Violent video games survey!

[Metalhead]

This survey was inspired by my recent time playing Dead Island on the 360. That game is ridiculously violent and gory.

Speaking of which - while I am against censorship in video games when it comes to violent content, I do believe that more parents need to be aware of what they are buying for their young children. I wanted to smack one of my stepbrother's girlfriends for letting her six year old son play Grand Theft Auto.

 

[Outdated]

Gore and violence in games doesn't bother me in the slightest but if that's the whole point of the game and there's no real game there then I'm going to get bored with it real fast. First person shooters don't interest me at all, GTA never held my attention for long, I was thrilled with the graphics at the time but it's not my sort of game.

 

[Xinyta]

Violence takes many forms. Not just the bloody gorefests. In truth though. I don't see it as a must for videogames I would play. If it's there, cool. If it's not. That's cool too. Gameplay and a good story worth being invested in, is what I put as priorities. Gameplay foremost.

 

[Cutesie]

Though I voted the fourth option, there's only one video game that I've played for years now: Subway Surfers. It satisfies all of my gaming needs.

 

[NB79]

i don't like gore towards human npc. It hurts my sensibilities. Monsters is different,

 

[Misery]

It's all fine by me. I was desensitized to it decades ago. Back when the original Mortal Kombat came out.

Even back then though, it was never the violence by itself that'd get me interested. Gameplay had to be good, that was always the focus. That was the case with Mortal Kombat as well. Blood or no blood, the early games were just brilliant as fighting games.

That being said, most games I play these days dont have much gore in them at all. I dont do FPS games, and that seems to be where most of the blood is. I do horror games, but that genre had a change at some point. The Resident Evil style where everything went *splorch* all the time is drastically less common now.

Plenty of games I'm into have a lot of explosions and such without the gore, though.

I think the goriest things I've played in recent times are Path of Exile 2 (LOTS of *splorch* there) Diablo 4, and Last Epoch. Those arent about gore at all, they're about getting piles of loot and clobbering like 500 monsters at a time. But they're still very bloody for some reason. That genre tends to be, heck if I know why.

 

[Jeff T]

A reader, not a gamer.
But there was a 'wild west' oriented game that looked hilarious, in what accidents could befall the horse and rider.....

 

[kriss72]

How do you define violence in video games? Would a game like civilization count? You do kill a lot of people in that game sometimes, how about the x-com/ufo games, or one of my favorites, Rimworld ? If any of the above, then yep, I certainly do - if it is any kind of game requiring fast reflexes, then nope...

 

[Crabcore]

I wanted to smack one of my stepbrother's girlfriends for letting her six year old son play Grand Theft Auto.

As much as I like for adults to have the freedom to play whatever they want, it really does seem like this kind of stuff is way too common, so I guess I kind of understand why certain entities might say some things about it and at least be somewhat correct. Even if I don't totally think it has to be a drastic shift from where it is now.

When I was younger, Mortal Kombat II was essentially the worst thing you could play, which instantly made Street FIghter look like a soft kiss on the cheek. But now that I'm getting older and a bit soft myself, it's sometimes hard not to consider the effects of cultural desensitization over the long haul. And I don't think I'd even want my kids to play Mortal Kombat until they're at least 13+, or maybe even a little older if they're on the spectrum / sensitive to that type of thing.

It's weird that there's no bias in other media, like books and movies, though. The ratings seem to be pretty appropriate, but since that doesn't really stop anyone, does that become an issue as well? Humans are very complex, that's for sure.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

In games like GTA, I typically ignore the missions and just start stealing cars as soon as I can and start driving on the sidewalk and see how many cars and people I can hit before the damaged car explodes. In Saints Row IV, I love super kicking people into the air and grabbing them while running at full speed and tossing them into air like a rag doll. And I’ve always liked the Mortal Kombat series.

 

[BloodyKun108]

I voted yes but with the caveat it sort of depends on the genre or level of seriousness. Maybe the level of detail is a factor but I feel just the tone of it matters more to me, where something over the top and silly like No More Heroes is fine, but then for example there are some scenes in the new Silent Hill that I almost couldn't watch.

 

[Grondhammar]

I have very intense (bad) reactions to violence of any kind between people -- game or movie/video or RL. It stays in my mind for days or weeks and sometimes months, and I feel lethargic and miserable for that entire time. I understand it doesn't trouble others, but for me it's a deep sensitivity.

I can handle non-blood fantasy type games' battles with monsters and things, and absolutely loved all the pacifist Skyrim builds/videos.