Violence & Video Games: Part 2
Written by: The CinCitizens
Removing the Strife: Addressing the Problem of the “Non-Violent” Videogame
Anastasia Salter:
Instead of fighting, Pokemon act as conflict mediators between their trainers—the in-game daycare center is overwhelmed with the abundance of new offspring and eggs that have come out of the new Pokemon slogan “Make love not war.” The space marines and demons of Doom come to terms and re-negotiate the barriers of hell. Even the prince of Katamari Damacy no longer targets animals and people in his quest: their screaming suggests they don’t approve. Arcade classics like Space Invaders don’t even exist. Forget Mario–he’s having tea with Donkey Kong and the Princess, and Donkey Kong is seeing a therapist weekly to discuss his old princess stealing addiction. Grand Theft Auto now stars only one gameplay option: you’re driving an ambulance and saving heart attack victims–extra points for stopping to help old ladies across the street. As for Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming, even The Sims has eliminated any hint of violent overtones. World of Warcraft is now a celebration of peace and harmony between alliance and horde, with new quests involving kitten saving and language training to open up relations in a beautiful new world.
Imagine it–a world without violence in videogames. We have politicians and special interest groups happily dedicated to making that dream a reality: but how could such a travesty ever really come to pass? Even educational games make use of violent concepts, like the old Math Blaster games or others where you could "shoot" once you solved an equation or entered the correct value. Our love affair with violence starts young. Pokemon might not battle to the death—they faint cutely instead, and one trip to the medic heals them right back up—but they do battle. I started young on games, back when Doom and Heretic were state of the art. I used to bring my friends over after school most every day for networked gaming where we fought our way through every level of those worlds. I never thought about the consequences of my actions. Pixel people were presented to me as a target, and I was proud of my ability to efficiently wipe them from virtual existence. Outside of my games, I had no interest in guns or weaponry. When I heard later about the playing of those same games being linked to school shootings and other such insanity, I could never fathom a connection: there was nothing “real” to me about killing demons on my monitor. I wanted guns banished from the real world, but I wasn’t looking to see my games turn into a place for nonviolent conflict resolution.
I liked the violence without consequence or moral ambiguity. It’s in our movies, our TV, our games. These games play on our deepest instincts. We want to fight for survival. We want to show off our power. Most of all, we want to win. But I think part of what we like about this violence is that it isn’t real: the blood remains pixels. The games have reset buttons, and save, and load. We don’t get much of a chance for real battle between good and evil in our daily lives. There’s only so far we can take our celebration of daily victories like beating the morning rush to work or solving the morning crossword puzzle. Real life is complicated: real life calls for discussions over tea and reasoned debate and the knowledge that everyone involved is a person, not an embodiment of good or evil. Our games are an escape from some of that complication.
Eliminating violence in videogames would eliminate the escapism. The visceral thrills and challenges would die with violence. Even the most graphic of games is still nothing like the “real thing:” we as players retain our knowledge of the unreality. We know that these characters on the screens have infinite lives, unlike the rest of us who have to preserve the one. We know that we wouldn’t actually like it if an alien prince showed up on our planet and started mopping us all up for capture with a strange sticky weapon. But knowing all that doesn’t mean we need to take the gameplay out of gaming.
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