Violence Debate #ilostcount

"Are video games too violent"? That's been the debate about video games for quite some time now. Some people say 'yes', and some people say 'no'. But, what do you think?

Depending on the video game, are video games too violent for kids to play? Do they make people violent themselves? Feel free to discuss your thoughts~

They can be overly and unnecessarily violent, but I feel that when a game uses violence to make a point or for the sake of comedy...or just to give a game identity, it's perfectly fine.

Take Assassin's Creed for example. This is a series where you play as assassins. Your goal is to kill people, often times. But one noticeable difference between Assassin's Creed 1 and all the rest is that 1 was a lot more tame than the others, and appropriately so. You could see that, despite whatever feelings Altair had for the victims, he respected them as humans at the very least. The others, on the other hand, often go out of their way to make these grisly deaths for their victims...and often not for much reason other than...maybe to attract a crowd? I would say that AC has been moving its way towards the unnecessary scale since 1, and while that doesn't necessarily make them worse, it does get you to think.

What's more, kids and teens do play these games, and while I won't say that it makes them more violent, it does get them to play with the idea of death. I don't think it'd be a case of The Raven, but people do get interested in these murder weapons and ways of killing. Do I think this is the games' fault? No.

See, movies (and shows) are FAR more available to the average person than games are. Games have to be bought, or at the very least downloaded. Movies are everywhere, and they can be far more violent than games can. What's to stop a child from accidentally seeing a slasher flick that just happened to be on? Heck, Scream was all about the subject. I wouldn't blame games for something that movies do on a larger scale.

There are people in the world with no imagination. There are people in the world that can't distinguish from the fantasy of a book and the reality of the world. These people are more common than you might think and these are the people opposed to video games.

They can't comprehend Call of Duty as anything other than Military brainwashing. They think that if you play Call of Duty that you want to join the military or kill people in real life, because isn't that the training the game is giving you?

Video Games can be constructive, even if they aren't trying to be. Did you know Scolipede is based on a specific species of Centipede native to South America named the Scolopendra gigantea? Did you know it is also popular imported pet around the world?

Most pokemon are based on real animals, opening my eye to real animal that I can't even believe are real like the Pistol Shrimp and Mantis Shrimp. I only know/care about these things because of Pokemon. It's not like pokemon was trying to teach me this, it's the fans that make these connections. They do this because a Video Game has inspired them to open a Book and Learn something.

Some are too violent for my personal taste, yes. But I would not agree that they are objectively over-violent. I'm not of the opinion that there ought to be any restrictions on the content of fictional depictions. Children copy things. In fact, people of all ages copy; it is how one accrues all that one considers to be 'normal'. I think there's a certain mindset, and I don't think it's very uncommon (perhaps as common as autism, and related to it), that will attempt to some degree to equate reality with what is seen in fantasy.

Not violent enough, in some cases. I think videogames can be a great medium to explore violence, aggression, fear and stress.

In regards to this thread, can we just use Postal as a general benchmark for what to stray away from in video games? Because that should be a staple.

Now in regards to pure violence, hmm....I don't think games have really crossed any insane lines, least not from what I've played. I used to think Gears of War was a line, but then I just...got over it.

Postal and Manhunt are the only games that I consider to be over-the-top. Postal for obvious reasons, but Manhunt was just...too much, even by my standards. The premise of the game didn't justify it being that violent, especially for a stealth-based game.

Sweets Witch said:

Postal and Manhunt are the only games that I consider to be over-the-top. Postal for obvious reasons, but Manhunt was just...too much, even by my standards. The premise of the game didn't justify it being that violent, especially for a stealth-based game.

Click to expand...

Best part: Postal wasn't even good. Wonder how that company felt after that game bombed....

Manhunt I left out, only because most people only really give it the whole OD Violence Label in regards to the second one, and since it was so blatantly obvious when mentioned with Postal, I just...didn't bother lol. But 2 was...OD.