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The Most Violent Video Games of All Time
adeelarshad82 writes "Switzerland and Australia already feel that violent video games are an issue, and in June the US Supreme Court will also take matters in its own hands. Revisiting some of the most violent video games made over the last couple of decades shows exactly why this is such a huge concern." Warning: this slideshow contains imaginary violence.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be an escape from reality, now would it?
Count of flying meat pieces usually seems pathetically low when compared to this game:
http://icculus.org/jumpnbump/
Pretty soon, we'll be seeing stuff like "most violent blogs of all time" and "webcomics are destroying our youth". Just as soon as the mainstream media catches up with this decade.
Really, a submission every time anyone posts anything about violent video games and their alleged influence on kids? Mod submission redundant.
Remember everybody, anyone who suggests that playing violent video games 18 hours a day everyday might have any negative consequences what so ever is obviously a deluded Christian fanatic who just wants to censor everything. Censorship is evil!
Also please be sure to remember that talk radio and Sarah Palin are so evilly powerful that they single-handedly caused the shootings in Arizona even though the shooter didn't even listen to talk radio! (it was the evil permeating waves). Finally, remember that if any school child even hears the word "God" used in anything other than a derogatory manner or even sees a Bible that isn't being desecrated, that school child will forever mentally scarred beyond comprehension. Censorship is good!
No, I don't take all of the preceding comments seriously, but Slashdot is strewn with +5 insightful mods that do state all of those positions seriously... and sometimes in the same post.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Violent video games make ME uncomfortable. Therefore, nobody should be allowed to make or play them.
Most laws that forbid civil liberties are based on this thought process, though they all have completely different ostensible justifications.
I want a mod of Half Life where instead of killing zombies, you are curing them and sending them to safe zones. Then Mercy Hospital would make a lot more sense.
"Violence on television only affects people who's parents act like television personalities." I think the same could be generalized to video games as well.
Video games are among the best ways yet invented for keeping children from using the television to watch the news, an action which exposes them to a seamy world of corruption, pestilence, brutal exploitation, slavery, lust, violence, and savage, inevitable, death.
The idyllic gameworld, on the other hand, offers a few PG-13 "situations", some morally unambiguous violence, and a world were death is a temporary setback.
Video games are protecting the children!
real life is pretty damn violent too.
should check out some screenshots of it.
Pacman was a terribly violent game. He went around swallowing pills and going after "ghosts" which he'd devour like a cannibal. We must stop this atrocity of a game! Think of the children!
Can't imagine why either.
No doom? Or wolfenstein (but can 20 pixels by 20 pixels really ever be THAT violent?) I don't know whether to be happy or upset about that. But these are some of the originals.
Nothing made me wants to kill and harm people more than Stuntman. That game makes Demons Souls look like Super Mario Galaxy. I must have smashed hundreds if not thousands of Dualshock 2 controllers in frustration and anger at that game.
*overtake*
*squeeze past truck*
*hard right*
After five minutes of Stuntman I'd have to spend a good week playing milder and gentler games like Doom or Grand Theft Auto to calm myself down.
Violent video games make ME uncomfortable. Therefore, nobody should be allowed to make or play them
I don't like people who talk about their religion to me. My solution? No, I don't want to ban religion. I just avoid it. Don't go to church, avoid people who talk about religion.
Even though thousands of years of history prove that religion motivates people to perform the most atrocious violence, I'm not proposing to ban religion.
Therefore I cannot understand why people want to ban games without even presenting credible evidence that games cause any harm.
I don't think any list of "Most Violent Video Games" would be complete without Time Killers. Who needs solid game play or nice graphics when you can just up the ante on blood and gore with the ability to dismember your opponent?
Fight or flight its all the same
Live to die another day
--Ryan
all the time, it is relaxing to just play spider solitaire on the computer.
Personally, I'd rather people with issues do their beating, raping and killing in video games rather than in real life.
-- $G
Just the list I was looking for. #boredashell.
The uncensored release of Duke Nukem Forever, here in Australia, I'm convinced is a plot from the censorship lobby. Once it's been out for a week, there'll be a media shitstorm stirred up by the likes of Michael Arkins saying "this is what we protect you from, it's regrettable this one made it past our screening, but surely you can see we must outright ban such vulgarity!".
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
If the list doesn't have Soldier of Fortune on it (the original AND the sequel), it's not a proper list.
Can someone tell me what the image in the article is from? The one that looks like a demon with a balloon animal: http://common1.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/29/0,1468,i=290549,00.jpg
Good way to sell video games, say these are too violent for an entire country.
Carmageddon, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM.
A game where your bonus stages consist of gunning down people lined up against a wall. Where you enter your name for the highscore on people lined up for the guillotine. Even if it was for C64, it should definitely be one of the most violent games of all time. I remember being sickened by it as a kid.
I've seen plenty of good studies that show that the typical 'violent' video game actually helps improve intelligence and creativity, because you have to quickly choose between an array of weapons and strategies to defeat enemies who all have different strengths and weaknesses.
I havent seen one good study that ties playing violent video games to a causation of becoming violent. In every case where a kid goes nuts and kills people, there were significant underlying psychoses that preceded the correlation that they played violent games.
Granted, my young son wont be playing any of the "If you beat up the hooker, her pimp will come and you can kill him to take his money, then buy a better motor for your getaway car so you can run over people and rob banks" video games. But shooting a zombie in the face with a plasma blaster? You betcha.
I just got around to playing God of War 3. Although it features a lot of the same type of content as the first two (ripping heads off enemies, disemboweling man and beast, etc), the level of detail is pretty stunning. It really is a beautiful game (if you can get past said dismemberments).
I clicked on and saw ... a slideshow.
FUCK SLIDESHOWS.
I'm sick of these fucking things. Actually, no. I've ALWAYS hated this retarded ass way to convey information on the web.
So no. I'm not going RTFA.
Slideshows, just say no.
While the points you make are true of many of the knee-jerk left-leaning individuals here (but not necessarily true of the more level headed ones--yes, they're out there), your post reminded me of something else that's mostly unrelated. So, here's my wholly tangential thought:
Going back to the summary (which is light on details--and the slideshow is kind of silly), there's a huge double standard both in the media and our government. I'm talking about the double standard that exists between the treatment of violence in video games (think of the children!) versus the violence in what are often critically acclaimed movies. Of course, this is largely because our representatives have strong ties to Hollywood and the video game industry hasn't a very powerful lobby in comparison (if at all?). There are undoubtedly forces that see video games as a danger to their entertainment income, and with random shootings every couple of years, it's easy to spin video games as the cause of such violence. Many movies are just as brutal as video games, and many others even more so, but since the mainstream press is often owned by the same conglomerates as own the major studios (hi, MPAA!), it's easy to see why they play softball with their kindred.
Never mind that the individuals who committed these acts are often very disturbed, disgruntled individuals who in some cases (think of the Arizona shooter) had a history of being disruptive with behavior that made at least one professor uneasy. But, hey, let's blame the video game industry. They aren't funneling enough money into the back pockets of our politicians! Shame on them.
He who has no
This list is incomplete. It does not mention Kratos or God of War 3. By far the most violent game of all time, which involves mutilating Gods who are indistiguishable from normal people by way of:
1. Ripping off a Helios's head by means of button tapping, thoroughly one of the most visceral uses of force feedback ever in video games.
2. Cutting off Hermes' leg, slowly following him as he attempts to crawl away before cutting off the other leg and letting him bleed out and die.
3. Breaking Hera's neck, while in comparison is not bad, but she was also a non-combatant. Kratos did it for the hell of it.
4. Turning Hercules' face into a smashed watermelon.
Perhaps one of these lists could be compiled along side a list of the most violent movies of all time, and maybe the most violent news stories of all time, or most violent public spectacles of all time..
That last one would make for an interesting list, humans had some pretty messed up forms of entertainment back in the day. Public blood sport, torture, rape, execution, etc..
Court decision passed in 5... 4... 3...
Soldier of Fortune indeed, especially #2 where you could disect someone with some well aimed shots. I never understood why nowedays characters in games act like how they did in wolvenstein, some red sprites flying around when shot but no gaping holes anymore, limbs barely come off.. No I'm not a psychopath. If I was one I would watch these ridiculous movies like Saw 1 till a billion or these other 360% over the top "horror" movies.
This post reminds me of Commando Libya :-)
...slaughtered in Enemy Territory Quake Wars?!
Just for one example, I have yet to find a single published, post-ratings video game (discounting free flash games and the like) that would qualify as "hardcore pornography". Anything made in the US (or the West, for that matter) generally stops at PG-13, maybe R if they think they can use the media outrage to boost sales, material - even the Playboy game never went past toplessness. Anything made in Japan has enough blur/pixelation/censor bars to meet the oddly stringent censorship laws.
Are you the same ones who say we need campaign finance reform?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Just wondering what "imaginary violence" is?, can someone explain. Its either violent or its not. Oh, maybe it meant to say "contains images of violence".
Am I alone in not really having a problem with this?
I mean, TFA says that they're looking into "if selling violent video games to minors should be deemed illegal". Porn certainly isn't illegal, but it's limited to adults. Is it the general consensus here that games including obsessive (relative, I know) amounts of blood, violence, gore, questionable themes or whatever should be available to all, with no restrictions? Though I don't have children of my own, I can't imagine if I did I would be okay with my hypothetical 8 year old grabbing a copy of Mortal Kombat: Supreme Decapitation Edition straight off the shelves with no questions asked.
This kind of censorship is everywhere. Movies, music, porn, alcohol, tobacco, gambling. Why are we up in arms because it's video games? As long as they're not trying to take it off the market completely, taking the choice out of my perfectly capable adult hands, it really doesn't matter to me.
But maybe I'm alone in that.
I should have been a girl, with the way I can dance... my moves are amazing!
Granted, my young son wont be playing any of the "If you beat up the hooker, her pimp will come and you can kill him to take his money, then buy a better motor for your getaway car so you can run over people and rob banks" video games.
Why?
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
playing soccor with a zombies head in college WAS DA BOMB
Previous calls for game censorship were really calls for attention by the politicians NOT getting enough bribes. So, after years of failing to get the hint it has ended up in the Surpreme Court (mild pun intended.)
The industry missed its chance to avoid this; however, its not a big deal, its only a question of selling to minors that is going to court. They can still pay up and avoid future troubles.
Disturbed people will find plenty to set them off. We could just update our midevil justice system to handle nuts... oh wait! they were better in the past than we are today... lets downgrade to the past when nuts were locked up. Ban most mental drugs from children and you'd probably stop almost all the school shootings... (since this is a common trait for the teen shooters.)
Most the truly horrific things I saw as a child were Japanese and around my age group - different culture. They don't have our problems- why not study it? Canada has more guns, why not study them? But-- we are Americans, we don't believe in science lets just jump to baseless conclusions!
WTF do we have to live around a tiny minority because a negligible percent take something the wrong way? Just think how many shooters they try to pin this on per year-- I have a 1000x better chance falling down the stairs and dying.
Darwin Award winner dies from air hose misuse; lets ban the sale of air hoses to minors!
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
"I killed those people because God told me to" "I killed those people because Duke Nukem told me to" I submit that the cause of the above statements which is responsible for more deaths is more evil.
My kingdom for a donkey!
It's a fair point. I haven't seen any video games in which the consort of a high ranking official gets raped to death by a giraffe then eaten by lions - a real event used to 'entertain' a large crowd in Rome.
Of course, the argument would be that we've progressed a bit since then. These days people merely download video of people being beheaded in the name of some fucked up archaic religion for entertainment.
I'd rather they played computer games.
The more crowded the world becomes, the more each person is impacted by the actions of others.
The porn/violence YOUR kids see could change how they behave towards MY kids, possibly harming them.
The changes YOU make to YOUR house could reduce the value of MY house.
The risks YOU take with your stock portfolio could influence market forces such that MY portfolio loses value.
The risks YOU take with your body and mind could drive you to crime, or drive you to associate with criminals, all of which increase the risk that I will be victimized by crime.
The stuff YOU choose to buy influences the market and hence determines what options/prices are available to ME.
I think you get the point. As population rises the world shrinks, and the interconnections between us become more impactful, so my incentives to control your values/behaviors increase.
Everyone loves having civil liberties, but everyone also fears how they might be harmed by their neighbor's civil liberties. So the net effect is continued reduction of civil liberties as the population continues to rise.
Expect to see more of this.
Why do these people always assume it's kids playing the games? 18-mid twenties is still the primary demographic.
Pay protection money in the form of lobby and good public PR or we'll place you business in jeopardy...
Corruption and massive public deception using the female form...
2/3 of relationships end in tragedy for men in the form of child support and general support (check shared parenting for alternatives), often pushing men well beyond being accountable for their actions (as in state of mind, not legal defense)...
Media preys on demographical women before they're out of diapers, stigmatizing and victimization...
they must be banned/censored for the children!
There is this thing called Entertainment Software Rating Board...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Actually, the 9th and 10th Amendments make it pretty darn clear that it was to be taken as a closed document even if the copious notes and essays from the founding period did not (which they do). The Founders very explicitly and directly wanted to create a limited government of expressly delegated powers, one with a more powerful central government than under the Articles of Confederation, true, but strictly limited in nature nevertheless. Many people said so publicly and no one said otherwise--- not in the decisions at the Con Con, not in the public debates leading up to ratification, not in the ratifying conventions, and not in the ratifying instruments accepted by the states--- no one said, "Hey this is a living document and we'll figure it out as we go." Madison, in the Federalist Papers, directly spells out the consequences of the Federal government overstepping its delegated authority with the states in control of the militia. If they believed in a 'living document,' why write the Constitution anyway, when they could have just expanded the government by ignoring the limits under the Articles?
As to the idea that this prevents the government from tackling future circumstances, that is an empty argument. The idea was that it was not the Federal government's job to innovate. The states are in a position to handle many issues on their own, each to its liking (within Constitutional limits on their own authority) and many states do have specific laws on video games. We have amended the US Constitution quite a few times where the states felt that it fell short of what was needed.
The PP is correct. The job of a judge is to enforce the law (starting with the Supreme Law of the Land first and foremost). Nothing more and nothing less. "Congress shall make no law..." is pretty clear.
Commando Libya for the Commodore 64. The bonus round consists of mowing down a bunch of guys lined up against a wall, and you enter your initials (if you get a high score) by dialing each letter in on a guy who then walks up and is guillotined. Screen resolution was not very high, but the gibs were there.
I have never understood people that believe they must impose there beliefs and supposed morals on others.
Largely because they, themselves, gained their belief system by having it imposed on them, often with cruelty, and despite their innate belief that what they were being taught was wrong. If they don't impose their belief on others, then they have to admit that what was done to them was wrong, and then they have to deal with all that pain.
Spirituality is not the problem. Belief in a God who wants us to follow a path ("Torah") as part of our relationship with What Is, is not the problem. Religion often is. Religion is the belief in men who somehow know more about what God wants than you do or what He can communicate with you directly. Religion, at its foundation, is therefore idolatry and forbidden by the cardinal rule of Torah.
While the majority of game players do it for entertainment, there are some who translate the onscreen violence into real life tragedy.
There is enough violence perpetrated in everyday life and we don't need violent video games giving borderline personlaities ideas
for further tragedy.
In Switzerland we prefer real guns
Perhaps not the most violent, but it would be the winner of most tasteless:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer's_Revenge
But then the spoiled rotten "what about me?" generation might actually have to...oh I don't know...RAISE THEIR OWN DAMNED KIDS instead of handing them over to mommy government! Gasp! they might actually have to get involved and shit instead of just plopping them in front of electronic babysitters! The horror!
Sadly I wish that was a fricking joke, but it ain't, as I have seen waaaaaay too many of my boys little school chums being raised by electronic babysitters. No books in the home, no real meaningful interaction, just plop them in front of (insert DVD, X360,PC,etc) and let it "keep them out of my hair".
When my sister was struck down by MS and her husband decided that "taking care of a sick wife and two kids ain't for me" and skipped town I took it upon myself to be the best damned parent I could be despite deciding years ago not to have kids, and by God that is what I did, even when my back was so messed up from a car wreck they had to climb on a table just to get a hug or picked up.
I didn't care about them playing violent games because I sat down and educated them by showing how what they saw was created on screen**, how scripting created the illusion of AI, how DOOM wads (dating myself here) could be edited to stick pictures of them in the game. I also didn't just stick them in front of a damned screen, even though many nights the pain in my back was terrible. I sat there and actually engaged their growing minds by reading Asimov to them (just like mom did to me when I was little) or watching Nova with them and teaching them how to research answers on the net when I didn't know the answer to one of their questions.
TLDR? PARENTING IS HARD! And if you aren't willing to step up to the plate then don't fricking have kids! they ain't dolls, or little vanities for your ego, they are little human beings that need plenty of love and attention if they are gonna have a decent shot at a future. Now the oldest is started his first year of premed I'm proud to say, and the youngest still hasn't decided whether he wants to become a chef or do graphic arts. It has been damned hard but worth every second.
**-This had a funny and unintended "side effect" whereas my boys have a unique method of "cursing" at a game, such as "Who made this thing? Look at all the tearing! What is this 1997? And what idiot wrote the AI routines for this thing? DUCK YOU STUPID ENEMY!!!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
That article is a piece of garbage. "See this picture? It's violent! Proof that we require legislation!". What kind of science-ignoring nonsense. Proof will require a coherent, scientifically elaborated chain of evidence from cause to purported effect. Which, by the way, cannot be created by researching things in favour of the desired conclusion only, that's not science.
Unfortunately, actual science seems to unveil more facts for video games than against them. By all means, go look up various research (and please focus on scientific, preferably peer-reviewed research) if you feel swayed by the article..
Also, in Switzerland, parliament has ordered an investigation what kind of law needs to be passed against video games and how to formalize by which criteria video games should be sold to adults only (or alternatively/additionally, what games deserve an outright ban), and the formulation of an suitable law.
That law is neither formulated nor passed, and the proposal need not be more spectacular than just formally requiring stores to only sell games that are rated 18+ by some rating system to adults only - like is done with movies.
My favorite video game back in the day was Galaga, which came out in 1981. I still play it via MAME and whenever I run across the original game or the anniversary re-release. Every level is a fucking massacre. You kill at least 40 aliens and potentially more: if you're really good at killing aliens especially quickly, the game slips in some extras to satisfy your lust for xenocide. Every fourth level, in fact, is a "challenging stage" in which the aliens are completely defenseless and you get bonus points for killing them to the last man. I'm not an especially good player, but I can reliably get to at least the 25th level, which takes about fifteen minutes and during which I must kill at least 1,000 aliens. Nor is Galaga an extreme case. By the late 80's and early 90's, there was a whole slew of Japanese shoot-em-up scrollers where the screen was positively jammed with enemies that could only be overcome by acquiring more and more powerful weapons, next to which Galaga is like the most boring of UN peacekeeping missions.
The body count in hours of gameplay with the current first-person shooters doesn't even merit comparison with three minutes of gameplay in any number of arcade classics from twenty or thirty years ago. What has changed is that the mayhem is more realistic -- and then only if you accept a rather loose reading of "realistic" that actually means "resembling the comic-book violence of action movies".
To make matters worse, the violent crime rate has been mostly declining during all this time, during which ownership of computers and game consoles has gone from a relatively small market to being nearly universal, especially in the age groups that are most likely to be involved in violent crime. If one was compelled to draw a causal connection between violent video games and real-world violence, one would have to conclude that they are actually reducing the level of real-world violence. There is actually some evidence to that effect -- but the balance of the actual scientific data, as opposed to the hyperventilation of people like Jack Thompson, strongly suggests that if there is any connection between video games and real violence, it is too insignificant to be measured even with relatively large samples.
At the end of the day, we'd probably hear less of this hysterical crap if y'all would just stay of those nice people's lawns. Now, if you'll pardon me, I have a sudden urge to fire up MAME and take another pass at getting to the 30th level in Galaga.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Actually, most laws that forbid civil liberties are based on third person effects. For example: *I* haven't been too adversely affected by violent media, but other less educated and less mature people are. Why else is there an epidemic in violence?
Moralists are always using third person effects. Moral outrage is always about some at risk group. Always has been.
There are a few flaws with the reasoning, but there is no point being reasonable with a moralist. They really do think that they are smarter than everyone else. I know, since I went head-to-head with them in academia, trying to get them to explain themselves. I found the lack of intellectual integrity disappointing, but pointing out that something is intellectual vacuous doesn't piece the veil of ignorance, even in academia.
You can read about the quality of the academic debate online here: Psychology’s Quixotic Quest For the Media-Violence Connection. Although this article dates back to 1999, it is surprisingly up-to-date. In my own research, I found the flaws in the research, and then attempted to get the researchers to explain them. I was met with the attitude: "there will always be doubters of everything." Hardly worthy of intellectual respect when you don't consider answering questions important.
The best book on the science is: Freedman, J., L. (2002). Media violence and its effects on aggression: Assessing the scientific evidence. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Even though this book is almost 9 yrs old, there is no rebuttal to it.
You can read what the other side has to say here: Huesmann, L., R. (2010). Nailing the coffin shut on doubts that violent video games stimulate aggression: Comment on Anderson at al. (2010). Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 179-181.
Huesmann is one of the most respected media violence researchers, and responsible for a lot of the theory. His article is a joke, and he doesn't answer questions. How could he not know how absurd this all is? Never under-estimate the power of denial and group-think. These people think they are building a better world, but really they are propagating their madness about things that they do not understand.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
And I thought this list would give me something new to play. I have them all. They missed Blood, Blood 2 the Chosen, missed Mutant League Football/Hockey, Night Trap, Splatterhouse 1-3, Loaded, BloodStorm, Way of the Warrior and Kasumi Ninja. I was hoping for a holiday buying guide, but no, just a silly 7 game list. Heck, my list included more and I am half an idiot. Not only did they miss all of the above, they missed the most violet, PETA protested game of all. Pokemon. Come on, how can you NOT consider keeping animals in tiny cages rattling around in a backpack violent. Peta even says cat carriers are inhumane, Pokeballs must be like Poke-Gulags.
One Token Ring to Rule them All, One Search Engine to Find Them, One WAN to bring them in, and TCP/IP Bind them...
This reminds me of the Machinima video "Counterstrike for Kids" which was funny...especially the second half of the video :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB6fq9Aadwk
The supreme court will rule in favour of the media companies, because most media violence researchers don't have a leg to stand on. I published an essay online on the topic here: The Utopian Pseudo-Science of Media Effects.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
The article seems to be conflating the two. This game is probably more violent than any of the listed ones, but it's certainly a lot less graphic. Why is gore bad for children but gore-free violence ok? That's so backwards.
Violence is human nature. Those of us that exist today are the offspring of violent civilizations and/or tribes. Simply put, violent people were the ones that out competed the peaceful ones. Sure, there still are peaceful tribes of people living in isolation in the middle of the jungle, however they continue to not build airplanes, and 42" TV's, and freeways. If a civilization tries to peacefully remedy all of their problems, be it for resources, faith, etc, then short of some social contract they will end up being out-competed by a violent civilization that raids the shit out of their settlements. Since we are the product of thousands of years of evolution where the violent ones win, we have this trait ingrained in us. Why else do people get more upset about sexual scenes in movies than violent ones? Hell, the violence in PG-13 movies a lot of the time ends up being way more extreme than a set of boobs in a R rated film. Maybe violent video games give some people an outlet for their violent tendencies, and as such they don't go around hurting people because of them. It is simply dishonest, hypocritical and against human nature to ban violent video games.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
Now lets put those next to the most violent films of the same period and see who comes off looking worse. Even just put them against the Saw films. 'Torture porn' I believe they call them...says it all really.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
That summary is terrible. It launches straight into: "Switzerland and Australia already feel that violent video games are an issue".
What sort of issue? Where are you getting this? I see no mention of Switzerland or Australia in TFA, and how does a country as a whole have an opinion about something? Are you talking about a specific branch of the government?
In Australia, one possible issue which you could say is related to violent video games is that there is no R rating for video games so games that might otherwise get an R rating are refused classification in Australia. Often this results in the game being modified, sometimes in a way that impacts enjoyment, so that it's suitable for an MA rating. Sometimes it might result in the game not being released in Australia.
Now, I'm guessing this isn't the "issue" that is alluded to in the vague summary. But I have no way of knowing.
If the "issue" is in fact about nutcases blaming video games for violence, well we've already discussed that topic to death on Slashdot - basically sometimes people just need somewhere to point the finger, and it helps if it's something that a lot of people don't understand - video games.
What about games lie moo or sins of a solar empire? All of the sentient beings on whole planets are killed.
You sir DO know what the fuck you are talking about.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
Some hentai games get localized and translated for the US market. Mosaic censorship is removed, but scenes with underaged characters are censored out of the game. Some localized games even get rated by the ESRB, and they always get rated AO.
There are several mass murder cases that were chalked up to gaming addicts. Not to mention, this generation is getting too lazy.
I work with section 8 tenants and some of them abuse the system.
Nick
http://www.apartmentbuildingsolutions.com
I ran a company network and boosted up Need for Speed. People clamored for a 1st person shooter, so I invested in Postal 2. It was nuts. People worked like hell to hit the lunchtime free for all, and then at the end went back to work. It was probably one of our most productive periods in retrospect. People would bitch at each other over the amount of work they had to accomplish before they felt they could participate in the game. And after the alloted time of blowing off steam, they were "on their game" for work. We were working in a pressure cooker, and I think it helped people. Many workers also told me how efficient they felt during those days.
I just remember Gary Coleman carrying around a rocket launcher in a white suit. And remember the Priest that would say "Bless you" before he shot somebody.
But we shoveled some work out the door.
One of my favorite games from the mid nineties...
Not just your average racing game but there were 3 ways to finish most levels:
* Complete the race, passing every checkpoint before the time runs out
* Destroy all the opponents
* Kill every pedestrian in the level
You also could get extra points and bonus time for killing pedestrians in an especially graphic method, such as opening your doors to hit them while driving by or by pile driving them into a wall.
No it doesn't. Maybe the writer should have SAID why it was a "huge concern", then we might have a discussion. Is he suggesting that players emulate the gameplay? If so, instead of a few screencaps, some real world evidence might have been helpful.
Postal was a pretty violent game.
According to the guy who did the Mac port, Ryan Gordon, the code was beautifully clean!
http://web.archive.org/web/20041206213838/http://www.macologist.org/portal.php?topic_id=607
You know what? Postal 1 might be a "dirty" game, but it's got the cleanest codebase, ever. The heavens open up and choirs of angels sing when Mike Riedel writes software, I swear to god.
Postal 2 was easy to bootstrap because we had a portable engine underneath it. Postal 1 was easy because it was just clean as hell. I went from the Windows (not the Mac Classic) codebase to a fully functional single player port on MacOS X in under 24 hours. Seriously. I can't stress how clean the Postal 1 codebase is. You can eat off it. I weep at its beauty.
So games that depict blood and guts on the streets are not ok. But games that allow you to build a civilization and develop the most powerful weapons known to man and nuke Montezuma back to the Stone Age are still A-ok! Alright, that's fine. I guess Montezuma was a jack-ass anyways,. . . =)
I'm probaby going to be flamed for this, but it is my personal opinion, and I think I'm entitled to that...
I'm not against violence, but I am against cruelty.
I agree that violence is part of human nature, including senseless violence. (Geez, I enjoy watching MMA, practicing martial arts and playing war games.)
I'm not surprised that since computer games were introduced, real crime has reduced in numbers. (Though to my memory, without research, it appears as though civilian crime today may be more nasty than it was 25 years ago. Perhaps I'm just older and more aware, or perhaps it's true.)
The whole point of games is to be better than your opponent (whatever that opponent may be: player, NPC, level designer, etc.). And if that means defeating your opponent in combat, then that satisfies two instincts in one go, which is probably why fighting is the most common theme in games.
But there is a big difference between playing Galaga and torturing people to death in full, bloody, well rendered 3D with well acted screams of pain and anguish. In comparison, Galaga can't even be considered a violent game at all.
Regardless of your stance on the issue, surely you've gotto agree with that.
Some games intentionally explore where the limits should go, and I think that's responsible. (But best left for gamers old enough to understand the moral dilemmas, thereof age restrictions.)
But when games are just cruel for the sake of being cruel, then I think that’s just plain wrong.
Now, I'm not talking about Mortal Combat or BF2 or even Carmageddon. I'm talking about something that's so realistic that it actually can be done by anyone. For example, rape games, or beating up a hooker to get your money back. Some people I've come across think that's really funny, and seem to think that hookers are so low that they have no rights anyway. Besides, she's not gonna tell the cops.
Now that's by no means a new mentality (having been around for millenia). But showing idiots that it's funny enough to be in a game, instead of being socially reprehensible... is just plain irresponsible. Those idiots lack an understanding for respect as it is, so why encourage them to be worse?
I think when done right, violent games are actually good and healthy, but I do think that some limits ought to exist. Not for us who can tell the difference, but for those people who are too mentally weak to work out the difference. And there are many such people, even if most of us on /. don't usually mix in those circles.
Downloaded it, ran it, tiny screen. Tried it again with the "-scaleup" option only to witness the bloodbath and gore of a full computer crash! The horror!
The images of my corrupted desktop and gadgets all flailing there on a broken black background and the eerie monotonous looping screech of a stuck audio buffer will haunt me forever. Off to see the psychiatrist and hit the liquor store on the way back.
I think we can all agree, once we've gotten video games out of the way, we should ban literature.
-"Brave New World" By A. Huxley contains an entire society addicted to drugs, and we shouldn't be promoting drug use.
-The novel "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk has created underground fighting clubs around the world!
-"A modest proposal" by Jonathan Swift advocates eating poor people!!
-Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf" helped create a genocide of 12 million people!!!
-Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" created a political ideology that is responsible for at least 100 million deaths!!!!
Obviously, we need to ban books. Unlike simply violent video games which are bound within pixels and polygons, books can utilise a person's entire imagination to picture violence, drug use, cannibalism, or any one of a million terrible things!
It's been a long time.
The only one of those games I enjoyed playing was Mortal Kombat, but these days, it's not the same. Quite honestly, that list should be a list of "incredibly bad games we tried to sell with violence, because they weren't going to sell any other way."
I recently played these 2 games and thoroughly enjoyed them. What surprised me was the level of gruesome carnage and foul language during gameplay. Even though it's an isometric view game with what appear to be handpainted backgrounds, there are cases where you score a critical hit on an opponent and their body gets shredded to pieces. And some of the thugs swear liberally (even if it's just text on the screen). Fortunately, this seems to have slipped under the radar of the mainstream media, even though both games came at the same time as Postal.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
I got a hand on a copy of this while in europe, by far the most violent game I have ever seen. In fact it was banned in most countries to include the US and Australia.
Got Code?
This list is WRONG.
That game had a full on rape scene. A RAPE SCENE. WITH ACTORS.
Not to mention the whole demon reaching into your face and ripping it in half, goatse style thing, either.
How could they forget carmaggedon? Blithering ninnies!
By body count alone, DEFCON is undoubtedly the winner.
One would believe that the simple, vector graphics would make committing genocide easier, but in fact the game's almost clinical treatment of it, coupled with its incredible soundtrack makes it much worse, in fact.
I wonder what Jack Thompson and company would think of it. On one hand, it's a game about mass genocide, but on the other it makes it downright scary rather than the more typical glorification of violence.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
I don't know why this article is not mentioning carmagedon, it is mo much fun to kill in this game.
I can't see violent games being any concern. given that all games are rated according to content everything should be fine. But IMO the ruling of selling violent games to minors as illegal should have been thought of a long time ago. If minors can't play 'em they shouldn't be able to buy 'em. the rest is on families to supervise.
Some of those games aren't very violent at all. Try The Punisher's (2005, PC) interrogation segments on for size; much more brutal and violent than anything in GTA3.
A "top violent video games" list without games like Carmageddon, Doom, ROTT, Blood, etc?
:)
Kids these days
Winner by quantity: DEFCON.
Loser by association: anyone who brings up dear old disbarred Jack.
Sorry, but if your list doesn't contain Phantasmogoria, in which a non-pixelated woman is depicted being force-fed her own entrails and subsequently choking to death, you do not have a comprehensive list. Incidentally, I will remark that I played that game at age 12 and am still haunted by it.
My favorite video game back in the day was Galaga, which came out in 1981. [...] Every level is a fucking massacre. You kill at least 40 aliens and potentially more: if you're really good at killing aliens especially quickly, the game slips in some extras to satisfy your lust for xenocide.
Never ever show this guy "Ikaruga".
pfft they go on about violent games but where's Death Race???
http://mancalazonk.blogspot.com/2011/02/video-game-violence.html
*
http://mancalazonk.blogspot.com/ - Video Game Reviews and more...
http://2dayshottopic.blogspot.com/ - WTF news + Babe of the Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmlTiuWI1Ts 'nuff said. :-)
These kamikaze birds are SO angry that they think NOTHING of plowing themselves into buildings, skyscrapers if you will, and exploding, as long as it will kill a few of the hated pigs in the process.
But you make a good point on rate, it can take 30 to 60 seconds to set up just ONE brutal pig murder/suicide sometimes, which isn't a very good murder per minute rate.
...Like, well, most RTSs and some MMO's.
I play Company of Heroes, for instances, which has me ordering dozens and hundreds of troops to their bloody, exquisitely detailed demise via bullets, explosives and flamethrowers. I can even order my troops to shoot at non-combatants like medics and un-armed engineers! Artillery blows entire squads and platoons to itty bitty bloody pieces but yet it shows up no-where here.
Oh, and let's not forget Eve Online; where even the smallest frigates are ostensibly manned by a crew of up to fifty people; and where a battle lasting minutes can result in the death of the population equivalent to that of a small city.
Of course; the real world is too scary a place for these people calling for censorship of media, otherwise they might actually get out and try and stop some of the massive violence that's ACTUALLY HAPPENING in places where video-games are more vague, distant dream and violence is as real as the Kalashnikov the kids/http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/13/215228/The-Most-Violent-Video-Games-of-All-Time#young adults/older adults are holding onto for dear life.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100301111405.htm
Better yet, read the actual 22-page meta-analysis on the 136 studies that have been done on violent video games.