Topic: Blood in games

Another strange question, but assuming that a game (other than horror) contains blood, and that there is an option to switch it on or off, do you prefer blood effects to be on by default or off by default?

For those of you who would turn the blood off, would you prefer there to be something else instead (like smoke, or little damage stars flying from the enemies (like in Kirby) or even green blood?

As always, any feedback is much appreciated!

BLOOD IN MY KIDDIE NINTENDO GAMES? UH-UH

Blood on your games? Better grab a band-aid for that!

I'd always leave it on unless somebody below the suggested minimum age was watching. I feel like it decreases the impact of the scene if there were tons of corpses laying around and not a single drop of blood. It makes these corpses feel inhuman and thus, the scene less impactful.

I don't care. I have the option to choose myself so the default option does not matter at all.
However, I have to say I would always turn blood effects on. If the violent and gore elements are too much for my taste I just don't play the game at all (for example I will never buy/play Quake 4 because of what happens at some point to the main character) but if I like the game and have the desire to play it I want to play it to the fullest and see everything the developers wanted to put into it

I've seen enough blood in real life that I'm not bothered by it in video games

I also tend to forget that it's something people may find 'scary'.

@LuckyLand That's a good point!
What if, when your turned off blood, instead of there just not being anything, something else replaced it. Like a poof of smoke, or water or or even the option to change it to green blood to make it seem less blood-like? Would you still prefer normal blood?

@Octane I think in many cases, especially on a Nintendo system, it's to protect children. Even if they're not the ones playing, they may be nearby.
Obviously for games where gore is the main appeal that's probably out of the question, but if blood isn't essential to the game, I'm curious if people would still want it or not.

@GreenToad I personally see no reason to ''protect'' children from blood. It's a bit of a strange concept to me, not sure what you're protecting from. To me it's just a red liquid [visually]. Strawberry juice ain't scary either.

I don't think gore has been a selling point since Mortal Kombat - at least, not for me. Generally speaking, I would leave the blood option on, because particle effects look cool, but I'll turn it off if I think it's overblown. Dust, smoke, stars - they're all fine alternatives, as long as the effect works within the game world. Blood in Kirby would be gross. Stars in, say, Medal of Honour would be weird.

@GreenToad yes, things like different colors or smoke instead of blood usually look rather cheap and out of place, they would ruin the feeling of the game. But for example if it is something as cool as what they did with No more heroes where blood was replaced with coins (not only cool but also meaningful in a certain way since often you get money, points or bonuses for killing enemies in videogames) then it would be hard to decide, both choosing blood or the thing that replaces it I would feel like I was missing something

I just leave it on. If a game is just one giant gore-fest though, I usually don't buy it, not only because the blood is overdone and ridiculous at that point, but also because the game probably is a kind of game that's not really for me, like most shooters and fighters.

This game just wouldn't be the same without it.

I personally have a great appreciation for ridiculousness and over-the-top stuff - it's comedic and anarchic, and that's right up my street.

@KirbyTheVampire Huh? Aside from a few series like the Sniper series and killing floor games and mortal combat for fighting games, i dont think those genres are that focused at gore at all

Someone needs to lay off the ketchup

I switch blood on max, because any color of blood coming out of human-shaped living beings was always banned in Germany and so I need my fix obviously.

Personally, I prefer diet blood.

thread needs more carnage

Is it weird that I actually find violent gameplay more satisfying without blood? Like, slaughtering hordes of enemies in a Warriors game feels good, but I suspect I would enjoy it less if there was blood flying everywhere. I dunno, maybe I just don't want to feel too much like I'm killing actual people.