Has anyone expressed the stock European view that we should have far less violence and far more nudity and sex?
I hear that nudity is common on TV in Europe, and they’re advanced. Why don’t we emulate Europe, and have far more nudity and sex in our games, and far less violence. Why?!?
On Spanish free-tv, every night after 01:00 a.m. IIRC, they show uncensored, unencrypted hardcore porn movies.
Question. Isn’t this happening because the increased graphics and production values?
I refer to all this talk of too much violence in the last two weeks, since E3.
I say that because I think there isn’t really more violence than before, just the same. Let’s remember Mortal Kombat, Doom, Rise of the Triad, FEAR, Blade, Soldier of Fortune and so many more.
The difference is how before enemies fell flatly into the ground with a generic “ugh!”, and the gore was a puff of red blood and a gory cartoon sprite; and now you have a painstakingly well animated sequence of the main character sinking a knife into the enemy’s neck ripping apart flesh and cartilage, the blood gushing out, while the enemy falls realistically gripping the hole in the neck and cries for help in a malformed shout.
Damnit I didn’t know that! Channel?
[sadface] nudity and sex gets equated with hardcore porn immediately. nice.
how about a tasteful, artful yet rousing depiction of the passion, trust and emotion that nude people experience when they are having sex? hardcore porn is a fucking perversion of what sex naturally is.
In the same way our games have become violence porn, instead of a depiction of what it is like. funny that the most realistic depiction of war is from europe (arma2). That game has far less blood, huge explosions and slow mo aaaawweeesooooomme kiiiiilll duuudeeebrrrrooo!!! but a whole lot more of the sudden bang! fuck my life is ended and i never knew what or who or why that is said to be part and parcel of modern warfare.
The one I remember was called Azul Televisión. I don’t know if it’s a local or nationwide channel, though.
I’m not sure European TV is different from American TV.
When I turn on my TV, there is CSI, Boston Legal, Bones, Criminal Intent, How I met your mother…etc. plus Hollywood movies.
A couple of reality shows, most of them American licenses.
Reality shows or mockumentaries about the poor and unemployed.
2-3 soap operas.
It’s all the same. The unencrypted hardcore porn in Spain is the only thing I could think of that may be different to American TV.
“European TV has less guns and more love” is not accurate, I think.
I, for one, welcome our “moar fucking on TV” overlords
The audience that spends money on AAA games in the US dislike games that they don’t consider fun. They don’t find getting shot and dying after 20 minutes of manuever to be their cup of tea. Seriously, can you imagine a game like ARMA 2 being played by the same crowd that drops $15 per map pack in CoD?
I like the ARMA/OpFlash games for what they are, but then again I like my PC games, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing with the editor and setting up engagments and seeing how they turn out. I’m not playing ARMA 2 to yell “Booyah!” every time I get a kill and pwn other players.
When I was a kid, we used to have “rock wars” where we would run around construction sites whipping rocks at each other. Those were the days…
We had bottle rocket fights.
Increasing tension of the spectacle to keep a populace placant has been done before, weirdly enough, when the barbarians came the shows ended…
Lightweight. We used to chuck firecrackers and shoot bottle rockets at each other.
-Tom
EDIT: Damn you and your edgy childhood, Slyfrog!!!1!
We fired our BB and pellet guns at each other, but then we were farm kids without access to fireworks.
On topic, though, I agree that violence in games now seems more disturbing because it’s more realistic. The headshot at the end of the demo of The Last of Us E3 demo was pretty difficult to watch. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d certainly like to see less violence in games.
rubber bands and paper pellets. Man, those hurt.
It is refreshing to see a developer who treats his audience like fellow human beings rather than mere soulless bundles of cash.
I’d trade violence for sex every time.
Interesting that he should say this at this time.
I must admit that, while the graphics in Watch Dogs are an absolutely stunning technical achievement, I found myself getting quite disturbed by watching that clip.
See, when it was just pixel Nazis and pixel blood, the demarcation between fantasy and reality is absolutely crystal clear.
But as the ultraviolence approaches photorealism - when does it cease to be a game and become something more “real” and therefore more disturbing - and likely to disturb?
Something about the “uncanny valley” idea also applies here. Again, as photorealism comes closer, we’re starting to move out of it - but won’t that apply not only to “positive” feelings about an avatar, but also “negative”? May we not actually start becoming a bit disturbed when sticking a meathook through an NPC, because they look so real?
Something similar, again, in the movies. For so long, fx were pathetic, there was distance, you could laugh at “horror” or “gore”.
So long as there’s some distance from reality, it’s easy to defend the ultraviolence in games by saying “it’s just a game”. But as it starts to look more and more real - isn’t it harder and harder to say “it’s just a game”? Harder and harder to justify the ultraviolence?
Brave of Spector to say this. I think there’s a real issue here, a very deep one that’s only becoming apparent as the graphics get really, really good.
We used to play a game in my neighborhood called Hide the Belt. Everyone would start out at the base with their eyes closed and someone would hide the belt. Everyone would look for it while person who hid it would shout out hot or cold. Whoever found the belt got to whip the shit out of everyone else before they made it back to the base.
I’ve said this a few times in other threads recently as well, but the ultra violence is bothering me a lot as well.
Games like Sniper Elite 2 is glorifying murder, and I don’t like it. Saint Row 3 is another game I find to be way to violent for kids to play.
I don’t have the answers, because I like to play games where I kill things as well but if I look at the games I play recently, the killings are more abstract. LOTRO (Orcs, wolves and the likes), Endless Space (Kill other ships or aliens), Dragons Dogma (Goblins and fantastic creatures) and I really think there is a difference between that and killing humans in the most obscene ways possible. Hell, Killsteaks are, if you think about, glorifying of murder.
As for the Europe vs US mentality - I think we just enjoy nudity and isn’t totally freaked out by it, thus allowing it to be a part of culture, which these days mostly means television. We don’t have any particular strong stances on violence that deviates from what Americans have as far as I know. (Hell, Denmark was the first country to liberate Porn, in the name of free love - probably what still clings to us)