On Realism and Virtual Murder

Gamasutra has an interesting article about how the push toward realistic graphics and extremely lifelike characters in modern games is making the term "murder simulator" — once laughed off for referring to pixelated dying Nazis — a concept to take more seriously. The author is careful to simply explore the issue, and not come to a specific conclusion; he doesn't say that we should or shouldn't prevent it from happening, only that it's worth consideration. (One section is even titled "Forget the kids," saying that decisions for what children play fall under parental responsibility.) Quoting: "We should start rethinking these issues now before we all slide down the slope together and can't pull ourselves back up again. Or, even worse, before governments step in and dictate what can and can't be depicted or simulated in video games via legislation. ... Obviously, what makes an acceptable game play experience for each player is a personal choice that should be judged on a person-by-person basis (or on a parent to child basis), and I believe it should stay that way. As for me, I'm already drawing the line at BioShock — I can barely stomach the game as it is. Sure, I could play it more and desensitize myself, but I don't want to. And that's just me. It's up to you and a million other adult gamers to decide what's best for yourselves and to draw the line on virtual violence where you feel most comfortable."

Comments

Relevant quote

[phantomfive]

Relevant quote that I saw on the bottom of slashdot a few days ago, this from Alfred Hitchcock:

TV has brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.

Ban how to host a murder while you're at it.

[syousef]

Sorry but this is very very silly.

We've had violent games and movies for a long time now. Take a look at the blood and gore in horror films. It currently does and will continue to outdo any realism a game can provide for some time to come.

Take a look at games where we play murderers. How to host a murder/murder mystery nights. What are you going to do next. Ban Murder She Wrote because some idiot might decide to copy one of the murders?

The solution is simple. You need to educate children about the difference between fiction and reality. It's really not that hard.

Will there be people who copy the fiction and commit murder? Sure. They're mentally unstable and would find some other reason to do it anyway.

Re:Ban how to host a murder while you're at it.

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, imagine that it's 2050 and computers can create seamless virtual realities that we have trouble telling apart from 'real' life.

Ok, lost me already. With technology advances, simulations asymptotically approach reality, sure; but 40 years from now it won't be indistinguishable, we'll just be that much better at distinguishing reality. That position's probably controversial among /. futurists, but I'm pretty convinced it's true.

Another, perhaps less controversial, but also less universally applicable point: very few games sacrifice gameplay for realism. Why would they, just because more realism is possible? I doubt players really want to get out of breath if they walk too fast for too long, feel pain when they stub their toe from a momentary lapse in coordination, or any of a thousand other inconveniences that we accept unthinkingly in RL, because there's no alternative. When it's a simulation, there are alternatives, and I think most games won't be as realistic as they could be, given tech levels. Of course, there probably will be some simulations that do try for realism, and if the friend in question is really into those, your point could remain.

False premise

[another_twilight]

From the article;

"With each act of violence, a piece of us grows cold, calloused, and uncaring towards the well being of others. Repeat that, and we become slowly desensitized to pain and suffering."

Perhaps the part of us that finds violence towards an on-screen representation of someone or something, but I have yet to see any evidence that this translates to a callousness towards real people or events. The implication that increasingly realistic graphics are somehow going to cross this divide is neither argued nor proven in this article.

Games are designed as entertainment. Entertainment is not realistic. No matter what the interface (I will even allow some futuristic neural hookup) there are going to be clues and cues that what you are engaged in is not Real Life. It is this very knowledge that is part of what makes games enjoyable. We are freed of the normal consequences of our actions, free to explore a new environment, to discover the rules of cause-and-effect and to enjoy the difference between these and the world we normally live in.

Perhaps when we have the tech to seamlessly mimic reality there may grow a market for entertainment that deliberately blurs the line between Real and Game, but that relies on both an increase in technical realism and a deliberate move away from what makes a game a game.

Perhaps the author has forgotten what it means to play.

Re:False premise

[Macgrrl]

"With each act of violence, a piece of us grows cold, calloused, and uncaring towards the well being of others. Repeat that, and we become slowly desensitized to pain and suffering."

Good thing I don't need to kill animals for food then, imagaine how much damage that would do to the psyche as opposed to the detatchment we get from buying meat vaccuum sealed at the supermarket.

It's not that long ago in terms of human history that death was far more familiar to everyone, we killed for food, people were born and died at home, wars broke out far more frequently and we most likely on your doorstep, life in general was far more girtty and voilent on a daily basis.

Oddly enough the average 'man in the street' didn't turn into a serial killer through simple exposure to all this banal violence. Maybe that was the difference, the banality of it all. Why do we believe the exposure to fantasy violence will be so damaging when exposure to real violence typically wasn't?

There are still people in our communities who are exposed to massive violence on a daily basis - slaughtermen, emergency services personnel, etc... Do they have a higher than average likelihood to commit violent crimes?

There are times I think this is all a beat up for someones honours thesis.

Re:It's just evolutionary.

[Vectronic]

The reason we have so much violence in games these days is that in the very early arcade games...

I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that there is violence in video-games is because in reality we are increasingly less able to do it. 50 years ago, you had an urge to fight, you went to the bar, you wanted excitement, you drove fast, you wanted to explore, you went outside... now-a-days most people don't really have any exciting in their lives, nor are they really allowed to (even Raves, and Concerts are usually "locked down", even sports are tame now), so they look for that visceral experience where they can, in video-games and movies.

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