I try not to post to much on really stupid decisions when it comes to
gaming. For starters, I think there are a lot of really positive
things to discuss around video games, and the media does a more than
adequate job at spewing nonsensical propaganda. I also just prefer to
be a positive person most of the time (its almost football season -
that helps).
But every once and a while, a bit of gaming news comes out that just stuns me into oblivion. And when a dedicated, lifelong, gaming enthusiast breaks out the WTFsauce, well... it might just be something worth talking about. At least in my head.
Gears of War 2, a hugely anticipated game is set to hit the Xbox 360 this holiday season. If you are not familiar with Gears, essentially you pick up a gun and shoot anything that moves for about 10 hours. Yes I know - highly sophisticated stuff. But despite the mind numbingly overplayed game theme, Gears of War was exceptional - a beautiful, well designed gem that reinvented the way cover is used in shooters.
In case the "oh my god shoot them" theme didnt give it away, the game's main weapon (the lancer, shown below) should probably clue you in on another key ingredient in Gear. It was incredibly violent.
Yep. Chainsaw. On a machine gun. Originally I had posted a screen of what exactly you did with the Lancer. But I'm sure you can guess. Besides, we pride ourselves on being a family friendly blog and you non gamers would have horrible nightmares ;-)
Game sequels, like any sequel, have a tendency to try and outdo their predecessors, and Gears of War 2 is no exception. By all accounts, its bigger, more feature rich (and more bad ass if I might add) than the first installment. It is also, as you can probably imagine, going to be more violent. But it has recently been announced that Gears 2 will also ship with something else Gears 1 did not - an optional violence and profanity filter (did I forget to mention the characters also tend to swear a lot?)
As explained by the designers, this new filter will allow users, if they choose, to replace the game's blood effects with sparks, and profane language with gibberish.
Speaking of gibberish...
Before I go on my rant, I should probably be fair. Filters of this type have been around for a long time - I remember Mortal Kombat having one way back in the 1990s. So its not as though idea is the fault of Epic Games.
Having
said that, the violence filter makes about as much sense today as it
did in the 1990s, which gives something in common with Vanilla Ice's hair.
<shudder>
Heres the problem I have with a violence filter - who exactly is it serving? Violence accepting gamers who double as hemophobics?
If you like Gears of War, its pretty safe to assume that fictional violence does not make you uncomfortable.
If you did not like Gears of War and the excessive violence was the reason, the sequel is still violent. More violent actually. And removing the blood effects does not change what it is that you are doing to enemy combatants. Turning on the filter does not turn Gears of War into Mario Brothers.
If you follow the logical breadcrumb trail, it won't be long until you come to underage children who are getting their hands on Gears 2. Maybe the filter is for their benefit. Well 1) I don't know any children that would willingly enable that kind of censorship and 2) if as a parent, you are ok with your children curb stomping, dismembering, or blowing the heads off fictional enemies as long as there is no fake blood or profanity, then perhaps we should talk.
But what about that whole desensitization thing. If vulnerable minds see enough fake blood, then one day real blood wont bother them anymore. Then they'll become vampires! Yes...
Ninja Gaiden 2 is frequently cited for having the unusual trait of allowing the bodies of those you had slain to linger for an unusually long time. Mechanically, your enemies were not preserved forever, but unless you did significant backtracking you'd never know that. Unlike most games, where fallen foes disappear quickly if not immediately, Ninja Gaiden gave your enemies a presence. They were "more real" in that sense, not ghosts to be dispatched and forgotten about.
Clive Thompson, of Wired had a very good writeup on this aspect of Ninja Gaiden 2 a few months back. A few mashed up quotes from his piece...
Obviously I'm over-analyzing all of this. I've been playing violent video games for a long time, and I've long since supported the position that game violence has no business being mistaken for some sort of precursor (or inspiration) for real world violence. The lack of consequences is precisely what makes games what they are.
But I'm also a supporter of games as medium that could afford to be taken, and to take itself a bit more seriously. If you are really worried about the violent content in your games, don't play or make Gears of War 2. And if you do, stick to your guns - don't offer up token, nonsensical "solutions" to a dubious "problem" to appease politicians, social conservatives and clueless parents.
Go big or go home. If virtual blood makes you uncomfortable, make you shouldn't being playing virtually violent games. And if it doesnt make you uncomfortable, guess what? You're probably a perfect sane, nonviolent member of the human race. But that doesnt mean your virtual actions shouldnt warrant the slightest bit of though and reflection.
I'm tired of games without substance. Even if the only substance is pixelated blood.
Images from gearsofwarrealm.com and smh.com.au
But every once and a while, a bit of gaming news comes out that just stuns me into oblivion. And when a dedicated, lifelong, gaming enthusiast breaks out the WTFsauce, well... it might just be something worth talking about. At least in my head.
Gears of War 2, a hugely anticipated game is set to hit the Xbox 360 this holiday season. If you are not familiar with Gears, essentially you pick up a gun and shoot anything that moves for about 10 hours. Yes I know - highly sophisticated stuff. But despite the mind numbingly overplayed game theme, Gears of War was exceptional - a beautiful, well designed gem that reinvented the way cover is used in shooters.
In case the "oh my god shoot them" theme didnt give it away, the game's main weapon (the lancer, shown below) should probably clue you in on another key ingredient in Gear. It was incredibly violent.
Yep. Chainsaw. On a machine gun. Originally I had posted a screen of what exactly you did with the Lancer. But I'm sure you can guess. Besides, we pride ourselves on being a family friendly blog and you non gamers would have horrible nightmares ;-)
Game sequels, like any sequel, have a tendency to try and outdo their predecessors, and Gears of War 2 is no exception. By all accounts, its bigger, more feature rich (and more bad ass if I might add) than the first installment. It is also, as you can probably imagine, going to be more violent. But it has recently been announced that Gears 2 will also ship with something else Gears 1 did not - an optional violence and profanity filter (did I forget to mention the characters also tend to swear a lot?)
As explained by the designers, this new filter will allow users, if they choose, to replace the game's blood effects with sparks, and profane language with gibberish.
Speaking of gibberish...
Before I go on my rant, I should probably be fair. Filters of this type have been around for a long time - I remember Mortal Kombat having one way back in the 1990s. So its not as though idea is the fault of Epic Games.
Having
said that, the violence filter makes about as much sense today as it
did in the 1990s, which gives something in common with Vanilla Ice's hair.
<shudder>Heres the problem I have with a violence filter - who exactly is it serving? Violence accepting gamers who double as hemophobics?
If you like Gears of War, its pretty safe to assume that fictional violence does not make you uncomfortable.
If you did not like Gears of War and the excessive violence was the reason, the sequel is still violent. More violent actually. And removing the blood effects does not change what it is that you are doing to enemy combatants. Turning on the filter does not turn Gears of War into Mario Brothers.
If you follow the logical breadcrumb trail, it won't be long until you come to underage children who are getting their hands on Gears 2. Maybe the filter is for their benefit. Well 1) I don't know any children that would willingly enable that kind of censorship and 2) if as a parent, you are ok with your children curb stomping, dismembering, or blowing the heads off fictional enemies as long as there is no fake blood or profanity, then perhaps we should talk.
But what about that whole desensitization thing. If vulnerable minds see enough fake blood, then one day real blood wont bother them anymore. Then they'll become vampires! Yes...
Ninja Gaiden 2 is frequently cited for having the unusual trait of allowing the bodies of those you had slain to linger for an unusually long time. Mechanically, your enemies were not preserved forever, but unless you did significant backtracking you'd never know that. Unlike most games, where fallen foes disappear quickly if not immediately, Ninja Gaiden gave your enemies a presence. They were "more real" in that sense, not ghosts to be dispatched and forgotten about.
Clive Thompson, of Wired had a very good writeup on this aspect of Ninja Gaiden 2 a few months back. A few mashed up quotes from his piece...
"So when you put it that way, this idea -- that the bodies of everyone we kill just sort of wink out of existence -- is so hilariously pregnant with misplaced dread that it's practically Freudian. It's as if our violent games can't quite bear to have us face up to the dimensions of what we're doing. So they just get rid of the evidence....You really do get a better sense that you're a sociopath when the evidence of your crimes is stacked around you. On the other hand, you could argue that the moral and aesthetic content of all those racked-up corpses isn't negative. It can be meaningful in a sneaky way: As I meandered back over the scenes of my previous slaughters, the preposterously huge body count sometimes had a Wagnerian feel to it -- all this senseless, tragic death! ...Let the dead lie. We'll learn something about them -- and, maybe, ourselves."There are programmatical reasons why you'd have the dead vanish from a game, but overall, I love the point that Clive is making. Do we not have an obligation as gamers (or game designers) to demand a certain degree of ownership of our virtual actions? Obviously nothing in a game is real, so that ownership should not be punitive (it is still a game), but would reflection be such a bad thing? It it "bleeds", it means it is "alive". If it leaves a "corpse", it means you "killed" it (notice all the quotation marks). That is not is not some sort of parallel between game actions and real ones - but I think that it creates a substantially more meaningful experience - one that makes you think, if even only for a moment.
Obviously I'm over-analyzing all of this. I've been playing violent video games for a long time, and I've long since supported the position that game violence has no business being mistaken for some sort of precursor (or inspiration) for real world violence. The lack of consequences is precisely what makes games what they are.
But I'm also a supporter of games as medium that could afford to be taken, and to take itself a bit more seriously. If you are really worried about the violent content in your games, don't play or make Gears of War 2. And if you do, stick to your guns - don't offer up token, nonsensical "solutions" to a dubious "problem" to appease politicians, social conservatives and clueless parents.
Go big or go home. If virtual blood makes you uncomfortable, make you shouldn't being playing virtually violent games. And if it doesnt make you uncomfortable, guess what? You're probably a perfect sane, nonviolent member of the human race. But that doesnt mean your virtual actions shouldnt warrant the slightest bit of though and reflection.
I'm tired of games without substance. Even if the only substance is pixelated blood.
Images from gearsofwarrealm.com and smh.com.au
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