7 ms·

Surely there exist perfectly sane and law abiding creative people who aren't disturbed by fictional depictions of gore. Comparing people like Romero to fiction

Surely there exist perfectly sane and law abiding creative people who aren't disturbed by fictional depictions of gore. Comparing people like Romero to fictional serial killers is just silly.

bitwize 7y ago
The violence in Doom, Quake, and such was always quite stylized, even in games like Doom (2016), and usually inflicted against demons, mutants, and other monsters. (It's relevant because the uncanny valley is more forgiving when you're seeing something decidedly not human.) These days, Mortal Kombat is going for a style of violence that looks particularly gruesome and realistic, and is committed against humans or creatures close enough to human as to make little difference. And Netherrealm staff are scrutinizing footage of real murders, executions, and other deaths for reference. The sort of person who enjoys looking at that stuff, over and over, is pretty much constrained to the psychopathic serial killer aspirant type. MK is really raising the bar on how extreme video game violence can be, well beyond what was ever countenanced by Carmack and Romero.
- qball 7y ago
  >well beyond what was ever countenanced by Carmack and Romero. Do you recall the first FPS that id software produced? It's a game ostensibly set during a certain war in which you shoot at decidedly human figures. Doom benefits from moving away from human figures, because projectile weapons are much more interesting to dodge and make more sense when wide varieties of demons emit them (rather than the hitscan and more or less single enemy type in Wolfenstein 3D). Heck, the remade Wolfenstein games are significantly more detailed in their violence, and their scenarios much less out of the realm of disbelief than Doom is, even though it occurs less often. I'm not convinced that more realistic violence wouldn't have been added to such games had the technology been available to do so early on. Of course, games that are solely about inflicting highly graphic violence without an explicit purpose are few and generally not as well-received as (for example) the remade id games are; and it isn't a moral panic that the ability to portray violence in that way exists.
- liability 7y ago
  Your armchair psychology is absolutely shameful.

Surely there exist perfectly sane and law abiding creative people who aren't disturbed by fictional depictions of gore. Comparing people like Romero to fictional serial killers is just silly.

bitwize 7y ago

The violence in Doom, Quake, and such was always quite stylized, even in games like Doom (2016), and usually inflicted against demons, mutants, and other monsters. (It's relevant because the uncanny valley is more forgiving when you're seeing something decidedly not human.) These days, Mortal Kombat is going for a style of violence that looks particularly gruesome and realistic, and is committed against humans or creatures close enough to human as to make little difference. And Netherrealm staff are scrutinizing footage of real murders, executions, and other deaths for reference. The sort of person who enjoys looking at that stuff, over and over, is pretty much constrained to the psychopathic serial killer aspirant type. MK is really raising the bar on how extreme video game violence can be, well beyond what was ever countenanced by Carmack and Romero.

qball 7y ago
>well beyond what was ever countenanced by Carmack and Romero. Do you recall the first FPS that id software produced? It's a game ostensibly set during a certain war in which you shoot at decidedly human figures. Doom benefits from moving away from human figures, because projectile weapons are much more interesting to dodge and make more sense when wide varieties of demons emit them (rather than the hitscan and more or less single enemy type in Wolfenstein 3D). Heck, the remade Wolfenstein games are significantly more detailed in their violence, and their scenarios much less out of the realm of disbelief than Doom is, even though it occurs less often. I'm not convinced that more realistic violence wouldn't have been added to such games had the technology been available to do so early on. Of course, games that are solely about inflicting highly graphic violence without an explicit purpose are few and generally not as well-received as (for example) the remade id games are; and it isn't a moral panic that the ability to portray violence in that way exists.
liability 7y ago
Your armchair psychology is absolutely shameful.