Kill kill kill - why is Gaming so focussed on death and gore?

Elikal

This isn't rant, more a concerned comment for a long year gamer about what I feel is the current trend in MMOs and single player games: Focussing all around killing, and showing it in ever greater gorey detail. I just begin to feel awkward about it, so I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

Here is my new VBlog about it.

 

Speely

Unable to watch now, but I am glad you asked. Short version: it's easier, safer, and consumers are in no way tired of it in numbers relevant enough to matter to publishers. I look forward to watching the blog and discussing it's contents more specifically. This is an issue of considerable interest to me as well.

Edited for spelling because I have fat thumbs

dreamscaper

This is something that I've found more and more annoying as time goes on. As I've said before, developers create these living, vibrant, virtual worlds...and the best they seem to be able to do with them are warfare simulators. Even in games like FFXIV, which supposedly have involved crafting and gathering classes....don't work unless you spend a significant amount of your game time chasing genocide.

 

While there are some games out there that get away from this, they're all pretty much sub-single-A games - not a triple-A or even double-A non-combat option in sight.

Nitth

I'm sure there is already a lengthy discussion on this...

Avarix

I was just discussing this with a friend about a different genre, fantasy novels. I was looking for one to read and he listed all the current popular ones like A Song of Fire and Ice. I now refer to these as shock fantasy. Same with shows like Walking Dead. They are insanely popular but I have no interest in them. Not sure if it's because I am older or what, I simply don't find the constant death and torture of main characters as entertaining. I don't see this going away though, quite the opposite. I think this is going to get a lot worse because of how popular this type of thing currently is.

Quirhid

Don't think of it as killing. Think of it as interesting gameplay. Just how you shouldn't think of GTA V as a criminal simulator but rather as a very fun game.

Speely

Originally posted by Nitth

I'm sure there is already a lengthy discussion on this...

 

There is already a lengthy discussion about most topics. What's your point? He posted a vid blog and wanted to discuss it.

Hokie

Although I agree with what youre saying about games being more and more focused just on the violence.

I disagree with some other things.

 

Such as; is it better or worse to "symbolize" violence in video games?

 

I mean killing someone with a sword is about as graphic and brutal as you can do to another person, and its a slow death lingering death.

So is it better to cartoonize it, or to show it for what it really is?

 

Just to let you know, I dont believe in the hyper-violent game play. But I prefer more realistic fantasy violence that say a lot of the anime stuff that we have now.

 

But to restate an old and overused phrase, but still totally relavent. Sex and Violence sells.

DocBrody

all related to casual focus, quick action and cheap development cost.

 

also instant gratification. Defeating something is quick reward and makes the player feel good 

 

 

thark

I Think it's rather simple..It's the best way of creating natural intrigue with species that hates each other...So it's war between good and evil ...etc etc

But if a game comes along that gives us both suspence and action without including any form of violence , I just wonder what this game would be about..:)

Even games like Wizard 101 and toontown is about taking down foes, in toontown you do it with pranks , but you still could see those as weapons of sorts for taking down the evil bots that is threatening Toontown.

 

 

rounner

Originally posted by Nitth

I'm sure there is already a lengthy discussion on this...

And I think Elikal was in it. I'm with him though, I think its worth raising every now and then.

Grunty

Because the games you have chosen to play are focused on those things.

Don't like them anymore? Go play games that aren't focused on digital violence. Mahjong (the real one, not the tile matching games that use mahjong tiles), chess, checkers, monopoly, poker, Bejeweled, hidden item search games, Farmville, Scrabble, dominoes. 

There are thousands of games out there that aren't focused on digital violence but are still focused on competition.

There are games whose primary attraction is how much blood and gore they can throw up on your monitor. Do what I do. Don't play them. 

Neither you nor I are optimistic, happy-go-lucky people but as long as you only focus on the despair you see around you than you will miss that butterfly flitting by doing what it needs to do in order to survive in the real world

dinams

Im pretty sure that the influence comes mainly from the movies

Dont really wanna dig it up tho

Elikal

Originally posted by Grunty

Because the games you have chosen to play are focused on those things.

Don't like them anymore? Go play games that aren't focused on digital violence. Mahjong (the real one, not the tile matching games that use mahjong tiles), chess, checkers, monopoly, poker, Bejeweled, hidden item search games, Farmville, Scrabble, dominoes. 

There are thousands of games out there that aren't focused on digital violence but are still focused on competition.

There are games whose primary attraction is how much blood and gore they can throw up on your monitor. Do what I do. Don't play them. 

That misses a little bit the point.

First, a lot of the 100% non-violent games are either super casual (like Mahjong or Farmville) and not really interesting for me as gamer or just too trashy/primitive (like some of the "indie" or kickstarter games).

Second, there are some cool 100% non violent games, adventures (Nancy Drew) or simulations (Sims, Sim City), but they are not entirely fulfilling just to play them alone.

Third, I do want adventure and even killing, but I don't want the adventure JUST be a long tunnel leading me from one excessive, alternative-less killing spree to the next! Isn't is imaginable to have a balance? Again, take Skyrim. I do lots of killing in Skyrim, but I never felt it was revolving around it.

Fourth, it doesn't help me either, if gorey killer-spree games (like Ryse of Rome or FarCry) and such get tons of money poured into it, and balanced games (no pacifist games!) are getting less and less, at least by the big studios and hence the big money. I do not wish pacifism in games. I want OPTIONS how to solve a crisis, so I CAN chose to gun all down as brutal as possible, but I also CAN chose 1-2-3-4 other ways. Sneak. Persuade. Blackmail. Anything else but tunnels of ever more gore as the ONLY option. Take System Shock. Often I had a lot of choices how to proceed, despite the game was combat focussed, combat wasn't ALL I could do. I could deactivate and hack cameras and computers. I could sneak.

 

So by just saying "don't play them", is cutting the entire issue a few levels too short, IMVPO.

 

It's similar as with my love for Batman comics. They have become almost unreadably violent. Cut off faces and all. In detail. I don't want to read other comics. Like suddenly reading Archie comics or what. I WANT Batman, but I don't want it so bloody gorey I puke out my supper! So just "look at something else" really isn't the point.

CthulhuPuffs

Simple

Because gaming is made for Humans.

 

We are violent, psychotic species

iridescence

For any story to work there has to be some kind of conflict. Books and even movies can make conflict which doesn't involve violence and portray it well. It can even be the protagonist's internal conflict.

 

Games are much harder to show this in. You can have simulation games where the conflict may be over money or relationships or building the best sports team but those are often more niche products. Computers don't show nuances of things like conversation very well (if you've ever played The Sims or Oblivion you know what I'm talking about).

 

On the other hand, combat is easy to simulate on computers in a fun way. So quick answer is that the devs are taking the easy and lazy way out given the technology we currently have. When algorithms exist to allow a computer to act much more "human" in things like conversation I'm sure games will also evolve.

 

Elikal

Originally posted by CthulhuPuffs

Simple

Because gaming is made for Humans.

 

We are violent, psychotic species

 

That is only ONE part of us. Why focus only on that one alone? Again, I am not saying games should be Hello Kitty. But why is monomaniac focus? Does make them more entertaining? I highly doubt it. It's more a sort of creative bankrupcy when all game developers have is even more gore.

And I just doubt the premise. Many humans I met are nice, caring people. We aren't saints, but we certainly aren't all psychotic torturers. We can be nurtured to one side or to another. For instance by showing that being always violent, it usually ends up bad, and not showing violence you just get through with. Or by showing alternatives.

 

Originally posted by iridescence

For any story to work there has to be some kind of conflict. Books and even movies can make conflict which doesn't involve violence and portray it well. It can even be the protagonist's internal conflict.

 

Games are much harder to show this in. You can have simulation games where the conflict may be over money or relationships or building the best sports team but those are often more niche products. Computers don't show nuances of things like conversation very well (if you've ever played The Sims or Oblivion you know what I'm talking about).

 

On the other hand, combat is easy to simulate on computers in a fun way. So quick answer is that the devs are taking the easy and lazy way out given the technology we currently have. When algorithms exist to allow a computer to act much more "human" in things like conversation I'm sure games will also evolve.

 

 

Is that so? Well at least I have experienced some of the most touching stories and the most fascinating characters in PS1 and PS2 graphics! While 90% of the almost photorealistic games are super boring.

Shoko_Lied

You can always play an adventure MMO like Uru Online... It does exist. However I find it to be incredibly boring. Multiplayer games especially, are focused around combat mechanics. This is because they are a derivitive of tabletop games like D&D, and real world games such as LARPING. All of which have the primary theme of combat. Even these games are derivatives of movies and history (often containing much conflict) and a good imagination to take it into another world.

Personally I really enjoyed games that weren't completely combat focused. Some great examples back in the day were early Runescape back in 2000, and Star Wars Galaxies back in 2003. They both had combat, but they were games that gave you the option to really do whatever you wanted.

Vermillion_Raventhal

People generally play games for action and competition.  That's generally going to lead to combat which will lead to killing.  If I wanted a pure story I'd read a book or watch TV.

 

 

Burntvet

To answer the OP:

Because the current developers of MMOs are short-sighted, risk averse, unoriginal, and generally mediocre at best.

 

It takes talent and original thinking to "get out of the box" that MMOs are currently stuck in, and damn few, if any of the current MMO developers have what it takes.

So there is one supported playstyle: Combat.

And one supported game design: Linear Themepark.

 

Anything else is actually difficult and takes talent.

Braindome

You answered your own question when you said we didn't play Ultima Online or SWG for the killing. You're right cause the killing in those games had high consequences and penalties for players that did kill, these days killing has no consequences in MMO's, just gank somebody and move along, who cares, no penalty and this is the way the sorry players like it.

Personally I think there should be consequences for killing other players, otherwise what roll are you playing....none, you are playing no roll as there are no consequences, whatever, people want to cheat and want everything free these days, it's pathetic really, one of the reason I don't give a damn in general about most gamers, they just don't care, "it's just a game" mentality ruins core gaming. 

Speely

Despite all the experts on the human psyche present in this thread, Occam's Razor suggests that this gameplay style is easy to implement from a developer's perspective and highly profitable from a publisher's. The enigmatic variables present in the way we view our world, both alone and through the lenses of various media, are probably a bit too complex and subject to nigh-unidentifiable factors to successfully identify by way of gaming forum punditry.

simsalabim77

I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do in a video game. I started killing Goombas and Koopas when I was like 6 years old. I killed ducks and got laughed at by a dickhead dog.

Jumping onto a turtle's head and snapping it's back is fun. Poaching ducks is fun. Killing Nazi zombies is fun. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy games like Portal that don't have any killing (unless you count the Companion Cube), but you're reading way to far into this. Blowing shit up and massacring helpless ducks and turtles in video games is fun so that's why they make more of them lol.

Antiquated

why are Gamers so focussed on death and gore?

Your question includes its own answer. And a typo.

/ib4 "tree-hugging pacifists"

Retired

Same reason TV and movies are. It sells.

Yaevindusk

 

By no authority vested in me... and with the knowledge of MMOs past...!

 

I hereby decree, proclaim and assert... that henceforth... All who intend to speak within this thread must complete an attunement quest involving the collection of one thousand virtual bear asses.

 

So it is said, so it will probably not be!