What's with all the Brutally Violent Video Games out there?

[Stupot]

There aren't really that many voilent games relatively speaking.  However, it does seem that the more violent ones do sell a lot more units than all the others.

I wish people would stop blaming the games companies.  They're not forcing these games down people's throats... they are merely creating the kinds of games people already WANT.

If there wasn't a huge market for violent games, then believe me, there wouldn't be that many violent games.

Why would any company spend that kind of money making products people didn't want? (except banks)

[ManicMatt]

Please tell me German Musicians can swear in their songs?! I have a fair few German albums at home but it's not like I'd know they are swearing! 

[Matti]

Please tell me German Musicians can swear in their songs?!

No worries, they can and they do.

There's no *BEEP* and no list of evil swearwords that shouldn't be used.

It's just the violence (not the sex)  in videogames the german authorities go crazy about.

I played all the Command and Conquer games, for example, while being told that the units were cyborgs. (...) We always get the blood cut out/disabled

Yep, and in Unreal (or something similar) the blood was replaced with "oil" (black was used instead of red).

german Fallout is hardly playable due to almost a dozen quests being cut, and so on. It's not exaggerated, it's the plain truth.

Yeah, and that is the most rediculous and outrageous thing I ever encountered regarding censorship. I played Fallout for years before I realized that in the german version many (important) things (like all the kids) were cut out. You can't believe how angry I was back then...

[nihilyst]

Yep, and in Unreal (or something similar) the blood was replaced with "oil" (black was used instead of red).

Yeah, and the soldiers in Half Life were cyborgs. I loved, how, when you applied an uncensoring patch and messed something up, they were soldiers again, but lost screws, when you hit them.

It really would be interesting to have some kind of chart with the most sold video games in 2008, just to check what games were bought most.

[Jared]

Well, the site I looked at says...


1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
4. FIFA Soccer 08
5. Madden NFL 08
6. Need for Speed: ProStreet
7. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
8. Assassin’s Creed
9. Super Mario Galaxy
10. Brain Age 2: More Brain Training in Minutes a Day
11. The Simpsons Game
12. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
13. WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2008
14. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
15. Spider-Man 3
16. Transformers: The Game
17. Mario Party 8
18. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
20. Forza Motorsport 2

By my count that's only three violent games, and I'd argue that they're quite tame compared to Fallout 3 and GTA which is what I gathered this post was really about.

I think an issue may be a large rift between 'gamers' and the actual mass market that makes these best-sellers. Listening to gaming podcasts recently I've noticed quite a lot of snobbery involving the Nintendo Wii and derision of their customer base, but looking at the list above there are a lot of Nintendo and Wii-compatible titles because it is the best possible console for the casual gamer. Because gamers like what they see as 'real games' they tend to ignore those games and ones that appeal to them - high spec RTS and FPS games with hours and hours of replay.

Now, most of the media related to games is of the 'by gamers, for gamers' variety so this snobbery exists and they emphasise their favoured games. So it can often seem like there's nothing out there but mindless gory shooters, but the buying market is a lot wider than a lot of publishers think.

[mkennedy]

Wasn't it originally so that Nintendo wouldn't allow games that were rated Mature or Adult to be made for their system?

[Ghost]

As a matter of fact, for a while Super Mario Land (which was never rated because no-one could imagine anyone taking offence at it) was on the german index for a while. You had to be 18+ to buy it. The letter to our rating board stated that Mario is an aggressive and violent being, attacking flora and fauna of a land that shows no hostility, and consumes drugs which gives him "feelings of superiority (symbolized by fireballs)".

Sometimes I really just want to cry.

[LimpingFish]

Mobygames has an interesting list of all the games that are, or have been, indexed by the BPjS/M.

Australia is also a bit heavy-handed when it comes to games.

[SpacePaw]

As a matter of fact, for a while Super Mario Land (which was never rated because no-one could imagine anyone taking offence at it) was on the german index for a while. You had to be 18+ to buy it. The letter to our rating board stated that Mario is an aggressive and violent being, attacking flora and fauna of a land that shows no hostility, and consumes drugs which gives him "feelings of superiority (symbolized by fireballs)".

Sometimes I really just want to cry.

OMG?! For real?! Oh maaaaan...Oh maaaaan...What a crazy world we live in

[Jared]

Australia is also a bit heavy-handed when it comes to games.

The issue is that here the Board of Classification refuses to provide an R18+ rating for games, there's G, M, MA15+ and that's it - I'm not sure if this is refusing to consider gaming and medium that adults can enjoy or if it's acknowledgement that there's no enforcement of any of the classification already in place anyway. A few games don't get released here - I don't think any Postal game's been released here since the first one..

Main controversy is drug-use in games, though, rather than violence. You know 'Med-X' in Fallout 3? That was morphine in the original release, and had to be renamed because otherwise the game would have been banned. The issue is that laws state that no game can depict drugs as having purely positive effects - which is interesting because  F3 has the addiction system built in where your character becomes addicted to drugs and is weakened as a result, and also because of a game called Velvet Assassin where "The game employs a special lifeline if detected called "Morphine Mode". If triggered, a cutscene will play out where the hospitalized Violette convulses and is administered a dose of morphine by a military nurse. Once returning to the game, the game world will temporarily freeze, giving the player the opportunity to execute any remaining enemies. " That has been given rating approval.

So it's a matter of being inconsistent as well as sensitive.

[deadsuperhero]

I don't really have any problem with extreme violence in gore in a game...

provided, of course, that it maintains an excellent plot and that the aforementioned violence and gore are necessary.

A good example film-wise would be Fight Club. I personally love the movie, and believe that the depiction of violence, blood, and sex are all necessary to depict the best and worst aspects of human nature, which is what the movie is all about.

I think developers shouldn't worry so much about censoring their games, they should just work on making their games smarter.