Topic: Why so much Violence at E3?

The hell has happened to the industry an why aren't media outlets talking about. For one I assumed I was desenatized to violence as Before E3 I watched Oldboy and didn't even blink an eye but clone. Everyone is praising the last of us but that game doesn't seem fun to play at all. It maybecuase realize has become so common place that its sure gritty. Tomb Raider is another game that looks amazing but looks kind of gory.

That's probably why the nintendo conference was a breath of fresh air.

When your game is more disturbing than say gears of war we have a problem.

I dont' know why, over the top violence and uneeded language is so popular with games.

Incorrect. When that is so on a Nintendo console, we have a problem. When we have 10, well...

Tomb Raider. <3

To answer this question, I give you another question.

Why so much violence on TV?
Why so much violence in films?
Why so much violence in books?
etc. etc.

Violence is a way of telling a story. It wouldn't have been put in the game if it wasn't meant to evoke some emotion in the viewer.

It obviously appeals to people, that's why these games keep selling.

I'd just put it down to an escape from reality. For many people it can be (scarily) cathartic blowing away virtual people - you can't do it in real life, but video games offer the opportunity. Personally, I find the excessive gore unnecessary, but that's just me.

The latest episode of the Jimquisition (here) actually addresses this exact issue. Jim Stirling isn't everybody's favourite video games journalist, but he makes a lot of good points. I'd recommend watching it when you get a chance. (Beware, there's often a bit of swearing though).

I have no problem with over the top stuff I mean bulletstorm is one of the best games this gen.

I mean take the Sony E3 pressed. During the last of us demo you have a guy begging for his life and brutally Excuted and the crowd cheers. What the **** is wrong with them you don't cheer that stuff like it Warsaw good thing.

This is stuff I've been complaining about for the last 3 years. The big, AAA games that they show are always so gorey and gritty. Even Quantum Dream's game has more grit than a mill, and honestly, I'm pretty unenthusiastic about it. Even for Wii U, when they showed off the third party games there was too much blood and violence, and I find it almost hilarious that Ninja Gaiden III has been picked up by Nintendo. It really does disappoint me that they insist on showing off all these gory games on E3 - contrary to popular belief, E3 is not just for games, it's featured on the mainstream media, and covered by non-gaming websites (albeit loosely). So basically, non-gamers see this stuff too, and all it does is perpetuate the idea that all gaming is these days is hardcore violence. Meanwhile, "gamers" now think that only the best games are the ones with tons of blood and killing in it, while the rest are just for kids and grandmas (the non-gaming presentations don't help in this regard either). Meanwhile, TGS over in Japan shows a great mix of games - all kinds of different, quirky games can be featured alongside the usual and casual fare. I can guarantee you Game & Wario and Project P-100 will be shown at TGS, even though despite being at E3, they never made it into any presentations. That is a gamers' presentation, IMO - That is what E3 used to be, and that's what I would like it to become again.

/rant

Because the industry is populated with many gamers in their 20s and 30s, violent games seems to appeal to that crowd for some reason. For high and middle school ages it could just be a matter of playing the "cool" games but for older gamers I think they find the idea of killing people and excessive violence attractive. i could barely stand to watch the Splinter Cell showing and it made me cringe seeing and hearing people be stabbed with knives so brutally and Ninja Gaiden has so much blood it isn't even right. I think violence is just the way our culture is going, let's face it, who could play something like that if you really know that that kind of violence and slaughter is happening in other countries as we speak.

The easiest way for a game to reel in a player is for the game to have some sort of obstacle to overcome. Life-or-death conflict is an extremely easy way to present many obstacles for the player to overcome. The reason the violence is so brutal is because the technology is better.

It's all the high testosterone and the fact lots of proclaimed "hardcore gamers" use video games to define their manhood.

I call it psychological abnormalities.

I liked the Nintendo conference the best out of all the E3 conferences I had watched all the other conferences (Ubisofts, EAs, Konamis and Sonys) there were to many violent games shown for my taste. I had never seen a god of war game in action before and when I saw the gow trailer I was kinda disgusted that's why I liked Nintendos conference the best and I hope to see more of that tonight when I see the 3DS conference.

God of War would've been okay if they didn't show the brain that one time. I was more disgusted by the Aliens and ZombiU clips they showed in the Wii U third-party montage.

To make it realistic. If a game has good graphics, it lures people in. If they like what they see. they but it. Simples

But I'm not so sure why shooting someone in the leg deserves an explosion of blood

But Cooking Mama is the worst of them all. Millions of people starving and people are playing games where so much food is wasted? It turns my stomach.

It's been like this for a while...

I thought that, in the CG trailer, showing a guy committing suicide in graphic detail was a bit off. It fits with the setting, but I thought it was in bad taste really.

Like I said above, watch the Jimquisition episode. He addresses the outcry over the latest Hitman trailer (which I hadn't seen, and was unaware of the reaction) and how the reaction to the graphic violence is a good thing for the industry.

Here's why: Violence sells. It's a sad fact of our modern day life, but in a world where we know all too well the consequences of going out into the world and inflicting violence onto other people or other things, coupled with the increasing amount of stress and anxiety about everything in our world, we need an outlet to channel our violent tendencies into something mainly nonviolent. With the increasing horsepower behind video games being able to provide more realistic graphics, violent acts in video games become more satisfying to perform, so they become more popular. Developers and publishers see the money in this growing trend, so they adjust their focus accordingly from the fantasy worlds that dominated the 8-Bit and 16-Bit eras of gaming to the ultraviolent worlds that are now popular amongst mainstream video game enthusiasts. This trend towards violence is not just limited to video games; you can look at the rise in popularity of hardcore rap groups like OFWGKTA (aka Odd Future), A$AP Rocky and Death Grips and violent punk groups like Trash Talk to see this trend in music, and I'm sure you can see this elsewhere (UFC is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., by the way). Ultimately, it's the action of individuals telling their friends that this stuff isn't that cool and fun to make the industry that provides us with these games to see that violence isn't the most profitable thing out there; if you're attempting to do that, I wish you luck.

Because all the teens who play games like blood, and the adults arent playing games much anymore

I stopped reading.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who disliked what I saw of The Last of Us. I have a lot of quams with that game, actually.