Poll: Would you turn off the blood if you could?

[Mr. Socky]

The statement "Can You turn off the Blood?" is widely criticized on the web, with the person who posted it getting ridiculed to no end for being a "wuss". With the hyper-violent Prototype being released, several threads have already popped up on the subject. Most people have responded with things like "You're stupid".

Mostly, I'm wondering how many people actually use options like this in a game. Personally, I often do, because I just don't care for the unrealistic gore portrayed in a lot of games. There are very few games with realistic models of how people react when they get shot.
Any and all thoughts are appreciated, including the "No blood and guts is for wusses". Finally, do you think it is appropriate for little Jimmy to be playing Gears of War (and other violent games) with everything turned off?

 

[XJ-0461]

Probably not. But I don't really buy hyper-violent games.

 

[Radeonx]

Its not bad when used properly, but if the entire point of the game is to blow stuff up and see fountains of blood spurting throughout the land, then there's a problem.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

It doesn't really bother me, unless your screen fills with so much blood you can't see what's going on...

The only game I can remember having the option to turn off blood was Tony Hawks 4 and to be honest I don't really mess with options.

 

[blackshark121]

I think its funny how much blood we allow in games that are T, but as soon as one nipple is shown, its "OMGOMG NUDUTY M RATING PROTECT THE CHILDREN". Doesn't one think that all the blood might not be good for a child's psyche, but a little nudity won't hurt anyone?

 

[Yooz]

Hell to the no. I play violent games for the blood!!!

 

[Baby Tea]

I can understand why people would want that option.
I don't use it, myself, but it's an understandable want for some people.

Same with turning off swearing. I get why, I just don't do it.

And as for those who do want it off, well that's their choice. If they don't like it, they don't like it. It's no more, or less, a point of preference then what genre of game they are playing.

 

[ZeroMachine]

The only reason I'd turn the blood off in a game if it was for PC and it would help the game run a LOT better.

Other than that, there's no reason to even have the option, and considering the controversy about violent games, I'm shocked the option is even given. What's more desensitizing? Showing a realistic portrayal of someone being shot and blood squirting out as a result, or having COD 4 look like a paintball game, making young children think "war ain't hell, it's just fun!"

Well... young, dumb children with naturally violent tendencies, that is.

 

[Circus Ascendant]

The option is stupid. There is no point to it. If little Jimmy wants the violent game, and his parents turn the blood off... he'll just turn the blood back on again. Pointless.

Unless you password protect it, I guess, but...

Nah. I'm not a gore junkie who won't play a game unless it's filled with gore, but if it has gore and the option to turn it off there's no way I'm using it.

 

[Subhazard]

I really hate lowering the bar, or dulling things for the weak among us. Gore is never really a selling point for me, however I don't want the devs wasting their time developing a non gore system just because they want to appeal to more people.

 

[Fightbulb]

Nah, unless the blood is replaced with something comical, like the flowers in Alien Hominid.

 

[Spirit_Of_Fire]

Hell no. I love the way in gears when you chainsaw a locust there blood splatters everywhere. I don't find blood off putting or grose in anyway.

 

[Mr. Socky]

I think its funny how much blood we allow in games that are T, but as soon as one nipple is shown, its "OMGOMG NUDUTY M RATING PROTECT THE CHILDREN". Doesn't one think that all the blood might not be good for a child's psyche, but a little nudity won't hurt anyone?

Personally I think that Nudity in games is more damaging that violence, simply because violence is violence. The person is getting hurt in the game, period. The degree of blood won't change that. But given the hyper-sexuality status of video game women, getting shown a whole bunch of stuff that you would never see in real life would be rather confusing to a younger person, who might now think that every women should look better than a super model. Of course that might happen anyway, nude or no, but I imagine a "birthday suit" would be a lot more memorable (and therefore more influential) than violence.

 

[Johnmw]

No. Nothing bothers me more than shooting someone's limbs off and there not being even a tiny splatter of blood. Also little Jimmy (heh I always use a fictitious little Timmy. They should be friends >.>) should not be playing violent games no matter what. Infact the whole Gears 2 issue of chainsawing the enemy and having bright colourful sparkles come out is actually a bad idea.
Generally kids are taught blood = bad, sparkles = good. So little Jimmy may just want to release all the cute sparklies inside his friend Suzy (Jimmy has a friend called Suzy now. Deal with it) without even having the basic understanding that it could hurt her.

Good point well made.
Jimmy shouldn't be sheilded from the reprocussions of actions. In a violent game portraying being on the end of a Fist/chainsaw/bullet/spiky cactus/nuclearpowerd shark has to be portrayed as painfull or little Jim (I know him well enough to call him that) will have an unrealistic idea of what would happen if he shot his friends with a crazed radioactive shark.
Violent games need gore not just because the lack of it is unrealistic (an excess is better than a defecit), but because there is, as avykins has already pointed out, something deeply annoying about blowing the head off someone and nothing coming out. In games that do this you just KNOW it was so the developer could get it rated 15 rather than 18 (I think that translates to T rather than M...not sure as i'm a London boy)

 

[Lyri]

I don't really notice the blood to be honest.