- BioShock Infinite is a wonderful game, but what about its sometimes excessive violence?
Robert Florence (the Scottish guy who started the whole Tomb Raider/Lauren Wainwright "journalist" PR debacle) did a good counterpoint to this of how Bioshock makes the violence make sense, and that we shouldn't only hold up artistic games and be embarrassed about violence since there are violent but important works in other mediums (The Godfather in film, Preacher in comics) and also last year's Spec Ops: The Line.
The Gaming Cringe (Robert Florence)
We should be celebrating Bioshock Infinite for telling an incredibly daring story and dealing with incredibly mature themes within our favourite form, and doing it honestly. Instead, some of us are cringing. “They’re telling this story in big-budget violent FPS form? Couldn’t they have done it in interactive fictiony arthouse form, where only a few of us might see it?” It’s a cringe. A wide-spread cringe. I recognise it because I’ve been there. Are we really going to get all “Ugh. It still acts like a videogame!” about it? Please tell me we’re not going down that path.
A good read. Thanks for that tip. I have been irritated all week because of how some publications want to hold Bioshock Infinite to some other high standard and therefore attacking it's violent parts. We have during the whole development process known that this should be a FPS, a Bioshock game. Why is it supprings to anyone that it is violent and that it tells it's story within a FPS? I have always thought it's unfair to critique a game for something it's not or not trying to be. It's the same with Tomb Raider. People seemed to want some kind of survial game with really low tempo but ever since at least E3 2012 we have known about that it's quite clearly a action game and yet people complain about it's violent and gameplay nature.
Just to be clear. Would I have liked that Ininite and Tomb Raider would mabey been different? To dare have other game mechanics? Yes. Because I want variaty but these games did good on their delivery in my opinion and have been clear what they where so I have a really hard time grasping why people select these games to nitpick on violence. In Tomb Raiders case I believe it's because of it's thriller/horror nature it sent of in E3 2011 and in Bioshocks case it's because people think a game with these themes should be delivered in another way because that's what the press/people want. That's how they want their inteligent game to be percieved. Florence puts it perfectly though. Putting them in a arthouse game would have defeated it's purpose of reaching far to as many people as possible, not only for business reasons but for also for the message.
Once again, thanks for the reading tip and I apoligize for the rant :P
No need to apologise, that was a good comment to read :D
I haven't played Tomb Raider, but it gave me a gratuitous vibe with how she stabs people in the head with an axe and yet still acts like she's not a psychopath, that cognitive dissonance thing but I guess that's another debate.
The Walt Williams (writer of Spec Ops: The Line) GDC lecture on contextualising violence in games, how "your character will never be more righteous than the core mechanic allows". Good watch.
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