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There are so many violent games in the charts at the moment,it could easily be argued that this is because they all play well, but are there some hidden secrets we don't want to show? Nearly all of our major games at the moment have something to do with violence related to them. Even our family friendly game 'Worms' has now joined them with a 'blood splattering' option enabled in the menu!
For example; With GTA3, going round, stealing cars and shooting people doesn't really sound that entertaining at first, but once you find out about all of the other parts of the game then you will love playing it and wonder why it sounded so dodgy. Does having the option to run over people and shoot them actually make the game more fun? Are we doing something here that if done in real life would result in you being hated, jailed and/or possibly killed? And are we actually enjoying it? That's an interesting question, we are enjoying something that we would never think about doing in real life, and if it did happen, we would instantly take a disliking to anybody who did it.
Just sit and think for a moment about a violent game. Take away all of the 'bad' things in it and think about how fun it would be, it wouldn't be fun at all. Imagine playing GTA3 where you asked to borrow a car, drove carefully and if you didn't like somebody, you talked it over with them and tried to be friends! How fun would that be? It wouldn't be fun at all, it's strange that we love doing something in a game that we would hate happening in real life. It's no wonder people try to link videogames to mass murderers!
But does having blood and gore in a game make it better? In some games, it does, but in others, it just ruins the game. I have heard countless numbers of people complain that Crazy Taxi is boring, it would be so much better if you could hit people! Would it be more fun? You would completely just ignore the fun of the game and instead just drive around running people over for the fun of it! There are also many other games that seem to overdo the killing. Soldier of Fortune was a game that I thought about, do we really need to see people having their heads blown off and have blood splatter everywhere?
The main thing that violence in games does is to influence younger children. I bet nearly all of you thought that you were a 'real man' when you got your first beat 'em up game. Bragging in the playground to your mates about how good it is was a great feeling! Even I loved it, getting Mortal Combat on the Mega-Drive was the game to get, all the blood, it was great! The other day I heard some kids who couldn't have been any older than 11 complaining that Mario is just for kids and that GTA3 is the best game ever! These children are tricking themselves into thinking that stealing cars and shooting people is more fun. Could this actually be the reason behind violence and crime?
So next time when you play your favourite game and you've just shot somebodies head off, think to yourself, 'Why was that so fun?' It's quite disturbing to think that you are finding brutally killing somebody quite enjoying...
Errrr....blood and gore!
It's escapism though, isn't it. you could never get away with doing that in real life, so the experience is carried out safely on a console.
If you want blood and gore though, just watch the news - it's on every night!
There are so many violent games in the charts at the moment,it could easily be argued that this is because they all play well, but are there some hidden secrets we don't want to show? Nearly all of our major games at the moment have something to do with violence related to them. Even our family friendly game 'Worms' has now joined them with a 'blood splattering' option enabled in the menu!
For example; With GTA3, going round, stealing cars and shooting people doesn't really sound that entertaining at first, but once you find out about all of the other parts of the game then you will love playing it and wonder why it sounded so dodgy. Does having the option to run over people and shoot them actually make the game more fun? Are we doing something here that if done in real life would result in you being hated, jailed and/or possibly killed? And are we actually enjoying it? That's an interesting question, we are enjoying something that we would never think about doing in real life, and if it did happen, we would instantly take a disliking to anybody who did it.
Just sit and think for a moment about a violent game. Take away all of the 'bad' things in it and think about how fun it would be, it wouldn't be fun at all. Imagine playing GTA3 where you asked to borrow a car, drove carefully and if you didn't like somebody, you talked it over with them and tried to be friends! How fun would that be? It wouldn't be fun at all, it's strange that we love doing something in a game that we would hate happening in real life. It's no wonder people try to link videogames to mass murderers!
But does having blood and gore in a game make it better? In some games, it does, but in others, it just ruins the game. I have heard countless numbers of people complain that Crazy Taxi is boring, it would be so much better if you could hit people! Would it be more fun? You would completely just ignore the fun of the game and instead just drive around running people over for the fun of it! There are also many other games that seem to overdo the killing. Soldier of Fortune was a game that I thought about, do we really need to see people having their heads blown off and have blood splatter everywhere?
The main thing that violence in games does is to influence younger children. I bet nearly all of you thought that you were a 'real man' when you got your first beat 'em up game. Bragging in the playground to your mates about how good it is was a great feeling! Even I loved it, getting Mortal Combat on the Mega-Drive was the game to get, all the blood, it was great! The other day I heard some kids who couldn't have been any older than 11 complaining that Mario is just for kids and that GTA3 is the best game ever! These children are tricking themselves into thinking that stealing cars and shooting people is more fun. Could this actually be the reason behind violence and crime?
So next time when you play your favourite game and you've just shot somebodies head off, think to yourself, 'Why was that so fun?' It's quite disturbing to think that you are finding brutally killing somebody quite enjoying...