Poll: The a blood on/off option be available in violent games
- Thread starter KnightOfHearts
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Dead Space is an action-horror game. Since the gore is used to unnerve the player it is an essential part of the gameplay and what got the game classified as an "action-horror game". Without the gore, it would no longer be classified as an 'action horror game", it would be classified as simply an "action game". You might argue that the game would still be scary even without the gore but the developers obviously thought otherwise because if that was the case, they wouldn't have included it.apsham said:
This in all it's simple perfection.Lukeje said:
It's always been a bit of an oddity to me, the whole "turning the blood off" in games. I think I'd much rather show blood and gore in games than some odd depiction of violence in which people get brutalized and then twinkle and disappear, or rag-doll. You get shot, bad things happen, the least of which is bleeding.
There should be an option for "I don't care," or "It doesn't matter."
I have no problem with a "blood off" option, but I will never use it. Also, while I can see how it might be nice for some, I won't actively champion it.
I have no problem with a "blood off" option, but I will never use it. Also, while I can see how it might be nice for some, I won't actively champion it.
You or him are NOT being discriminated against by not having this option in certain horror, gore oriented games. What I am saying is that, if you decide to take out something so big in a game, where the gore aspect uses such tactics TO CAUSE TENSION, STRESS, HORROR, DISGUST, SHOCK AND FEAR ALL THE TIME, which is the type of game they are trying to make, and plays an important part in such a game, and that those tactics are the main point of making such genre of game (other wise it would just be a sci fi action with a bit of a plot).apsham said:
In removing such gore, you will then end up having a game that is "meh" and not amazing because you are trying to make a game into two different things which panders to two entirely different crowds. It just cannot be done. Not just that, with the amount of gore in DS, you would have to try and change many things just because some people are iffy about a horror/gore oriented game that is for a specific genre and crowd.
What you are suggesting is trying to make Dead Space into something that it is not, and can never be, and will never work as taking the horror aspect out of a horror game and trying to fit it into another genre by just doing that will cause the game to fail. It was never set up to be like that.
By removing something so dominant, prominent and important to the game itself, you are changing what it is. You cannot just make a horror game that focuses on the gore aspect to scare and shock people, to change so it has little to no gore in it to pander to people who don't like gore in the first place.
I mean, what the hell?! It is a horror game that even advertises itself on being so gory. Take out the gore and it will not be able to be a great game, since it was meant to be something very different.
Tbh, if it was set up in such a way that turning off persistant blood effects and blood in general made it less processor intensive then I'd be all for it, I turn off shadow effects when gaming on my laptop because they add little to the experience (to me your opinion may differ) and I'd do the same with blood.
I think that as a rule "More options" is always a good thing. Of course my option will always be set to "MAXIMUM CARNAGE", but I don't see how giving the player choice could be a bad thing.
I also think that co-op games should have a Horizontal/Vertical toggle for split screen games, there should always be an option to leave out swearing or add bleeps, and every game every made in the history of ever should have customizable button layouts. Maybe I don't want to hit "Y" to jump Fallout 3, maybe I want that to be a left stick click. How about letting the player make the choice that suits them eh?
I also think that co-op games should have a Horizontal/Vertical toggle for split screen games, there should always be an option to leave out swearing or add bleeps, and every game every made in the history of ever should have customizable button layouts. Maybe I don't want to hit "Y" to jump Fallout 3, maybe I want that to be a left stick click. How about letting the player make the choice that suits them eh?
I have no desire to turn the blood/gore off, but I wouldn't be upset or offended if there was an option there to do so. If someone wants to turn the blood off, then let them; if you don't, just leave the box unchecked. There could be an option to replace each character model with a giant throbbing penis, and I wouldn't mind at all as long as I didn't have to turn it on.
Certain games I feel need it to really work. Dead Space and Prototype are both such games, as they're working with this sort of inhuman reviving agent that in the former utilizes the body more like a puppet than the usual taking it over completely and in the later is all about just how horrible the infection is.
Other times, the gore can be used to show just how horrible a death would be if it happened to you, which is great for a horror theme in games (like with Bioshock, where the Big Daddies wouldn't be half as intimidating if not for how they were introduced with accompanying gore).
There are indeed some games where the gore wouldn't really matter and you could get the same visceral feeling of combat just by how things play out (consider Devil May Cry, where you'll almost never notice the blood, but you'll notice how you just backflipped off one person only to cartwheel using your sword onto two others and end with a large heavy hit). Other games, it just uses it to enhance the action (such as Gears of War).
However, stuff like God of War uses gore and blood because there's honestly no way you could not use them with a character like Kratos and how he kills. While you could make the case that there would be no need for it when fighting regular enemies, whenever a finisher comes up, there'd be no avoiding it. It was also used in the first game to give you a huge contrast between what Kratos had become compared to a normal human when you saw how enemies ripped apart the latter with relative ease every time they were introduced. It also served to help build up such a fear in a later portion of the game when enemies were targeting someone you were meant to care about, with the threat of them being turned into small giblets being a horrific conclusion you wanted to desperately avoid (similarly, this kind of thing shows up in the newest Deus Ex and is the one reason why I'm never going to get the pacifist award as I refuse to let one character that I like get torn apart just because the game doesn't give me the nonlethal ammo I need to stop a swarm of enemies from killing them). Similarly, The Darkness is a game that characterizes its main not so psychopathic lead as well as uses the apprehension it creates by using gore, so this type of approach isn't just something that works only for Kratos.
So in the end, it all comes down to how gore and blood is being used in a game. If it's not necessary to the game, then yeah, I'm all for the no gore option being in there (I actually played the first Gears game like this because it was the only way I could get my parents to let my younger brother to coop with me, as it got rid of some of the language as well, which is a completely different topic). However, some games it just can't work for.
Also, I'm unsure about the programming required for all this, but if it is actually asking for a lot to give this option, then know that I'm not advocating forcing this option to be in all games.
Other times, the gore can be used to show just how horrible a death would be if it happened to you, which is great for a horror theme in games (like with Bioshock, where the Big Daddies wouldn't be half as intimidating if not for how they were introduced with accompanying gore).
There are indeed some games where the gore wouldn't really matter and you could get the same visceral feeling of combat just by how things play out (consider Devil May Cry, where you'll almost never notice the blood, but you'll notice how you just backflipped off one person only to cartwheel using your sword onto two others and end with a large heavy hit). Other games, it just uses it to enhance the action (such as Gears of War).
However, stuff like God of War uses gore and blood because there's honestly no way you could not use them with a character like Kratos and how he kills. While you could make the case that there would be no need for it when fighting regular enemies, whenever a finisher comes up, there'd be no avoiding it. It was also used in the first game to give you a huge contrast between what Kratos had become compared to a normal human when you saw how enemies ripped apart the latter with relative ease every time they were introduced. It also served to help build up such a fear in a later portion of the game when enemies were targeting someone you were meant to care about, with the threat of them being turned into small giblets being a horrific conclusion you wanted to desperately avoid (similarly, this kind of thing shows up in the newest Deus Ex and is the one reason why I'm never going to get the pacifist award as I refuse to let one character that I like get torn apart just because the game doesn't give me the nonlethal ammo I need to stop a swarm of enemies from killing them). Similarly, The Darkness is a game that characterizes its main not so psychopathic lead as well as uses the apprehension it creates by using gore, so this type of approach isn't just something that works only for Kratos.
So in the end, it all comes down to how gore and blood is being used in a game. If it's not necessary to the game, then yeah, I'm all for the no gore option being in there (I actually played the first Gears game like this because it was the only way I could get my parents to let my younger brother to coop with me, as it got rid of some of the language as well, which is a completely different topic). However, some games it just can't work for.
Also, I'm unsure about the programming required for all this, but if it is actually asking for a lot to give this option, then know that I'm not advocating forcing this option to be in all games.
I can't see a downside with giving players more options. I wouldn't use it, but I'd like it to be there. If I play a gory game I want the gore. I'm a bit of a purist, if the designers think the gore would somehow help the experience, I'd want it. That said, I've never seen the appeal of gore, I'm just saying that it could complement if used well.
Yes.
Yes, if at an extreme.
Nah, could be a lot worse.
Yes.
Yes, if at an extreme.
WillN7 said:
This. Sometimes the blood is just plain off-putting. Some games go a bit over the top with it, and that takes me out of the moment with how ridiculous it seems. Also, if a person wants to play a violent game without blood spraying in their faces, I feel that's their perogative.
It doesn't just add to the experience, it's an integral part of it. Removing the gore from Dead Space would be like removing the monsters from Doom. What you're asking is just plain moronic. If gore is such a big put off for you in games which use gore as a central theme for essentially everything they have to offer then maybe you should consider buying a different game.apsham said:
In regards to the poll. If developers want to create a game that appeals to a certain audience then they should be free to do so and if you're put off by the content of said game then you're obviously not in the intended audience.
I have nothing against it, but I don't think it should be mandatory for a game. Actually, until reading this thread, I only thought of the turn off gore and language features in Gears of War 2 and 3 were used in case of near by children while playing.
So, I would be a really don't care on the poll (Which doesn't exist apparently).
So, I would be a really don't care on the poll (Which doesn't exist apparently).
This has already been implemented in games from about 1995 and before. Games like Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad and I think Hexen and Heretic (and Unreal Tournament) had the option to turn off any gore. Personally, I never bothered with it - I like to play games in the way they were meant to be played.