this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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[CW: violence/gore]. As the title suggests, is there a left case to be made against ultra-violence in video games? I'm thinking mostly about MK11 and MK1 fatalities, as opposed to less gratuitous and less hyper-realistic violence--in Dark Souls or something. Whenever this topic is brought up, other factors usually take up the oxygen in the room: People might immediately think of family-values conservatives, such as the Media Research Center, who act like wet-blankets towards entertainment. Or we think of nerdy Joe Lieberman, who showed the 1993 Sub-Zero spine fatality to Congress (lol). There was Hillary Clinton who decried the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and the host of rightwing politicians who blamed Doom for the Columbine shooting (clearly as a way to absolve gun legislation from any culpability). So this is what I mean when I say that the conversation on video-game violence has been ceded entirely to these dudes, as opposed to something left spaces can discuss without sounding like squares or censors. This came to mind after I was reading about the video game designer who developed PTSD after working on Mortal Kombat 11. His dreams became excruciatingly violent, and his day-to-day was interacting with coworkers studying medical anatomy and watching videos of slaughtered animals. That can't be good for anyone. I guess what I'm asking is: should leftists see this as harmless fun, or something problematic? And, will photo-realistic Fatalities exist in the communist future?

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[โ€“] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I like gore and ludicrous gibs in my video games blob-no-thoughts

Specifically, I like video game gore when it's dynamic and responsive to player input, ie shooting or meleeing enemies. It doesn't even have to be blood and guts- Binary Domain made the act of murdering endless waves of generic robots satisfying by having them emit out clouds of shrapnel, sparks and oil when you shot them with your guns as well as making it possible to explode any of their limbs with enough damage.

Mortal Kombat Fatalities are different though since you just sit and watch something weird and gross happen for 30 seconds

[โ€“] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Mortal Kombat fatalities being realistic seems wrong to me thematically as well. Fatalities should be sort of a cross between the most over the top shit you'd see in old martial arts movies and Evil Dead style 3 stooges gore slapstick. Blood should spray like a fountain out of injuries instead of bleeding normal and it should look like a special effect