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"How Far... Is 'Too Far'?"

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Tue 11/09/01 at 19:27
Regular
Posts: 787
If a major games company, or for that matter, any games company were to develop a game with a storyline that closely resembled the current atrocity - witnessed all over the world - in the United States, surely it would be too far.

But where is the line? Where does it stop being pretend and where des it 'get sick'?

My view on games is that they don't have to be violent. Games like Zelda, Mario, Crash, Pokémon and Spyro The Dragon, have all seen reasonable success in the market none of which are violet, none of which are sinister or out of sorts. I don't believe that games should screen wanton or gratuitous violence, because it does the game no more favours that a bloodless 'killing' in my book. However, because of the demands of the consumer and the 'light take' on the violence in video games by most gamers, more and more blood and killing is making it into games today.

But a pretend man, shooting another pretend man differs greatly to mimicing an international tragedy. I believe that any game that passes the history of suffering and death off as entertainment should be banned. In the light of what has happened, should a game be release, survival horrors would take the back seat in the court room while the respective game got a roasting from everyone.

I wouldn't imagine anyone would be able to draw a fine enough line to cover all games and all scenarios, but one thing is for sure, you can tell what games should be and what games shouldn't, purely by playing them. I don't tend to play 'gory games' anyway, but should a good one come a long I might try it. However, if it were a game that shows scenes of explicit sexual nature or gratuitous violence I doubt i'd play it for any longer than it would take me to wipe the look of disgust off my face.

I believe too far is making entertainment out of other's real-life misfortunes. War games are bad enough... and if you were to make a game, back when the soldiers of old were fighing in Normandy or on the Front Line, you'd be shot on the spot for meking entertainment out of others that have fought and died fo their country.

A big issue is that so many different things have taken place... different types of war, sexual assault, massacres, crusades, bombings, suicide killings, rascism attacks. They all seem to be violence driven, but few games to date aren't violent. Then of course their are movies - Saving Private Ryan was rated one of the best films of its year, but when Rare took the mickey out of it in CBFD some people said it was a shame that Rare, although very talented and comical, had to 'play' on the lives of US soldiers to provide entertainment... maybe it was because SPR was true, and didn't take the mick in any way?

You see, it's so hard to draw the line between yes and no... movies seem to get away with murder, and then games are blamed for the killings in US high schools!

It seems to me that there are loads of different opinions... people are in different modes at different times in different places with different views on life. What is acceptable to one might be an atrocity to another. Nintendo tend to release 'kiddie' games to be on the safe side, and as I said earlier, and as shown by the quality of their games, having 'kiddie' games doesn't mean they lessen in quality.

So, Ladies, Gentlemen, Internet Addicts and Meka, I ask you:

"How Far Is Too Far?!"

Thanks for scrolling to the end,

Game
Wed 12/09/01 at 14:07
Posts: 0
It was such a good post I posted it three times and then drew attention to the fact in a fourth post. No wait, it was my explorer pretending not to be working, it was also telling me it was going at 115 Kbps so that's broadband speeds. Of course it was more like 10 bps in reality. It's working okay now though. Here's another post that actually has nothing to do with your topic then. Well the other three did but the extra two were for flavour, mmm.
Wed 12/09/01 at 13:33
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
I was just thinkning what a good response my post had received and no look, a triple post!

Ban Him!!! --- ^_^

Although earlier I had said that movies get away with murder and that it isn't games fault... maybe this one is.

You can't control movies. You have no say in the outcome... unless you're the Actor or Director, however, let's look at MS Flight Simulator 2000, the GPS (Global Positioning System) in the game is almost exactly right! The perpetraitor of this haneous crime could very well have planned the route and timing of the attack from such a game. A game that wouldn't be blamed for anything else, if this.

We don't think of people being in planes when we crash them into towers in games, we don't think of drivers in cars when we crash them round the Le Mans or F1 Circuits.

Gaming is such a 'play' on real life that almost all reality is lost.
Wed 12/09/01 at 11:33
Posts: 0
Erk a triple post, that's not good.
Wed 12/09/01 at 11:30
Posts: 0
The Game wrote:
> But not as well written... :D

Heh, very funny. I prefer to reply to topics with my own ones, rather than post them myself. The main reason is that I don't like to type things offline so I end up coming on and checking if there is anything to reply to. Only when it gets quiet will I be more likely to start my own topic.
Wed 12/09/01 at 11:30
Posts: 0
The Game wrote:
> But not as well written... :D

Heh, very funny. I prefer to reply to topics with my own ones, rather than post them myself. The main reason is that I don't like to type things offline so I end up coming on and checking if there is anything to reply to. Only when it gets quiet will I be more likely to start my own topic.
Wed 12/09/01 at 10:37
Staff Moderator
"Must lose weight"
Posts: 5,778
Equally worrying is when creative minds search for new ways to shock or stun their audience, and unwittingly provide nasty ideas for criminals or insane people to mimic.
Wed 12/09/01 at 08:16
Regular
"not dead"
Posts: 11,145
To answer the question 'How far is too far' anything that mimiced a tragedy like yesterdays, or made light of it in any way would be considered 'too far' right now, but 5 years down the track if it featured in a game, would people really be offended?

It depends what the game was like. Maybe if it had you co-ordinating the rescue services in a number of tragedies people might accept it more, as it would be the 'good' side of the tragedy. Please don't misunderstand me here, I mean 'good' only in the sense of trying to save lives, not that what happened was in any way good.
Wed 12/09/01 at 07:21
Regular
"( . ) ( . )"
Posts: 3,279
YH has a very good point there; films get away with all sorts, where games are given the main blame for High School Shootings. It's very unfair on us, gaming developers, gaming publishers and gaming retailers, who are all missing out some how.

If you ask me, I thought that films would have a larger influence on life than games, as more people watch films than play games. However, that gap is getting bridged. As more and more people play games, the media will continue to blame games even more.

I would love to walk up to someone who has been badmouthing games ( or would be likely to ) and punch them in the face. I am so angry with anyone who says that games influence life in that way. In my opinion, these problems mostly begin at home, where they are brought up in violent families or they are rebelling due to the bitter fact that they come from a broken home.
Tue 11/09/01 at 23:45
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
But not as well written... :D
Tue 11/09/01 at 23:26
Regular
Posts: 21,800
Jesus gronti thats longer than the original post

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