Friday, September 26, 2014

A New Type of Violent Video Game

If you're a gamer, you've definitely heard of BioShock Infinite, the biopunk first person shooter developed by 2K Games. The game has excellent graphics, a creative theme, and game has received a plethora of praise because "its a rich narrative packed with philosophy."  However, the game has been called a "case study in unnecessary violence." I have personnally played this game and it does contain very violent themes. I remember sommoning crows from my hand with a vigor and the crows pecking the flesh off my enemies. Themes like this beg the question, could the story of the game be represented without depicting so much violence. In addition, what does the success of such a violent game say about our culture.
The sweeping generalization of games today is that their violent and corrupt youth.  Fortunately, games are starting to contain deeper underlying messages,but do they have to be paired with violence to maintain the attention of gamers? Considering most of the gaming population is male it might be so. Interestingly, scientists have yet to come to a consensus on whether or not the violence has negative effects on people. So, until then, lets enjoy the creative themes and "unnecessary violence" of BioShock Infinite.

Booker DeWitt of BioShock Infinite

NPR Staff. "Modern Video Games Go Beyond 'Jumping On Blocks'" NPR. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/06/28/326437835/modern-video-games-go-beyond-jumping-on-blocks>

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownOctober 12, 2014 at 4:49 PM

    First off, I really enjoy the fact the you are going into the deeper side of games and their effects on today's youth. As an avid lover of the first BioShock I can definitely say that even for it's time that game was many sleepless nights wondering when I would be attacked by Splicers. So it is very easy to see that today's games with updated graphics and the such, that games can be things of pure terror, guts, and gore. An Amazing example that you could use for games that are like this could be any of the Dead Space titles. the only negative thing that i have to point out is that in the fifth sentence you put grows when i assume you meant crows.

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