Giving gamers too much freedom to kill pixels

[JC48573]

I think there are games out there that give gamers too much freedom to kill at will w/o any moral to back it up. I want that "oh shit" feeling and not the "oh, wow! this weapon is cool" reward. It makes me worry when my bro plays Modern Warfare 2 and all he talks about is how many kills he can get or how cool the weapons are, or how many there are in the game. I really miss the games from back in the days where they were a bit more educational. Seriously, business will do anything to make money.

[DinnerX]

I think there are games out there that give gamers too much freedom to kill at will w/o any moral to back it up. I want that "oh shit" feeling and not the "oh, wow! this weapon is cool" reward. It makes me worry when my bro plays Modern Warfare 2 and all he talks about is how many kills he can get or how cool the weapons are, or how many there are in the game. I really miss the games from back in the days where they were a bit more educational. Seriously, business will do anything to make money.

I don't know of a time when games were more educational or had you consider morals more. It goes way back. It is sometimes a little irritating to hear people ramble on about pretend violence depending on the situation, but it is only a game. It can't brainwash people. Unless it's Polybius...

[Curlypaul]

Can you give examples of what games you've played that have a moral behind the killings?
There was a thread about those kind of games a while ago, but none of them were really mainstream. Mainstream games have always been about reactions and spectacle than posing moral questions about the number of deaths that the player has caused. Please prove me wrong though

[Opa Opa]

Can you give examples of what games you've played that have a moral behind the killings?

I've got one: Silent Hill Homecoming. (Although, keep in mind I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing with the OP.)

SPOILER: Your mother is on a rack and is going to be ripped apart. Do you mercifully end her suffering or do you let her die painfully?

[J T]

Unless it's Polybius...

Oh man, I want to play Polybius so bad.

[J T]

On the original topic. I don't think games as a whole have ever been very educational. I think certain games are, but it's not the norm. I don't see Modern Warfare as being all that different from Contra thematically, except that Modern Warfare is grounded in real life politics and has more realistic graphics. Also, the absence of HR Giger inspired aliens is apparent.... ok they're pretty different, but the point is that they both have a lot of killing. Shooting people or beating them up has been a central theme in more video games than I can count, regardless of the time period.

Actually, modern games are more likely to tackle issues of morality more than the early games were. Games like Fable, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and The Witcher all have moral quandries that you get involved in and your choices have consequences. In the old days, you could only kill.

[insanecow0]

Bioshock, if you kill too many little sisters for the energy that is required to improve your character there are consequences, i.e. you get the bad ending.

[t0yrobo]

It's all about the attitude the player goes into the game with. Imo a lot of people don't actually think of getting kills in a fps as actually killing anything, it's synonymous with score. Because well, that's a big part of how your score is calculated. Anyways games have been based on war since long before computers existed.

[JC48573]

If game imposes some sort of reaction or emotion or make you feel uneasy about the things you are doing, then that's all I'm asking for as far as morality goes. For some reason, most video games seem to lack that as most of the time they just throw in everything right at you. Suda51 kinda does that where your emotions or anger varies depending on the situation and then you sorta feel like shit after you killed someone, but then there's always the ones that deserve to die just because they're jerks (but still...).

[KillerJuan77]

Unless it's Polybius...

Oh man, I want to play Polybius so bad.

Why? Besides, did it even exist?