cexantus

Woah. This thread made me stop my weeks of lurking just to post:

I think The Shining is a fantastic horror film, proof that you don't have to tell the viewers everything in order to scare the crap out of them.

Well said. While it's fun to wonder what everything means in-game, I do believe that Bioshock: Infinite is meant to be a critique on the state of the gaming industry; that every game has to be some type of power-fantasy where you're treated as a hero--despite the fact that your involvement has probably led to scores of people dying. By casting the main character as both the hero and the villain, Bioshock basically say that everything that happens is your fault, and the only way to truly fix anything is to kill yourself.

This is

I disagree with that, mostly because I do find each of the characters well-written. But even then, doesn't that kind of prove Sweep's point? Who cares how many polygons your game has when the writing is bunk, the characterization is terrible, and plot is cliched. That's precisely the problem with Cage's own Heavy Rain: It's a gorgeous and ambitious game that's hampered by awful voice-acting and a trite third act. I soon stopped caring about how great those character models look and focused entirely on how ridiculous the game's story became.

I'm not against technological improvement at all, I'm just a lot skeptical of how it's being used. This Sony conference tried to sell us on the Ps4, that this was truly "next-gen;" but all I saw was kind of more of the same: More KillZone; More Infamous; more of the same things we've been playing for the past decade--just only prettier. I'm sure they'll look great, and maybe once I get my hands on one of them maybe I'll have fun, I'm just not convinced I need to jump on board as soon as possible.

You people are silly. Pilot was pretty great and lays the foundation for a (hopefully) great show.

So, like...I'm curious if anyone who's too busy slathering the internets with "DEY DONE TOOK R VIDYA!!!" or "OBAAAAAAAAMMMMAAAAAA!!!" actually bothered to read up on this or, you know, gotten their facts straight before blasting their opinons on here? Unless I missed the secret wording that said Obama is going to push an initiative to remove all violent video games from stores.

THEY TOOK R FREE SPEEEEACH!!!!

Do I agree that the idea of a direct correlation between video games and violence is ridiculous? Absolutely. Little Timmy isn't going to blow off someone's head with a shotgun just because he saw it GTA.

HOWEVER,

when mixed in with media violence (music, television, books, etc) as a whole, as well as keeping in consideration education, social status, and other thiings--I think there is something worth studying here. While I certainly agree that gun regulation should be required--it's not the end-all solution. It's just a band-aid over a much bigger, deeply rooted problem. Saying only crazy people enact in weaponized violence is not only bullshit, but keeps us from realizing that gun violence is entirely a societal issue.

@tunaburn said:

if people cant handle seeing it in a video game then maybe those people really should think about what happens to people in real life. all the torture and rape and mutilation you see in games does happen in real life. its sad and disgusting but it happens. these people should focus thier efforts on the real life shit going on and stay out of the video game world.

That's not the issue though. Yes rape and torture happens in real life as well; the problem is often their depiction in the medium: torture, and violence in general, is often glamorized--it's made to look cool; Rape-as-drama is a hackneyed trope used either to lend "depth" to female characters, used as a plot device for male characters, or the threat of it to make females into "damsels in distress." Just because it's a video game doesn't make it any less of an issue.

As I've said countless of times: If we want games to be better, we have to expect it to be better. And if a game developer is going to create a game that contains such serious subjects like rape or torture, then I think they should give those topics the gravitas they deserve.

@Lazyaza: It's not really weird. Valve is a company, right? And companies like to make money, right? This makes perfect sense--tapping into that demographic that might typically pick up a console rather than a PC. It's more money in the pocket.

Perhaps it's because I'm getting older, but this certainly does nothing to get me excited about owning the next Final Fantasy or even a next-gen console.

@JohnstonThistle:

Yep. Guess how I felt while playing was completely artificial and unfounded. Thanks for showing me the way, man.

Seriously, "overrated" should be stricken from usage in any argument.

@hejklyscha:

YEAH MAN. WHY BE EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO ANYTHING--THERE ARE PEOPLE DYING IN AFRICA, BRO!!!