Blood in Games

[Metaphysic]

I find the total lack of blood in a violent game to be distracting, but I also loathe the over-use of gratuitous, unrealistic amounts of blood. I don't want to see enough blood to paint a room come out of one enemy, I don't always want to see exploding heads and flying limbs, and gratuitous violence kinda irritates me. When friends or family walk in, and the only thing they ever see is flying limbs (think Fallout VATS or Gears), it makes it hard to defend my beloved video games when they decry them as disgusting filth feeding constant gore into my mind.

Come to think of it, sometimes after playing a game in which many of my enemies are humans, I start to think about the fact that I've just finished killing hundreds or thousands of simulated people with no second thought, and it bothers me.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I either don't know how I feel about blood or I don't care how it's used. I wouldn't want to take blood away from Mortal Kombat or Gears Of War but I wouldn't want to add it to Mario or Sonic, but I always wonder if that's just because it's always been that way. Would I be thinking "I don't like this blood in Mario" if it had always been that way?
As for the (on-topic) "noticing blood" thing, I don't think I notice it in the same way you do.

Spoiler: In Dead Space 2...

There's a part where you're walking through the Ishimura and there's blacklights all through the medical deck. Everything is COVERED in blood. Floors, walls, ceiling, EVERYTHING. For some reason, I didn't really care. Maybe it was because I had played the first one or maybe it was just because it's excessivness killed itself, I don't know.

But I'll notice it if it's used sparingly. Like if I'm playing (or watching) something that barely has any blood, I'll notice it when somebody gets a nosebleed. Because to me, that means things are getting serious.

All and all, I guess I have certain biases when it comes to blood. And you know what? I'm cool with that.

 

[Double A]

The only blood I have ever noticed is the variety that completely soaks every single character in Dragon Age.

 

[lacktheknack]

Blood mostly annoys me, and I'll turn it off if I can. Horror is the exception, obviously, and I never stop noticing.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I don't notice when there is blood, but I notice strait away when there isn't, and there should be! I like the little cloud of red hen you shoot someone, then you know you've actually hit them! Adds to the realism!

 

[CulixCupric]

Upon reading the blood splatter section in Greg Tito's Skyrim mod guide piece ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/misc/9303-Even-More-Skyrim-Mods.3 ), I realized I rarely notice blood and gore in games anymore.

I notice it, and I create a lot of it, on purpose. they bleed, it means I'm doing damage. then I take their stuff. I own a majority share of all wealth in Tamriel. I was fleeing to skyrim after sacking Orsinium, and got caught, they took my stuff.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Orsinium

"However, this was not to be. Orsinium was once again sacked by the combined forces of Hammerfell and High Rock in the early Fourth Era, and many Orc refugees fled east into Skyrim."

i did that. well, i was involved.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I enjoy the blood when it's nessecary.
Now, I don't think Minecraft needs blood, because that's not the point. It's about wasting your lif- I MEAN BUILDING THINGS, not about combat.
However, say I'm playing an FPS. I find blood to be a fantastic indicator of a successful hit on an enemy. Without it, the game just feels... empty. Killing an enemy and just having them ragdoll doesn't feel right. If I kill 37 demons in a row with a chainsaw, I generally expect there to be quite a bit of a mess to clean up. Besides, there's nothing like leaving a room coated with a new red paint job and hoping some unsuspecting guard walks in and goes "... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?"

 

[Zhukov]

I never notice it, no matter how excessive.

For example, I didn't notice that the Dead Space games were gory until I saw it mentioned by several people.

 

[Aprilgold]

I just wish games would stop rubbing jam on my screen to indicate damage... it's summer, I'll get ants!

I agree, I don't want them taking my sandwiches.

My problem with it that it doesn't look like blood, it looks completely fake.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I only notice it when it's done badly (onscreen jelly squirts, fluorescent red, characters getting drenched in blood for every kill,...)
Otherwise it just flows with the experience and I wont really see it.

 

[Aidinthel]

I love cartoonish gore. Bloody Mess in the Fallout games is a good example of what I mean. Right now I'm playing the original Neverwinter Nights and discovered that there are three violence settings: Low, Normal, and "Special". I promptly turned it up and forgot about it. I don't even notice when enemies explode into red paste; it's just a thing that happens sometimes.

On the other hand, I played the Dead Space 2 demo and found the gore in that game to be completely tasteless. Not in the same way as the women in that infamous commercial; I just had no interest in seeing that sort of thing.

 

[thespyisdead]

i am personally a person that likes gore, so will try to get the most of gore when i can, but sometimes, even i will say: "wow, that's allot of blood," like in the gears of war series

 

[Scrustle]

In the Japanese version of both games whenever you kill someone you usually see Kill Bill levels of blood shooting out of people. In the American version there is no blood and people simply turn to ash. Now, being in the UK I wasn't sure where my version fitted in to all of this. The first game had no blood, like the American one, so that lead me to be a bit hesitant about the content of the second.

Uh...I played the American version of No More Heroes (first one) and there is definitely blood. A lot of blood.

Must have been the other way around with the versions then.

 

[Jamash]

I think graphic fidelity and a wider colour pallet has made blood less apparent than the bright red gore fountains of the 16-bit days.

In games like Moonstone and Mortal Kombat the blood was very bright and contrasted with the other colours, but nowadays it seems more subtle and underplayed due to more accurate modelling and colouring of blood effects.

That being said, I personally find the violence and gore in contemporary games a lot more visceral than over the top bright red blood fountains and gibs.

For example, in GTAIV the dull sickening thud when you hit a pedestrian, who leaves a dent in the bodywork and a subtle, dark blood smear as they roll over your car and flop lifelessly in the street, is a lot more powerful and disturbing than any amount of gibbing and dismembering peds on impact in Carmageddon.

Even within the Mortal Kombat series, I found that (in the later games like Deadly Alliance) breaking someone's nose with a jab of straight, which (as well as the crunch sound) caused them to clutch their face as blood streamed out of their nose, a lot more violent and visceral than any of the fatalities of the original.

I tend to take a lot more notice of the more subtle and realistic damage effects rather than the over the top gore explosion of yore, which are so obviously fake I just automatically process them as part of the fantasy of the game, giving them as much attention and though as a talking Dragon or Wizard.

 

[Metaphysic]

Even within the Mortal Kombat series, I found that (in the later games like Deadly Alliance) breaking someone's nose with a jab of straight, which (as well as the crunch sound) caused them to clutch their face as blood streamed out of their nose, a lot more violent and visceral than any of the fatalities of the original.

Yes. I noticed that, especially blunt hits (fists, pipes, etc) and arm-breaks are much, much more painful to watch than watching someone's spine get ripped out through their ass.