Is all violence the same in the videogame world?

I was watching television just the other night and a videogame was being advertised. It was a first-person, war-themed shoot-em-up, something a la Call of Duty. My wife turned to me inquisitively and asked me if that was a game I would like to play, if it was up my alley, so to speak. I knew it was somewhat of a ploy; my wife runescape power leveling loves videogames, but doesn’t really like games that involve killing. We don’t have kids yet, but we will someday, and I’m sure being the parents we’ll be, we will introduce them to gaming, but probably in a rather controlled manner. This particular game, which highlighted “realistic wartime action,” would most definitely not make it past mom’s censors. But her question intrigued me: what did I think of such games?

I quickly ran through the games that have a permanent place rs power leveling in my library. I have loads of them, but often I’ll play them a few times and then disperse them to true lovers of the genre. But of course, I have some keepers, titles that I’ll play over and over again. Some of those currently include Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum and, naturally, all of the franchises from my youth (Mario, Zelda, etc). I realized that conspicuously absent were any games whose main objective was: as a human, realistically harm another human. I throw that modifier in there because Team Fortress 2 is all about murdering one another, but it’s so cartoony I never really thought about the characters as real people, which I think makes a difference.


I don’t know if this was a conscious decision, but I realized that I’ve never owned any game that dealt with historical war, or organized crime, or any other “realistic” type transgressions that involve people vs. other people. I explained this to my wife, who is playfully dubious buy runescape accounts that I’ll corrupt our children with violent games. But I explain my rationale that not all violence is equal. I argue then when I kill hordes of zombies or aliens, it’s quite different than the simulating killing of other people. But interestingly, the world doesn’t really judge it that way, at least not from a ratings standpoint.

Let’s look at a couple of games for a moment:

Gears of War 2: Mature (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
Team Fortress 2: Mature (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Mature (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
Grand Theft Auto IV: Mature (17+) for Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Teen for Fantasy Violence, Animated Blood
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Everyone for Violence

Here’s what I find fascinating about this: “Blood and Gore” is the same label across Gears, TF2 and CoD, yet the conditions in which the violence occurs are all very different. I admit that Gears buy runescape gold has some horrific sequences, but does it make a difference that the antagonists are clearly not humans? Is the violence in Team Fortress really “the same” as it is in GTA? The blood in Twilight Princess is “animated,” but not in Team Fortress? And I would like to note (this is a spoiler) that at the end of Wind Waker, Link leaps into the air and, with a downward strike, impales Ganondorf’s forehead with his sword. However, this is not “intense” violence, and the game is apparently suitable for anyone, as it has the same rating as Tetris.

I know no one likes the ratings system, I do get that, and I’m not really suggesting that the levels need to be adjusted. My argument buy runescape money with all of this is, I think there’s a difference in the types of violence that are portrayed in videogames. I think there’s something…I don’t want to sound negative here, but perhaps darker, more traumatic, about killing other humans in a realistic way or environment, one that’s trying to simulate actual murder than other premises in games. I’m not saying that I want those games to be banned or that there’s not a place for them in gaming. What I’m saying is, I think a distinction should be made.

But that’s just my thought. What say all of you on the topic?