Is it me?

Just caught a feature on Gears of War 2.

The interviewer asked one of the creators if they were going to include A feature where you could pull of an enemies arm and beat them to death with it.

His response was “No, that was a line we didn’t want to cross.”

Cool, ok I can understand that, I mean, considering these games are nothing but interactive gore porn I applauded them for actually having a line to cross to begin with.

Then, not a second later, they show in-game footage of an enemy crawling away, wounded, missing like, both legs or something, and the “hero” basically unloading his weapon into the guys back and his body exploding into about six different pieces.

Well thank God they didn’t cross any lines!

Hey! Here’s an idea: instead of making it so easy to kill this enemy, why not make it a part of the game where you get more points for getting him to a hospital and get his ass some attention and keep him as a prisoner of war? Oh right, because most of the enemies in these sorry ass games are all “evil with no sense of redemption or loss over what they did”…right, no, that’s original, it really is. But more importantly for these useless hacks like Cliffy B or whatever his dumb ass is calling himself these days, it’s easy. See? That’s what it comes down to- create a blockhead of a “hero” with cool name, armor and guns, three sentences of a backstory and just set him loose on his killing spree. Because it’s easy and unfortunately there are enough people out there with disposable income who are willing to throw it at this unimaginative tripe.

But hey, your money, so feel free to waste it as you see fit.

I don’t know…back in the day I used to really love video games, and still do I guess. But some of this crap they come out with these days seems to fall on one side or the other- either goofy mindless turn-based anime or ultra-violent blood fests where you get labeled a “hero” based on how many kills you rack up.

Yeah, maybe it’s age, experience or a little bit of both, but I think there is enough real mindless violence in the world we have to deal with that we don’t need video games coming out that just adds to it and labels itself as “entertainment”.

And it’s sad, because some game designers do work hard to elevate their craft to a level that would be considered “art”, while others just slop a new coat of paint on crap and puke it back out to consumers. Games like Fable, Beyond Good and Evil, and Oblivion- those are games that cross the line from simply being a game to being a work of art- an interactive experience that can actually change you as a person and make you think about the consequences of your actions-while other games are about as fulfilling as mini rice cakes.

And I’m familiar with the old argument “its not the games that cause kids to flip out and go psycho”...and I used to believe that too…but now? I don’t know…while I don’t think the games themselves are entirely to blame, I think they do share some responsiblity- along with movies, tv and yes, of course, parents who don’t teach their kinds any freaking better. And unfortunately there are a lot of these kinds of parents out there.

I guess this isn’t so much about our website- though I would like to believe that when you see (or read) violent content in our fiction it has a frame of reference- there is a reason for it- it’s not simply mindless bloody carnage for the sake of mindless bloody carnage- plus Star Wars just isn’t that. Yeah, while we may be creating our own “mature” mythology, that doesn’t mean it’s mature just because we have over the top violence and sex- those are both the hallmarks of not only immature writers and creators, but lazy, sloppy ones as well. Don’t believe me? Go to your local comics shop and browse the titles- I would guess over 70% fall prey to these very problems.

Anyway, it just seems like for all of the money and “work” that goes into most of these games anymore, people aren’t actually even trying to make good games- just rehashing the same old crap and slapping new cover art on it.

But that’s cool, they have every right to make, market and sell it, and as a consumer I have every right to pretend it just doesn’t exist.

Sad thing is I seem to be doing that with a lot of the “entertainment” that gets produced these days.

Anyway, just my two cents. I think I’ll go home and play me some Centipede or Frogger now.