definitely. As a dumb kid I thought it was rad, now moving into the latter half of my 20's I've grown tired of seeing such extreme depictions in certain games. It genuinely starts to make me flinch to the point where it just becomes uncomfortable.
 
As the videogame medium begins to reach its adolescence, I find big-budget AAA games are trying their hardest to make their narratives more "mature" and "socially conscious" -- but this runs in stark contrast to gameplay that still insists on finding new, exciting ways for you to fight, shoot, and kill things.

This just makes the violence seem all the more silly and reproachable to me. Games like TLoU and Spec Ops try their best to reconcile the violence within their world and the themes they aim to share, so I find those to be better examples of games making mindful uses of violence.

But I really do believe that violence in the real world is hardly ever an acceptable solution to the problems we face, so most of these other AAA games that try to create this great character that you can empathize with always end up losing me with the use of violence. I fear this is what irks me about Far Cry 4 and what alienated me to recent Assassin's Creed entries.

On the other hand, I've become more and more enchanted with Nintendo and Japanese games that tend to handle violence in a way that better suits my current proclivities.
 
Currygan said:
I kinda feel the same way, but I think it's just because we matured enough to see the pointlessness of it. It's not because a boatload of blood and splattered organs disturbs us, but because it's become so juvenile and exaggerated in our eyes

Kratos murdering the gods in such creative ways is pointless, but also a selling point to a certain audience. To me, it's just incredibly boring and childish
Click to expand...

.
 
I find myself more and more unable to choose the violent path if given a choice in a game. Even when say - playing a renegade Shepard in Mass Effect or if you wanted to shoot up the place in Dishonored or Deus Exe - I can't do it anymore. I recently tried playing a dark side character in SWTOR and that didn't last long.

I think violence is an important and useful tool in video games, especially storytelling, but so much if it just seems so completely pointless, unnecessary, or stupid. What purpose does the "QTE finisher" on enemies serve other than violence for the sake of violence?
 
Lol I forgot NARC was violent, me and my older cousin (she's 35 now) used to co-op the game all the time. I'd let her drive the car you hop into.

I mean, I guess there's a such thing as there being violence in a game where it makes sense. There are games where there's violence in a Tarantino way, but then again people who go to see a Tarantino movie would know what to expect. I don't think I've played a game with violence where I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. The first Resident Evil was probably the closest since magazines didn't really talk or show the violent parts of it. You just saw screenshots of the zombie's face looking at you with blood around his mouth or zombie dogs chasing you.
 
I've always had a problem with torture. There's a fundamental difference about the violence in The Last of Us (the good kind) and Mortal Kombat (the bad kind). One has meaning and the other is just torture porn. I've never been able to watch horror movies unless they've had meaning or some narrative. (Why I can stand Cabin in the Woods but can't watch a second of Evil Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)

In games it's mostly done for shock. Even the latest Tomb Raider falls into these sadistic traps. Thankfully you can play the game differently and choose not to use these finishers (which I never did).
 
I'm boycotting the modern first person shooter until they change it. I'm sick of mowing down terrorists on foreign soil. If they want my money then bring a new experience like Destiny or Borderlands.

I'm heavily desensitized to violence in video games but will cringe at it in real life. How many digital felonies have you committed in grand theft auto games over the years?
 
For some reason, I really enjoy over the top violence in video games, but I HATE violent movies. Even just your run of the mill modern super hero movie is too violent for me. But I love Mortal Kombat, Wolfenstein TNO, God of War, GTA, etc.
 
@OP
having played the earlier games, I knew that the main mechanic of this game is landing precision zoomed slow motion shots in unsuspecting (sniper) people's parts.
I did not have much interest in getting no3 I guess :)
 
I grew up in the 80's, as well.

I'm not the least bit phased by violence in video games or any sort.

To me its always been that way and always will be. Real violence is what bothers me.

Fantasy violence is just that, fantasy! .
 
So bingo, here's the reason I went from indifferent to vexed about the portrayal of violence in many games.

Donos said:
I like a Shotgun in the face "owwwww" moment where the face disappears. It would me take out more out of the game when nothing happens when he gets a close shotgun shot to the face or hand/foot.
Click to expand...

Games are essentially not about reality, they are not simulations, but about imagined worlds (see also Aristotle: there needs to be a certain distance in the mimesis to achieve catharsis). Violence is of course omnipresent in entertainment, but e.g. good movies rarely show a murder in close up detail. That's because the murder itself is not what the movie is about. Rather, it's about the effect of violence on the other characters and the plot. If the murder was shown in its gruesome detail then people would get unsettled and miss the implications, instead of the effect on the other characters it would then become about the act of murdering. There is an I think decent hypothesis that states that violent games are not really harmful, because they are not really about the act of killing. Games revolve around learning. Uncovering patterns and being able to apply strategies based on these patterns to overcome obstacles, with the violence just a context in which this takes place. The blood spatters are feedback that the player chose the right payload and used the right reflexes faster than his opponent. They are abstract markers of success to an abstract pattern matching; they could be anything basically. Mortal Kombat (1) is a game about competition with your peers, and the OTT fatalities and humiliations a way to further assert that dominance. It's aimed at the other player, the act itself is not really important.

But here we have a--and I'm not saying the one I quote had that in mind when he posted it so my apologies if this comes of as condescending, but surely it seems like a train of thought that now became prevalent--different approach to the act of killing in the game. Rather as an abstract mark of success, there is worry that less realism would take him out of the immersion. Apparently the point of the violent depiction is not feedback, but to induce presence at the moment of killing, the feeling like he's there, committing the killing himself. The game becomes a murder simulator, an alternative reality where murdering is what the player craves. This, I feel, is where the rules have changed.

Or something like that; it's not foolproof, but I think it's something along these lines.
 
I don't know if I fall under old (26) but violence doesn't really bother me at all, granted when I have kids in the future I won't play certain games around them.
 
My biggest issue with violence in video games is publishers think it's a substitution for quality and good story progression. Even Dragon Age(Origins) shocked me with the focus on blood for marketing.
 
spekkeh said:
Violence is of course omnipresent in entertainment, but e.g. good movies rarely show a murder in close up detail. That's because the murder itself is not what the movie is about. Rather, it's about the effect of violence on the other characters and the plot.
Click to expand...
Though how much of that is good movie making and how much of it is trying to get into that PG-13 sweet spot? I still don't see why a game like Tomb Raider or Wolfenstein: TNO cannot have bullet wound effects. I mean it's in the cutscenes afterall, the games are unquestionably violent.

It's a little different than why FTL doesn't let us watch in full 3D as the pixel men asphyxiate in the void of space. FPS games are unarguably about shooting people in the face. Dark Messiah was unarguably about hacking off people's limbs.

It's just cool while playing a game where you swing a sword or shoot a gun for it to be realistic. It feels like people are just scared of media reprisal so they knowingly back off (which is how Tomb Raider felt) and we end up with these confused games. They're viciously violent when agency is removed and then tame whenever it's re-established. No one is asking for proper disemboweling physics, or realistic cadaveric spasms. Just for another small touch of realism, the same thing that rag doll physics provide.

I'm 29 and maybe thinking Dark Messiah was a better game for letting me chop off limbs makes me some insane monster who needs to be bound and gagged. Though I feel like in a game where all I'm doing is trying to kill people with a sword, that it's a lot more cool to be able to chop off their limbs. I get why commercially people have given up on making something like Soldier of Fortune (or hell even something like Sin or Kingpin), it's just not worth it. However it's pretty unfortunate to see that marketing decision defended like it's something that's really moving forward games as an artform.
 
Wow. I though I was the only one in OlderGAF.

I remember back when kids used to love how gory video games were. The violence was so cartoony that it never really bothered me. Now games try to cover real issues and are a little more serious. I don't know if I want my kids learning about torture from COD XXIV. I'd rather have them have a real discussion with it about me and my wife.

I love first person shooters but i've been playing them less and less lately, partly because I find I suck at them, but I'm really looking forward to Destiny. It seems to be what i'm looking for in a game. Fun. I don't want to pretend I'm some military dude in a war I probably wouldn't agree with if it was a real. I especially don't want to see graphic depictions of death. Have the guy moan and fall down and I'm happy.
 
violence? not really, although God of War 3 bothered me, it seemed excessive.

horror tho? very much so, ive turned into a huge pussy with horror games, and I dont know why. I have no problem with horror movies, not had I any problem with horror games as a kid / teenager (although one could argue they are much more effective as horror these days with the graphics and whatnot)
 
Definitely yes, I avoid overly violent games.

I still enjoy Zombi U or Resi 4, but these games are... different. They're not just there for the pure sake of killing.


When the main characters start executing people like in Far Cry or TLOU, it becomes too much for me. If I want to see terrible shit I'll just turn on the news.
 
Violence? Not so much.
Swearing, though? It's mostly always cringe-worthy and unnecessary. I'm pretty foul-mouthed at the best of times, but sometimes it feels like certain games try and shoehorn in the word "fuck' just to feel edgy.
 
JimmyRickard said:
Violence? Not so much.
Swearing, though? It's mostly always cringe-worthy and unnecessary. I'm pretty foul-mouthed at the best of times, but sometimes it feels like certain games try and shoehorn in the word "fuck' just to feel edgy.
Click to expand...

How do you feel about Persona 4, if you ever played it? One of the few games were they got swearing right in my opinion.
 
I'm gonna go the opposite direction on this, I still want more gore. I am feeling like all the military shooters have done away with the fun gore we used to get. Remember gibbing? Not enough gibbing going on anymore (unless you're playing Gears, I suppose).
 
It's not that I'm sensitive now. It's just that it's boring to me. There's so much violence now that's just so excessive and over the top on all fictional media that I'm just kinda like, 'Cute, a chainsaw.'
 
I find i really am, but not when actually sitting down and playing the game. Watching trailers for the new tomb raider or even the last god of war or even ryse really put me off, but when sitting down to play it doesn't bother me nearly as much.
 
I wouldn't say I'm more sensitive, however I'm less tolerant. Most violence in gaming seems so juvenile as I get older.
 
I'm 29 (so probably not yet full on oldergaf) and the feature I'm most excited about is the procedural chainsaw damage in the next doom ;)

I love if guns in games have an omph to them, and enemies flying apart supports that omph.

I don't need gore in every video game, I still love mario and zelda. But where it fits, it greatly enhances the experience for me.

Same for movies. If someone is getting shot, it should have an impact, which makes the characters dead much more believable and therefore creates a much bigger emotional impact on the viewer.
 
I can't stand senseless violence as in GTA (just an example) - I refuse to play that style of game (lot of needless foul language/killing). I do play CoD mp though - but to me it's glorified laser tag. i did like TLoU but too much killing in that as well (not the infected/clickers of course).

In MGS4 - Snake would start vomiting if he killed too many soldiers - that was a good idea. I believe Kojima made all his games with the ability to be finished w/out killing any soldiers (except bosses).
 
vin-buc said:
I can't stand senseless violence as in GTA (just an example) - I refuse to play that style of game (lot of needless foul language/killing). I do play CoD mp though - but to me it's glorified laser tag. i did like TLoU but too much killing in that as well (not the infected/clickers of course).

In MGS4 - Snake would start vomiting if he killed too many soldiers - that was a good idea. I believe Kojima made all his games with the ability to be finished w/out killing any soldiers (except bosses).
Click to expand...

You can tranq bosses also, and so need to kill not a single soul.
 
*shrug* I'm 33 and I don't even really notice the violence any more except when my younger daughter is around, in which case I don't let her look.

Not sure if I am in the minority but gaming violence never bothered me and it always annoyed me when people griped about it. Well...that's not accurate. I am STILL annoyed when people say that game violence breeds real life violence. But to those who are offended by the violence itself...to each their own.
 
31 here and not more sensitive. I still enjoy Warhammer 40k: Space Marine when I want to just mindless kill hordes of creatures and I think that is pretty bloody and violent.

Not sure if age or just overrun of violent video games but I don't gravitate towards the violent games like I did when i was younger where I had to play Mortal Kombat just because of the blood code.
 
It just doesn't appeal to me now - if it's senseless and obviously used just to attract the "bro" crowd then it tends to put me off but in things like war games I can accept it and it doesn't bother me.
 
More sensitive?

More like, more fucked up in the head I could say.

:P

Im one of those persons that can separate entirely what I see/do/experience/etc in a videogame to what I live dialy or my way of see things in real life.

The more gore and fucked up shit in a videogame I see the more I like it, ask me if I can deal with seeing a needle on my arm taking blood? I may pass out, I hate violence/blood in real life, Im a pacifist at heart.

Having said that, GIVE ME GORE!!!!
 
Hordes of creatures, aliens, zombies (things that don't exist in nature) are ok in my book. It's killing of human beings (that we co-exist with) that I'm personally more sensitive to especially when done gratuitously. It would be great if a game really made you feel like killing was a BIG thing (maybe i just haven't played that game - heard Spec Ops: The Line kinda goes there). I had this discussion with my wife since i play CoD (and recently the TLoU) while my kids play LBP.

I always play w/ headphones because of the explicit language ESPECIALLY TLoU.
 
I find myself becoming more insensitive actually. Not for any particular reason, and this isn't a dog on anyone else but I've been playing games since I was 4 or 5, now 26, and honestly as an adult, no matter how realistic a game looks I never forget I'm playing a game. I'm a very peaceful person in reality, but I can easily separate a game from that reality.

I don't even flinch at the violence in games. Yea it's cliche but, heck it's a game. *shrug*
 
It sad, but I'm so desensitized to violence in games, and movies now, whenever I see something gruesome in a game it comes off as comical. I'll be one of those dudes in theater laughing when everyone is jumping and shrieking. Perhaps it's because I know it's not real. Seeing real gore - Faces of Death type stuff - I cannot do!
 
Hasn't happened to me for games yet I think, but recently I can't stomach it in movies or TV shows, most recently was in Game of Thrones last two seasons, despite having read the books and knowing what to expect, there were several scenes that I had to look away. I wasn't like this before. Games are stylized or over the top still and don't have the same impact on me yet.
 
I wouldn't say I was appalled by violence in video games, I just wonder what exactly is the point of it.

I think it was Gears 2 which started me thinking that violence in games were far too gratuitous. The level inside the creature with blood just about everywhere, sorry but what was the point? Of course the only reason was to have a level with nothing but gore.

I think what it comes down to is context. Violence in a game where the story/characters do enough to justify whats happening, I am not concerned by it at all (step forward TLOU).

Violence though for the sake of violence, I am now just completely not interested in.
 
Absolutely.

While gratuitous violence has always been around it has become much wider over the decades. I remember most games used to be "punch a guy until he flashes red, then punch some more until he flashes red faster, then more until he falls over and disappears."

Now it's jamming a guy's head between a door and slamming it until his skull crushes (GoW2); or twisting a guys arm around until he's pointing his own shotgun at the back of his own head and blowing his head off (Max Payne); or hunting down and shooting an injured guy crawling for cover (COD). It's just gotten ridiculous.

When I was younger I excused it. As an older person who has dealt with death and suffering around me, seeing it now is starting to make me uncomfortable thus making me less inclined to play or buy future works from that developer.
 
I started to play more Nintendo games in the last few years, and as a result violence / gore in games starts to feel really weird to me. I just see a lot less of it now and when its there it sticks out, feels really unnecessary, and just seems wrong.

For example about a year and a half ago I played Sleeping Dogs, and while it's a fantastic game, I feel like I would have liked to have a "less violence" toggle for doing the takedowns since many of them were really gross.
 
30-year-old here, parent to a toddler, and I am finding myself more and more disinterested in games that depict realistic violence of any kind. This is coming from someone who LOVED gore movies as a kid and took pride in disturbing my friends with scenes from Story of Riki thanks to a terrible-quality VHS bootleg I had picked up at a comic convention in the late 90's. Really over-the-top games like Metal Gear Rising don't seem to bother me as much, because it's so hyper-stylized and absurd... But shooting human enemies in any kind of semi-realistic setting just feels bad to me now.
 
AncientGAF here (50+) and I'm... not really sure. :D

Generally, I'm not bothered by it. In fact, I would like to see someone take the next step and actually simulate human anatomy/physiology and how it responds to violence in videogames. The next Sniper Elite could benefit from it or the next SWAT game, if there ever is one. I never had a problem telling games, movies, etc, apart from reality, so I usually enjoy videogame violence.

That said, I was surprised to find myself somewhat upset by the violence in the latest Mortal Kombat. Why? I have no idea and I can't explain why.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[GameSpot] Starting November 17, YouTube will age-restrict more content showing "graphic violence" in video games.
36
3K
FoxMcChief replied
Why is it much more common for games to get 10-20 sequels than it is for movies?
26
447
LarsQMorient replied
Nintendo Covers Up Violence With Hilariously Bad Gameplay
Opinion Analysis Game Dev  2
59
711
Mozza replied
Call of Duty advert banned for trivialising sexual violence
2
53
672
uncreativename replied
ByteDance in talks to sell gaming unit Moonton for more than $6 billion to Savvy Games Group, sources say
Rumor Business Game Dev 
2
178
yurinka replied
Top Bottom