Video Game Violence

(Contains some spoilers)

I have to say, it always really annoys me when someone, usually a "concerned parent" or a bored journalist, decides to take it on themselves to put the digital world to rights, and launches a crusade to "ban violent video games". These people seriously lack perspective on this issue, that much should be clear. One of the main problems here include the notion that all "violent" games can be painted with the same brush.

Video Games have been blamed for: the descent or decay of society, increases in violence, obesity, social exclusion, individual acts of violence and more. Irrespective of the merits of each individual claim, these notions usually have one thing in common: the assumption that video games are a homogeneous entity - non-thinking, one-dimensional, profane kill-fests which, lacking any moral direction, skew the mindsets of their gamers towards those of a nihilistic, uncaring, cold, lazy couch potato.

With maybe a notable exception or two, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Violence is increasingly being seen in some games as a means to and end that is not justified. Big-name Games like Portal are refreshingly violence-free for the first-person perspective, and successfully use the laws of physics to produce puzzles which prove to be inventive and fiendishly cunning. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a recent game that not only offered players non-violent solutions to confrontations, but actively rewarded players for choosing them. And non-lethally subduing enemies was preferable to killing them. Games like this find clever ways of bringing the player to account for his or her destructive actions, and make it clear that you pay a penalty for not thinking, and not weighing up the morality of actions and their consequences.

This can be achieved in several ways, for example, by attaching agency to the player, and making it clear that you represent some authority and must live up to certain standards. Or in games like The Last Of Us, the player develops such a strong attachment to the characters in the story that you could never do anything to put them at risk. That's right, they almost become a real family.

In the Bioshock series of retro- science fiction games, one game element involves players rescuing young girls from the harmful effects of sea-parasites living inside them that contain a valuable resource. You can harvest the resource for maximum reward, killing the child, or save them, resulting in lesser rewards. This is your choice, however it is obvious what the correct moral decision is. The game later rewards you for the moral choice - but there is a delay involved in receiving it.

The original Bioshock is famous for one of the best ret-cons ever seen in a game - the exposition of a simple spoken phrase (a la The Manchurian Candidate) "Would You Kindly?" that hits with the sledgehammer force of realisation of what this was about all along, akin to THAT classic "Rosebud" moment in Citizen Kane. You have to play it to believe it.

Commonly when playing popular modern games such as the epic science fiction Mass Effect franchise, I find myself spending more time talking to my shipmates and considering the ethical consequences of available options than I do fighting enemies.

The Elder Scrolls series of fantasy-role playing games (the latest instalment of which is called Skyrim) offers a colossal open world (many square miles in game size) to explore down to the smallest detail, with caves, mountains, rivers, oceans, icebergs, towns, cities, whole underground cavern networks, even economies. Yes, you can pick up a flower from a mountainside one minute, then battle a dragon atop a crumbling stone tower the next.

Games these days can be glorious forms of high entertainment; stunning interactive masterpieces of storytelling, riveting fiction and role-playing, with amazing graphics and sweeping theatrical scores, that immerse you in a world almost as real as, well, the real one. And the life you get to lead is invariably more interesting than the real one!

The gaming community has come a long way in recent years. Despite the seemingly ever-present issue of sexism towards female gamers, discussions on topics as wide-ranging as feminism & the role of women in games, sexual orientation, drug use and objective morality in games are going on even today.

Playing devil's advocate, I do have an issue with seemingly lawless, destructive and morally unaccountable games lacking ethical nuance, chief among the culprits of which are the Grand Theft Auto and Saint's Row series. I've played just enough of these games to harbour a deep dislike of them and the lack of balance between right and wrong in the game play. If there is a target for debate and criticism, it should be centred squarely here in my view.

Video games can show us so much more than mere violence. They are a statement of the struggles present between ideological perspectives at a societal level. By playing them, you can attempt to see some of these possibilities through to their logical conclusions, through a variety of lenses. And this often yields unexpected and challenging consequences. If you still don't agree, I have one last thing to say to you.


If you don't think video games can offer us anything:

I'll think about that the next time my black lesbian heroine in Skyrim is ridding the world of a scourge of dragons, settling a civil war, then marrying my long time love with not a hint of homophobia around;

I'll think about that the next time my female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3 is busy uniting the warring alien races of the Milky Way galaxy against an ancient, malevolent machine intelligence intent on annihilating us all, overcoming ideological barriers thought insurmountable;

I'll think about that the next time that I as Lara Croft in the new Tomb Raider game, beat my would-be abusers, rapists and killers and travel through hell and back using only wits and skill to escape from a doomed island, all the while exhibiting more vulnerability than spectacular looks;

I'll think about that the next time I'm playing Bioshock: Infinite and I learn that a young girl I was sent to rescue has miraculous powers, and can be the most powerful and awesome person in the world, and ends up rescuing me;

I'll think about that the next time I'm playing The Last Of Us, after many hours of surviving unthinkable horrors whilst journeying across the American Midwest on foot, as unwitting guardian to a young girl who holds the secret to a cure to a zombie-like plague threatening the future of humanity. I become so attached to her, after all we've been through together, and she saves my life; that I find myself at the end, against the purpose of the whole game up to that point, horribly conflicted over letting the plague continue rather than curing it, if it would mean her death. The protagonist Joel saves Ellie rather than letting her die in the process of curing the plague, and I... don't blame him for it. Such emotions really show us a lot about ourselves and the ethics of right and wrong.

After all that, I'll think about video games being the bane of society, and I won't know whether to laugh or cry.