Evolution of violence in video games

The first video-game considered to have violence and caused huge controversy, was Death Race released in 1976 based on the film Death Race 2000.. The game involved the player driving over gremlins. However, the original title for the game was Pedestrian, and the gremlins could be considered to look like humans too.



Death Race was the first of many violent games to come. One of the first top selling game considered to have excessive violence was Mortal Kombat. In this fighting game, you could pull the heart out of your opponent or remove some one's head with their spine hanging off it. Even more so, the game used live actors for character sprites, making the characters look more realistic.



As computer graphics got better, so did the violence in games. More and more violent games were been released. The Mortal Kombat series continued even introducing a "Kreate-A-Fatality system", Soldier of Fortune was one of the first games to have a system where you could shoot body parts off of your enemies. This even allowed shooting half of your victims face off.



While Soldier of Fortune's system was impressive for it's time, the game itself has little commercial success. But recently, a similar system has been implemented in a game called Gears of War. This system allowed the user player to chainsaw an enemy in half, with the body splitting in 2. Using a shotgun, body parts could be blown off with ease. Unlike Soldier of Fortune, this game has enjoyed huge commercial success due to great game play, but surprising, there was little to no controversy around this game.



One of the most controversial games in the games industry is the Grand Theft Auto series. In these games, you can steal cars (hence the name), kill civilians, cops, firefighters, basically anyone in sight, drive over people... There are alot of things you can do, OK. However, it is all up to the player's choice. Yes missions do involve killing people, even corrupt cops, but nobody makes the player steal cars or run-people over, that's up to the player. More so, the violence doesn't look real, the blood looks more cartoony than realistic. However, add to the violence, bad language and nudity and this makes them the most controversial games to date.



However, what is considered the most violent game to date is Thrill Kill. Developed for the PlayStation by Paradox Development. The game is about eight psychotic killers that die and go to hell, but are given the change to go back to life if they fight each other. The fights take place in a small room where the fighters can dismember their foes in a brutal fashion, stick cow prods down their throats. The game even has mutilation of the body. However, a few weeks before release, EA brought the original publisher of the game and refused to sell it saying that it would damage the image of the company. They also said that they would never sell the game to another publisher as they deemed the game too violent. However, the original developers have since released the game for free on the Internet.



The violent games will keep coming, with Grand Theft Auto IV and Gears of War 2 been released this year. However, these violent games are actually good, they have excellent game play elements. In fact most of the violent games these days are more then just violent games. Games that are just plain violent for no other reason just don't last in the industry, like Thrill Kill. And with the introduction of rating systems for games, publishers are less likely to fund senselessly violent games.

Question: Did you play violent games as a young teen that you would not be happy for your child to play?

I have played plenty of violent games when I was young and I have turned out fine (kinda hehe). Seriously though, I don't think there were any games I played that I would not let my child play. It all depends on their age of course. I mean I wouldn't let a 5 year-old play manhunt, but a 14 year-old, probably. It's hard to answer really. I think it depends on the child as well, whether you think he/she understands that it's just a game.

Question: Have there been Games that you have played that you were disturbed by the violence?

No. Short answer I know, but I haven't been disturbed by any game I have played. I was scared sh1tless though when I played Resident Evil when I was young. I was walking down a hallway and all of a sudden 2 dogs jumped in through the window and scared the life out of me. But have never been disturbed.

Question: What is your opinion of the introduction of live action sequences and actors in games?

If it's implemented properly, then great, otherwise i don't like it. Command & Conquer used live action sequnces really well. However I do prefer games don't use it, I think it ruins the flow of the game at times coming from computer graphics to real life video back to computer graphics.

Question: Do you think this will blur the lines between fantasy and reality?

No, I don't think so. After all the live action sequences usually look completely different from the game graphics which makes it look more unrealistic in my opinon.