Artistic violence

[thejboy88]

As you all know by now, video games have been criticised left right and centre for years regarding the violent content present within a few select titles.

However, what strikes me as odd is that no-one ever makes the same complaints regarding violence in film or television. In some cases these examples of violence and blood can be artistic and nice to look at.

Examples would include the slow-motion fight scenes in 300 (which I'm sure every 12-year-ol or younger has seen by now with no complaint) or other films like the Matrix, lord of the rings and Hellboy.

My question for today is this:

"Can violence in video games be artistic?"

If you think this has already happened please let me know.

 

[Ldude893]

If done properly, it's possible for a death to be artistic. Nice to look at? That's left for the players to decide.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Artistic violence...hmm, well I can think of two off my head. Okami, because you use ink strokes to kill enemies, and WET had a stylistic Rage mode, and an achievement called Artistic Violence. You'll see why below.

 

[Jonluw]

Yes, I think violence in a video game can have artsistic value. I'm not sure if it has been done yet though.

 

[tigermilk]

However, what strikes me as odd is that no-one ever makes the same complaints regarding violence in film or television.

Really? No I am sorry you are wrong about that. Bonnie and Clyde (Penn 1967) is one example which springs to mind, but basically from the 1950's onwards through to the present there have been complaints about violence in film and TV alongside computer games (obviously computer game violence complaints are a more recent phenomenon).

EDIT: Ninja'd

EDIT 2: Just look at the very long list of banned films due to violent content.

 

[II2]

Violence has artistic weight when it has significance in context. While I'm not going to explain the context for these, there was some thought behind it, in both artistic execution and narrative significance.

[sub]Irreversible and Bioshock 1 spoilers. Years old, mind.[/sub]

 

[lulu_560]

I'd say that Dragon Age has some artistry in it's messy kills (that aren't really messy) and certain cutscenes with finishers, Bioshock, Fallout, and many other games and films that I should mention but can't remember, contain practiced or thoroughly constructed violence that makes the viewer think about it how it appears visually.
But overall, violence in media seems almost thoughtlessly put together, with the intent to shock or provoke, not intended to make it's audience go 'Oh!' and 'Ah', with added choruses.
300 is a great example for artistic violence, it's fight scenes flowing easily with an almost graceful discipline that sets it up as a whole. In gaming it still has a lot of growth to do as a concept that could really help in terms of characterisation (GOW really does this down to a T)