BioWare - Sweet Fantasy Violence

Dhruin

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Bio designer Jay Watamaniuk kicked up an entry on the Bioblog late last week, embracing that sweet, fantasy violence:
Even in the most emotionally engaging story of tragic love, stalwart courage and unswerving devotion you will generally need to resolve conflict by punching someone in the face. That what our forefathers taught us and I’m O.K. with that. And while our lives generally involved being upset over printer stalls or an incorrectly made café latte I fondly imagine if shot in the shoulder I could still take back control of the plane from escaped convicts and land that sucker in the middle of Vegas (Bruckheimer! BRUCKHEIMER! Gadddamit! Whooo!). I admit however, in my darkest, truest underbelly that I would probably curl up in my own filth and ask if everyone could stop blinking so loud and weep like the big kids broke my Easy Bake oven. I like fantasy violence. This is why I play games.
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I like fantasy violence. This is why I play games.

Okay, new stuff for the anti-violence faction in Germany. They already want to ban all "killer-games" again because of that shooting recently. And the parents of the victims demanded that in their open letter.

These are quote I really find scaring. So someone playes games because of the violence involved ? Sounds to me like a statement of a warrior kaste.

Games are NOT played because they are NOT violent ? Because that would be the same argument turned upside down.

So I'm sure he will never, never ever play the game "Book Of Unwritten Tales" ... Because it is a fantasy adventure (game) ... No violence at all ...


Sometimes I can do nothing but shake my head in disbelief.
 
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Okay, new stuff for the anti-violence faction in Germany. They already want to ban all "killer-games" again because of that shooting recently. And the parents of the victims demanded that in their open letter.

These are quote I really find scaring. So someone playes games because of the violence involved ? Sounds to me like a statement of a warrior kaste.

Games are NOT played because they are NOT violent ? Because that would be the same argument turned upside down.

So I'm sure he will never, never ever play the game "Book Of Unwritten Tales" ... Because it is a fantasy adventure (game) ... No violence at all ...


Sometimes I can do nothing but shake my head in disbelief.

No, Alrik, this is no ammo for Dr. Pfeiffer and his cronies. I absolutly and wholeheartly agree with the author, because I got his point. It's not like he doesn't want to play non-violent games, but he wants hilarious over-the-top violence in games, because that's the place where it is hilarious, while in real life violence is always dark, depressing and dirty.

In real life I actually don't remember beating ANYBODY (was assaulted, but feigned dead) and refused the army, but I also like FANTASY violence. It's this violence The Las Action (terribly movie) refers to: Driving through walls and getting shot at close range only gives you scratches and the evil guys survive even a little lynching activity (Die Hard). It's not real, it's not realistic, it's not "dark and gritty" and most of it is just hilariously rediculous.

If I want the honest and earnest way of violence then I will watch "All quite on Western Front" or "The Bridge". Does that work in game? Well, I think nearly no game has gone this way (not even and especially not game like The Witcher) except maybe for the Medal of Honor or Call of Duty games in some scenes (Omaha Beach, Stalingrad) and I really felt uneasy playing these parts. Heck, even brutally cynic games like Wasteland and Fallout give you loads of comic relief.
 
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Okay, new stuff for the anti-violence faction in Germany. They already want to ban all "killer-games" again because of that shooting recently. And the parents of the victims demanded that in their open letter.

These are quote I really find scaring. So someone playes games because of the violence involved ? Sounds to me like a statement of a warrior kaste.

Games are NOT played because they are NOT violent ? Because that would be the same argument turned upside down.

So I'm sure he will never, never ever play the game "Book Of Unwritten Tales" ... Because it is a fantasy adventure (game) ... No violence at all ...


Sometimes I can do nothing but shake my head in disbelief.

Statement of a warrior caste? You find this quote scary? Frankly, you sound more like those alarmist over-sensitive "but think of the children!" nutcases you're complaining about than anything.
 
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I think Alrik is speaking about the part where Jay says that he plays game for the 'fantasy violence'. If that's the only reason Jay or any developer play games these days, well it does explain a lot about why games, even rpg games, become more and more filled with heavy action oriented fantasy violence. I hope that Jay also play games for the story, the characters, the dialogues etc. --- I know that's the main reason I play games.

I am, of course, not that innocent or naive to think that every kind of conflict can be solved by sitting down in a circle and talking about it; sometimes it will have to come to blows; and fighting must ensue. However, if there is a non-violent option, I will go down this road, before raising my fantasy sword...
 
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I just checked out some fairy-tales by Hans Christian Andersen. They're guaranteed to do more damage to impressionable minds than video games.


The Little Match Girl


But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.


The Story Of A Mother


"Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!" said the weeping mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of the waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up, as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were built up; but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes out.

"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said she.

I remember another one that had two starving babies sucking cold blood from the dried teats of their dead mother, but couldn't find that. Serious stuff...
 
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I'm not gonna go into the whole debate whether it's "scary" or not, but it really is a shame that so much of RPGs (and gaming in general really) is still so much about violence.

In a RPG context, I *do* think that having violence or the possibility of combat situations definetely can serve to raise the excitement level of the game. Or sell the feeling of danger. But it's just a bugger that violence is such an *integral* part of it. Do we really have to wade through the blood of millions of slaughtered orcs/humans/darkspawn/goblins/what the hell ever for every RPG?
 
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Yes, PJ, as a Dane, I'm familiar with the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. And the interesting part is that the establisment in the 1830's were not that impressed by his fairy-tales or stories told for children. Exactly since they thought they were too 'bad' for them i.e. they did not educate them into the morals of society.

Just to say that the whole 'oh noes - this is not good for the children' debate was and is not limited to games. I do not play games mainly for the fantasy violence, as I've already said. I hope the developers make and play games mainly for the story (as I do) as well...
 
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w/ all the bullshit that life deals you, sometimes it's nice to just go make heads fucking roll once and a while.

thankfully, us gamers have a convenient and safe outlet for such feelings.
 
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I just checked out some fairy-tales by Hans Christian Andersen. They're guaranteed to do more damage to impressionable minds than video games.

No kidding, "Fairytales" especially in their earliest form (folk tales) were absolutely
brutal (before the likes of Perrault i.e watered them down for popular consumption).
This actually casts a somewhat different light to the issue of telling a violent story to
a child. Sometimes it is done so a useful lesson about the world is given to the child
couched within terms it can understand. Take little red riding hood for example...

But I digress. I am not really trying to say that violence in most videogames has
(or is added for the purpose of) any educational value, just that daemonizing it as
the sole origin of adolescent violent behaviour is really getting old (considering the
profusion of violence in all its forms that permeates every aspect of our modern
way of life, just watch the news in prime time in any TV channel i.e)...
 
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