I was reading an article the other day regarding the depiction of violent confrontation in games, often glorified, increasingly graphic, and legitimate questions raised regarding the impact this might have on impressionable younger players. Then I thought back to Everquest, a game that is full of combat. Yet Everquest has consistently chosen to depict combat in a fantasy setting, never used violence as a selling point, has always been devoid of gore and never glorified confrontation. The way Everquest has handled this has been great.
I mean ... the main anniversary mission ... is pretty much a genocide mission for some evil, fat, lazy white guys in Qeynos. And I'm still doing it multiple times a day. I think your point is valid, but if you look closer at EQ ... you'll realize that there's still a lot of not as healthy as you think it is stuff as backstories. EQ's age really helps though as the average player age is just older than pretty much any other game like this out there.
If the game engine could have supported a more realistic depiction I think it would have, so perhaps your opinion is misplaced.
it doesn't matter if we are committing geocide or helping an evil god ascend so he can oppress people or helping a fascist empire conquer and colonize a land that is not there own , as long as there isn't blood shown . ya seems to fit
Lets be honest, our characters are not moral beings, we are functional sociopats! My char would kill just about anything for a few platinum-pieces and the experience alone! We are rarely "saving the world" or fighting for the greater good(except in the eyes of the quest-givers), we are just taking sides in the conflicts arounds us. At best we are keeping the power-balances in a status quo. The graphical depiction of what we do doesn't really matter...
This is doubtful, as it has been claimed over and over in the last century and been debunked. Before it was video games it was TV, and before it was TV it was comic books, and before it was comic books it was blues music. What makes those same questions "legitimate" now?
I don't see what the problem is. Violence has been the source of all authority for the entirety of human history. Violence is a way of life isn't restricted to humans either. Considering the central role that violence plays in human civilization it's not surprising that idealized forms of it are entertainment.
I'd be interested to see how going forward how the game starts to address other issues. Understandably its a fantasy game but when you look at the big picture. It's an interesting subject.
I dunno. I think there is a difference between Call of Duty (realistic military warfare violence) or Grand Theft Auto.... and a game like Everquest, where you are mashing a hotbutton to cast spells and discs against dragons and giants...
I don't think violence in media affects children into being violent in real life. People grow up having to interact with real people their entire life, they learn what kind of interactions are expected from them and how people react to their actions. Of course, someone who is not on speaking terms with parents/friends and/or adult guardians for their entire life, might turn out to be badly affected be violence in media, but that is an unrealistic scenario, that should not limit creativity in game-development imho. Kids are NOT stupid!
I found this video, I've watched him for years now its like the only time I really check out Youtube nowadays. I think it's actually quite well put together. I would be interested in comparing that information to now and see how much it's changed.
Seriously, between chat windows, spell gems and hotkeys on cooldown, and watching for adds, who has time to actually look at the pixels in the middle of the melee?
Violent video games have been found to have a small & more importantly a very short-lived effect on the behaviour of young children, in older children & adults there is no discernible effect. That short lived behaviour wasn't violent though, it was a short term lowering of a child's willingness or natural inclination to help others around them. It's a mild effect and no study has found any provable link between media violence & violence in people of any age. When a subject has been frequently violently assaulted they may go on to be violent towards others, the personal physical experience of it being a key factor but merely seeing it in games, videos or described in music is of little effect.
Politicians would be well advised to listen to the science before making emotive cases without solid evidence bases but that doesn't happen too often anywhere & even less often in the USA.
Violence is in our nature. Like it or not, we're human beings. We are drawn to violence - it's instantly recognizable and it speaks to our incredibly powerful survival instinct. I get a kick out of people who act like violence is some kind of error - like it can be fixed by understanding why humans are drawn to it. Violence has been the hinge pin of humanity's rights and wrongs since the very beginning of life on Earth. EverQuest is a fairly gory game. It's also violent. Both are neither innately bad or good. It's about context. Glorified? Absolutely. 100%. Entertaining? Very. Handled great? I think EverQuest goes for a particular ambience. One that's been toned down since 1999. Messages written in blood on dungeon walls..Dwarven torsos hung from hooks...heads on pikes...all add something to a dungeon or zone. Sadly, from what I remember, they've been scrubbed from the game over the last decade or so.
And before that it was books. Those evil fiction novels rotting away the brains of impressionable youth.
