- Feb 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: sirjonk
Just read something interesting that I didn't think of but should have.
What happens when games progress to essentially photo-realistic graphics? We're not quite there with human character models, even in Crysis, HL2 and the like. But it's not far away. What happens when the guys (and gals) you shoot/kill look like real people. Even if you don't show blood splatter or dismemberment, how will killing people in a photo-realistic environment be rated by the industry?</end quote></div>
It should be rated no different then current.
When people play video games, there are no victims or people getting hurt. Video games are for fun, to kill stress, to escape, or an outlet for aggression.
What difference does it make if the graphics are realistic or not, the fact of the matter is, when you blow stuff up or kill in a video game, it creates no victims.
Stop it, you're making sense. But let me illustrate my point. Flash back 10 years or so. You take an enemy video game cartoon character, visibly pixelized, and imagine your in-game character shoots him. The game emits a beeping sound, the bad guy blinks a few times and disappears. Flash forward a few years from now. The enemy character looks almost indistinguishable from a guy you'd see on any tv show or movie. He's sweating, he blinks, his chest moves as he breaths. Your in-game character shoots him. The gun roars. The bullet hits him, he twists slightly, and the momentum from the hit throws him up against the wall. The dvd quality audio emits a human cry of agony. He slowly slides down the wall, while staring at you. His hand twitches, then he's still. Now repeat that 100x throughout the game with a variety of different weapons. The result I think would be essentially an M rating for every game involving violence, with the possibility that a large number even being assigned the dreaded AO.
For those of us who can differentiate between games and reality (i.e. not Jack Thompson or apparently any politician), this presents a bleak outlook.
Of course, I'm being a bit alarmist as there's too much money to be made to simply shut down the violent game industry. I hope. I played Manhunt during first year law school finals, staying up till 3am to finish it one night. I was so wound up, but after killing a few dozen people in a disgustingly violent manner, I felt pretty chill.