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Violence in Games Violence has been a sensitive issue for many years now and violence in games has turned into a political issue for many politicians. As always, when politicians get involved the issue loses its original meaning and ends up by affecting more people in ways that no one foresaw. In this column, I am going to talk about what violence is in games, why violence is necessary, how violence can't affect you unless you let it, and finally my conclusion on violence in games.
What is Violence? You might be thinking that you know what violence is and how it applies to games, but many people have changed the meaning. They have done this so that more and more games can be called violent even if you and I disagree on the label. Violence includes killing other people or inhuman creatures, hurting other people or inhuman creatures, and destroying inanimate objects. This makes sense but the politicians make it more complex by introducing varieties into the violence of which some are supposedly worse than others. For example, if a cartoon character destroys something violent that's less bad than if a realistic-looking character does the exact same thing. Also, using a weapon is considered worse than using natural powers or your fists. These levels in violence are reflected in game ratings that are supposed to inform parents whether the games are worthy of purchase for their young munchkins. Do ratings work? I'll answer that question in the conclusion and for now let's examine the reason for violence using my definition above.
How People Achieve Goals In every game, you want to do something to accomplish a goal or goals, and in every game there is something or someone stopping you. In card games, your goal is to move cards from one place to another and the luck of the draw is what is trying to stop you. In a game like StarCraft you want to find natural resources in order to achieve your primary goal such as finding an item, rescuing an important person, or preventing the enemy from doing something. In StarCraft the enemy is what is preventing you from your goals. Finally, some games let you talk through conflicts and use diplomacy to avoid violence. In these two examples, the card game doesn't use violence and StarCraft does. StarCraft doesn't use diplomacy but other games do. This is all well and good, but what exactly does that mean? This means that in every game there is a possibility of losing because there is always something to prevent us from achieving our goals. Furthermore, this possibility of losing makes winning even more precious and wonderful when it does happen. Most people like testing our skills and intelligence against adversity and if we lose, we will keep on trying until we win. In order for us to lose, there has to be somebody opposing us and violence is one of these ways. Some might say that teaching people (especially our children) that violence is an approved way of handling conflict is wrong and that diplomacy is the preferred method. While I agree that killing each other over a disagreement is usually a bad idea, there are times when diplomacy simply fails. I take you back to the beginnings of World War II when the leaders of many European countries went over to Hitler to avoid war. Hitler promised to only take over a certain part of Europe and the leaders went home telling everyone that they had achieved an everlasting peace. What happened? Hitler broke his word and took over most of Europe. In an example a little closer to home, everyone has seen a school bully in action. They will simply not be nice no matter how many times you ask them or how nicely you treat them. Yet once you bloody their nose and show them that you won't let them treat you badly, they suddenly leave you alone. I was bullied for many years and I can personally attest to the fact that diplomacy just does not work with these people at all. So while teaching people that violence is the only or the best way to solve problems is wrong, I also think that teaching people that diplomacy is the only or the best way to solve problems is wrong as well.
The Effects of Violence The other claim against violence in games is that they influence people to be violent themselves. They say that young people can't understand the difference between reality and make-believe and you only want them to see nice things. After all, you don't want them to turn into a serial murderer. I do agree with this up to a point. I don't want kids in grade school to play violent games because they just don't need to see it. However, when a person gets to be in 9th grade they should be allowed to have more freedom in the games they play because, in my not so humble opinion, games have no greater or lesser affect on them than other things in their life. Things like their friends, their teachers, what they see on television, and their parents. In fact, since most young people watch a lot more television than play games, I would say that it's far more important to monitor their TV habits than their game habits. Let's take Diablo 2 as an example. I wouldn't let a 5-year-old play it but I would certainly let a 15-year-old play it. This is because a 15-year-old is old enough to understand that's it's a game and not real, have the patience to play and get better at a game, and mature enough to not let the game affect their life in negative ways. Let's return to the ratings that are on games these days. I think that they are too simplistic and not a good judge of the quality of the game's content which in turn misleads parents. Let's look at the rating for Diablo 2 which is a Mature rating from the ESRB. What is mature? Is it 17? Is it 20? Does it depend on the person? Is there nudity? Is there a movie that has a lot of horrible death scenes with guts flying everywhere? Sure, you can find this out on a web site but what if a parent doesn't have Internet access or can't find out the rating definitions? They are going to take one look at the title (Diablo 2), the skull on the box, and the mature rating and say to their 16-year-old son that "you are not mature enough to play this game." When the only violence in Diablo 2 is hacking away at some monster that isn't even human and who are trying to kill you to begin with.
Conclusion I really think that the only way games can affect a person is if that person is mentally unbalanced or deficient in some way. Furthermore, a link should not be made between violent games and violence just because a few people did bad things and they happened to have played violent games. I think that this is just a way for parents and/or politicians to blame something else rather than society or themselves. People want quick and easy answers to problems and the traditional explanation of the person just being evil isn't acceptable in this modern age. People like to think that we are above such notions of good and evil and want to find a better reason for people doing bad things. So they blame guns or games or television or comic books and not the person themselves. I go one step further and say that violence is necessary in games because not everything can be accomplished through diplomacy and because violence has been a part of our civilization ever since it first began. Can you imagine stopping the Zerg in StarCraft by asking them to stay in one corner of the universe? Can you imagine stopping Diablo's reign of terror in Diablo 2 by telling him that all of this evil really isn't necessary? I can't and anyone saying that it's a good idea needs to understand what games and gaming are all about.
Who is Erica? What is this column?
Hello everyone! My name is Erica J. Marceau and I am the resident Game Expert of the Mac OS Journal staff. When I'm not playing or thinking about games, I attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and will be graduating this December with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. My other hobbies include watching animé and reading manga, learning how to program and make web sites, and traveling in the lands of Puddleby in Clan Lord as Jeanne. Every month I'll cover a different topic, from interviews with important people in the gaming industry to ideas for the perfect game, and everything in between. And if there is a topic of the Mac gaming industry that you'd like me to talk about, please email me at: erica@macosjournal.com or use this feedback form.
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