In class on Wednesday we primarily talked about violence in games and the impact they can have in the real world. Specifically, we talked about the case of the Manchester Cathedral being portrayed in the war video game “Resistance: Fall of Man.” The representatives and officials of the Anglican church were appalled that this game would portray the cathedral in such a violent setting even though the game play is focused around fighting the enemies inside the church instead of just desecrating the monument itself. In essence, the player character is actually trying to save the cathedral and not destroy it. When I first heard about the officials getting upset about it I just kind of blew it off because I figured they just needed some new way of putting down video games. I still think the Anglican officials’ argument is a little bit overzealous, but the more I learned about the issue the more I understood their standpoint. Since the area around the cathedral has had a lot of violence around it in real life I’m sure it would be kind of disturbing to see this well-known monument being part of a war zone. I don’t think the producers of the Resistance game did anything wrong, but at the same time I believe I can see the concern that the Anglican officials had. I suppose if I saw an area of my town under fire in a game I may feel differently, as well. The weird thing is, I’m not sure why it would bother me. It is just a game. Maybe it’s the fact that I have worked in the development of serious games and know that games can be used for more than just pure entertainment.
Before the end of class we attempted to start playing Brutal Legend as an illustration of a game that has “gratuitous violence.” Since I had to leave before we got to the game play I watched a few clips of the game online. It basically looked like any other game to me. I suppose it does have more senseless violence than some games, but I have certainly seen much worse. I don’t think this game sparked controversy because it is pretty much purely fantasy. It takes place in a fictional world with fictional characters while Resistance has fictional characters in settings that are real. I think people get upset when games blur the line between fiction and reality, especially when it touches on the subject of violence. That’s probably a big reason the Columbine game was such an issue. People who play the game may act out things a tiny bit different from how they happened in real life, but that doesn’t change that the event and the setting is based in the real-world. Bringing the real-world into the gaming world brings up some serious issues.
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