Killing in Video Games - Village Idiot's Blog

Village Idiot's Blog

Killing in Video Games

Posted on March 19, 2009 at 08:53 AM.

(1)

I'm growing rather tired of games that force you to kill people, where the objective of the mission, or even the game itself, revolves around the murdering of other people/creatures.

I understand shooting and killing is "fun" in that childish way - like playing cops and robbers; and I understand that it's also intense and exhilarating in that "adult" way - simulating war and other forms of extreme violence.

But as games grow in depth and potential - in particular the potential for the simulation of moral choices - I am fed up with games where the entire objective is to kill anything that moves. It just doesn't work for me anymore. Any game that requires its players to kill people/things to progress the story is deeply flawed, both morally and in terms of virtual freedom.

Make no mistake, the option to kill anything should remain. I do not mean to degrade the FPS genre or any other game where killing is among the focuses. But where's my option to not kill anything?

A game like Uncharted 2 is coming out. Lots of peeps are excited. I would be excited too if I heard I can play the game stealth and finish the story without killing anyone. I won't hold my breath, though, because I have a hunch that much of the game will be spent behind cover trying to shoot people in the face with a shotgun. To me, that's a shame.

Comments

# 1 deaduck @ Apr 23

I have an acute agreement in this vein. I tried the latest Grand Theft Auto and found it sad I was unable to go on a simple date without breaking half a dozen laws