Killing Them All

It has been over a month since my last post, and my regular blog entry has become far overdue. But I decided to try something different this time around. Destructoid just posted their Bloggers Wanted request online; I picked it up through my feeds and decided to roll with the topic, posting to both sites. The topic? violence in video games. Violence has been a prevailing theme in video games since the very beginning; almost, sort of. In the very early days there were the rather innocent games of Pong and Chase. Shortly after these titles however, there was Adventure, a pixelated game where dragons would eat you. For the most part, any violent actions depicted in these games were either minimal or too poorly represented to be of any real significance. In those days, violence in video games meant either launching a stick or square projectile into another square blob only to have it disappear or dissolve into a mess of pixels. Technology was extremely limited back then, and the impact of violence in games was much more reliant on the player’s imagination than it was on “violent” graphics. Despite this pixel violence, it is important to understand that it’s not the 70’s anymore. Concerning violence, modern video games face a huge dilemma, and there are passionate outcries on both sides of the debate. Are video games too violent? Should we allow video games to become increasingly supportive of destruction and bloodshed, even as the graphical power and photo-realism of games increases? To understand how we can answer these questions it is important to know why this issue even matters. Why can’t people just keep their mouths shut and let developers make their games? Simple: psychological well-being and the future of the video game medium. Video games are a rapidly growing entertainment medium. As a result of this, players of all ages are exposed to varying degrees of video game violence throughout their daily lives. Over the past few decades, researchers have been trying hard to understand the psychological effects of video games on the mind, especially in cognition. Since the beginning of the search, there have been preliminary studies indicating that playing violent video games regularly, especially those that strive for realism,  can lead to increased levels of aggressive cognition (aggressive thoughts) and as a result in some cases, increased levels of aggressive behaviors. It is important to note that these studies have been peer reviewed, but further research is still very much needed. With that said, violent video games do not cause violence in real world scenarios — and neither do psychologists. At worse, violent video games have a potential to cause a change in an individual’s way of thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love First Person Shooter (FPS) style combat in a game, and there are few things more satisfying to me than those sixty yard headshots in Mass Effect 3 or Gears of War — the kind where the enemy’s head just explodes into a gory mess. On the other hand it is important to realize that games are a fantasy. It is a concept that my parents instilled in my from the day I got my first M rated video game at age nine. Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 for those who are curious. I have played many a violent video game and I have rarely thought about hurting anyone. Better still, I have never performed any aggressive acts of violence based off of these thoughts. I knew better. I knew that violence hurts people. That is the key, and it is for that reason I actually tend to prefer games like Portal and Journey; games that have an impact without a need for extensive violence. However, despite my personal experience — and the lack of scientific research — the industry is still the scapegoat for all manner for atrocities such as mass shootings and physical assaults. The fact is this: violence still sells games. I firmly believe that absolute adherence to violence as a business model stifles some the creativity and innovation that other games have achieved, many of which minimize violence as a core engagement; however, the past few decades have shown publishers and developers that consumers want violent games, or at least we want to buy them, and that’s all that matters in a world powered by business revenues. With modern technology, great games, even if they contain some situational violence, are still very viable to make; however, violence is not necessary for a great gaming experience. Before too long, I have a hunch that mainstream developers may need to abandon the gratuitous violence in their titles. Some players, such as myself, would rather see the video game medium flourish in a positive manner, without being bogged down by the disrepute that comes with cashing in on excessive negativity.  If informed future parents like myself have a say in it, I am fairly certain that the decline in demand for violent video games may just end up killing them all. If you like this, please be sure to Fap me on Destructoid to get it to the front page!

(2020 Editor's Note: "Fap" on the Destructiod community is actually what it used to be called to "Like" or "Upvote" a post. - A.R.S.)

() For more information on video game violence and aggression studies see: The School Shooting/Violent Video Game Link:  Causal Relationship or Moral Panic? Christopher J. Ferguson

Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, 2008