Ok since last night it was mentioned in a conversation, which ironically coinsided with my aquirement or a new game, I thought I'd start yet another "VideoGame violence" thread
I've actually been out of the gaming loop for a couple of years, I stopped playing after finishing vice city, no particular reason, but now getting back into it
Well we've had games like GTA and the press have gone nuts as to how violent they are, we had resi evil doing people's heads in. As games get more tenalogically advanced they get more realistic or "Cleaner" for want of a better word. Games such as Doom 3 with it's "Shot em in the face, Gung ho" mentality, MOH with bodies flying past you left right and centre, Max Payne with it's dark and dingy settings full of drugs and shotguns in the face........all great games.
But how is it that these games are any more violent than the likes or Ratchet and Clank? or other "Family" games, you still wander round with the biggest weapon you can find and batter enemies to death.
People say it's the realisim or the blood and gore, well surely a game which shows when you hit someone with a baseball bat round the head, they stay down or die sends a slightly less fictional message than the cartoon games where the enemy just gets up and you hit him again. In a youngsters eyes it could be interpreted as what happens in real life.......you belt someone round the head, they see lil birdies flying round and get up again.
Hmmmm.....
Having said all that, I've just started playing "The Punisher"
Anyone here played it? awesome game but seriously one of the sickest games I've played.
It's a spinoff of the comic book vigilante who's family were murdered by mafia, obviously he wants revenge.
The game is based on 3rd person, you walk round with various weapons, shooting bad guys.......nothing new there huh.....but......when the mood strikes you or the story line insists, you grab a bad guy and interogate him......no, not sitting round a table in poor lighting with coffee.....you get a choice, either choke/punch/gun to head/smash face into ground toture to make em squeel like a pig.....there are also many "Special Interogation" points, for example......feeding the bad guy into a saw mill, holding his head in a pirana tank, pinning him under a milling machine, holding his head in a deep fat fryer , there's many ways you can get your answers.
So with this in mind, I'm thinking it's about time the goverment/shops/parents started to realise that when a game has an 18 stamped on it, a 10y/o should not be playing it. The Punisher goes way beyond the violence in Doom 3 or GTA, I mean this game is pretty sick, it's not so much the graphical content, (altho certain parts are worthy of a bucket if you got a weak stomach) it's the pricipals and ideals behind the game, I found myself sitting here laughing maniacally whle feeding a bad guy into a wood chipper........AFTER he talked, cos I just felt like it
Just wonder what sort of effet this would have on a 10y/o.
Anyhoo, just thinking aloud really, anyone's thoughts on the way games are moving toward more and more realistic sickening violence are welcome
Jonno
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