Level Up.pdf

244 LEVEL 10 The Elements of Combat
1. Violence in video games is graphic, dramatic and visceral.
2. As a result of the above, it offers a player the quickest positive response
feedback loop.
The player does an action (hitting, shooting), sees the immediate result
(enemy is killed by attack), which grants a reward (experience, money,
power- up). This elegant feedback loop allows for quick and frequent playerto
- world interaction. It ’ s Freud ’ s pleasure principle 1 in practice. Ring the bell,
a reward is gained. Why stop ringing the bell?
Another reason why violence is common in video games is that other
human interactions like conversation, romance,
comedy and manipulation are hard to recreate in
games! The result is (a) alternate methods of
gameplay aren ’ t explored by development teams
as often as violent ones. (b) Because game
players tend to buy the same types of games over
and over, (c) publishers find that newer styles of
play are harder to sell. 2 (d) Parents and other
social groups who mean well don ’ t always find out
all of the facts before leaping to the assumption
that all video games are violent.
Let ’ s avoid all of this stress by doing our part as
responsible members of society and keep mature
games out of the hands of younger gamers. There
are plenty of alternative games out there. You
wouldn ’ t take a little kid to a R - rated movie, so
why would you let them play a M - rated video
game?
As mentioned back in Level 3 , the ESRB reviews
and provides ratings for game content. At their
website3 you can find their descriptors of violence
found in games:
• Comic mischief. Depictions or dialogue involving slapstick or
suggestive humor.
1 The fact that a developer called “ id ” created the FPS, a genre that directly adheres to
Freud ’ s pleasure principle, is almost too delicious to ignore.
2 EA ’ s marketing team tried to cancel their best selling game, The Sims , during its entire
development; they thought no one would buy it!
3 http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp