Mortal Kombat Devs traumatised by creating the gore in the game

[WindKnight]

So, Kotaku ran an article talking to a developer who worked on MK11 who found creating the gore and fatalities affected their mental health, to the point they were diagnosed with PTSD. While it seems only this one dev came forward, they knew others within the team who had experienced similar problems.

At one point its mentioned that part of the research for the work included watching videos of executions, and animals being slaughtered, and it all sounds a bit much for a trashy bloodshed game. I mean with the kind of cartoony gore thats MK's bread and butter, do you need it to be 'realistic' to the level your putting developers though horrific real life crap to get it just right?

https://kotaku.com/id-have-these-extremely-graphic-dreams-what-its-like-t-1834611691

 

[09philj]

This is some Berberian Sound Studio shit.

 

[Fappy]

If my work place ever asked me to do something like that I would bale immediately. Sure, if it is for legitimate research purposes (journalist, historian, surgeon, etc.) it might be appropriate, but I don't think people look for a job as a game dev with the expectation of watching IRL gore videos. WTF.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Ok then... how long till we hear DICE, Treyarch or whoever send their people to fight in actual war zones?

You know, for research purposes.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Ugh...Kotaku.

 

[Erttheking]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

While I tend to relate PTSD to be from battlefield trauma or serious violent assault in everyday life and find this a bit of a stretch, I would in no way be surprised if anyone was left disturbed or with serious anxiety if they were watching that shit without a proper debrief before AND after. Like fucking hell, this is failure to a new level, Netherealm.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

I am just amazed people still posting Kotaku after they have been exposed as a yellow journalist/clickbait article website. This whole article reads like vacuous clickbait.

 

[Thaluikhain]

do you need it to be 'realistic' to the level your putting developers though horrific real life crap to get it just right?

Publicity stunt. Suicide Squad had cast members be weird and creepy to "get in character"/get headlines, though given the success of that movie maybe not the best thing to emulate. I mean, other than this being an obviously bad idea.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

do you need it to be 'realistic' to the level your putting developers though horrific real life crap to get it just right?

Publicity stunt. Suicide Squad had cast members be weird and creepy to "get in character"/get headlines, though given the success of that movie maybe not the best thing to emulate. I mean, other than this being an obviously bad idea.

My recollection was that only Jared Leto did that. And it really pissed everyone else off. And was seen as a poor taste aping of Heath Ledger?s prep in Dark Knight. And Leto?s Joker still end3d up sucking.

 

[Thaluikhain]

do you need it to be 'realistic' to the level your putting developers though horrific real life crap to get it just right?

Publicity stunt. Suicide Squad had cast members be weird and creepy to "get in character"/get headlines, though given the success of that movie maybe not the best thing to emulate. I mean, other than this being an obviously bad idea.

My recollection was that only Jared Leto did that. And it really pissed everyone else off. And was seen as a poor taste aping of Heath Ledger?s prep in Dark Knight. And Leto?s Joker still end3d up sucking.

IIRC, while he was the worst (in various ways), the rest of them still had to do some stupid stuff:
https://www.outerplaces.com/science-fiction/item/12460-david-ayer-made-the-suicide-squad-cast-punch-each-other

 

[Erttheking]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

I am just amazed people still posting Kotaku after they have been exposed as a yellow journalist/clickbait article website. This whole article reads like vacuous clickbait.

Yeah except the site does do fairly good investigative journalism, as seen with the whole Anthem incident. Again, if you want to ignore the article, please prove it wrong. Also don't confuse "they have been exposed as yellow journalism" with "I think they're yellow journalism."

 

[Mcgeezaks]

I mean, no one is forcing these people to work on Mortal Kombat games.

 

[Erttheking]

I mean, no one is forcing these people to work on Mortal Kombat games.

Most people can't idly quit their jobs you know.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Ugh...Kotaku.

Can you actually point out any factual errors in their article? If not I?m going to have to ask you to actually contribute to the thread.

OT: The more I hear about the Mortal Kombat studio, the more I?m glad I have no interest in their games. I really don?t want to support their behavior.

I am just amazed people still posting Kotaku after they have been exposed as a yellow journalist/clickbait article website. This whole article reads like vacuous clickbait.

Yeah except the site does do fairly good investigative journalism, as seen with the whole Anthem incident. Again, if you want to ignore the article, please prove it wrong. Also don't confuse "they have been exposed as yellow journalism" with "I think they're yellow journalism."

Well I find it very convenient this bit of news came out with MK 11 is struggling with controversy already.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Step in the direction of maturity with the costume redesigns, and apparently five step backwards for everything else...

 

[Wakey87]

Awesome. If this is a marketing ploy, well done. This is how you stir up some controversy.

But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. These people should probably be better vetted, I much rather my games being made as a labor of love rather than just a pay check.

 

[Casual Shinji]

If that 'watch real-life gruesome shit for research' bit is actually true.. fucking yikes.

I mean, I understand needing look up some less than savory things when trying to capture the horror and shock of physical violence in fiction, but I would assume there's plenty of medical documentation for that. If I want to get an accurate idea of the human skeleton I don't need to see real flesh-stripped human remains, I can just look at one of those plastic models and than maybe some pictures of pig bones for the colour.

Sure, if you want to look at that type of stuff to be as accurate as you can, by all means, but if your boss tells (forces) you to then that's fucked up.

 

[CritialGaming]

This sounds like a load of bogusness to me. You sign up for a job like Mortal Kombat, you know what you are working on, you know what the job is gonna entail. There should be some aspect of having to deal with some sort research in regards to the job. This job happens to deal with gore, and maybe you might have to check out gore or horror movies in order to gleam ideas for how to make the violence in the game have impact and meaning.

Nobody forces you to work on that. It isn't like Mortal Kombat's past is a secret, you should know what the game's content is and what it will entail.

See I really don't like this whole movement where everyone's job has to be this comfy cozy wonderful place where everything is lolli-pops and gumdrops, and everyone is friends and nobody makes a joke that offends even the most uptight of grandma's. Life is hard, people work on oil rigs and deep inside coal mines. People die at work, people deal with real shit, and this just likes like a bunch of babies that want to complain about everything.

People don't always get along, people all have different senses of humor, people all see life differently, expecting the whole world to conform to this Bowling-lane-bumper safety pin of life is just insane. Grow up. Be an adult.

Don't like crunch periods? Get another job. Don't like working on the subject matter of a giving game or project? Get another job?

All these stupid reports of people work 100 hours weeks acting like it's the end of the world for them is nonsense. Those people are all paid for that, and crunch is extremely temporary.

What about all the business men on salary, working late into the night to make deals in our parts of the world? Or the traveling sales man who is forces to be on the road 8 months out of the year and barely gets to sleep in his own bed?

I don't see anybody pleading a case for those folks?

What I do see, is people at Riot who can't handle working with other people that make jokes they don't like. Get a new job.
People who complain that the last three months of a two year progress makes them work extra hours for a few weeks to finish the game before deadline. Get a new job.

For fucks sake these developers sit in front of a computer all day. Go try working an Alaskan fishing boat. Or see how hard it is to get a 100 pounds of table salt from a mine.

So sorry you have to sit in your air conditioned office longer than normal for a few weeks. The world is a terrible place.

 

[Abomination]

I mean, no one is forcing these people to work on Mortal Kombat games.

Yeah, they're not "holding a gun to their head"...