Will gamers become disgusted with video game violence as graphics move closer to photo realism?

[Ronald Nand]

Today graphics technology is becoming more and more powerful, PC's and Consoles will continue to increase their processing power and the industry seems to be mostly interested in making the best looking game, so there's little doubt that we are going closer to photo-realistic graphical fidelity.

But what does that mean for violent video games? If graphics such as environments become more photo-realistic so must our violence as there will be disconnect between the look of violence and the look of other things otherwise. Most games have violence playing a significant or star role, there usually some shooting, hack and slash or beat em up gameplay in every game we play with the exception of some genres.

Photo-realism can have a significant impact on how a gamer views the violence they commit in a game. Take Hotline Miami, I imagine if we game that game realistic looking graphics it would not be popular at all, infact many gamers would be disgusted with it, the pixel art graphics style helps create distance between our actions and the real impact of that violence, the game would be difficult to stomach without that distance.

So will gamers become disgusted with photo realistic violence such as the realistic impact of shooting someone in the heat or cutting an enemy in half, we may be in a situation where frequent animations and actions look like things you would find in an Eli Roth movie. Could this cause gamers to avoid heavily violent games, or start literally dehumanizing the enemies we fight in games, like turning the humans we shoot in FPS games into demons or monsters?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Actually quite the opposite, I think we'll become more and more desensitized to the effect.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Some gamers might. For me though, the biggest thing about death isn't about the graphical portrayal of it, but the response of the game-world. Death is hardly ever treated as a serious event in video games. I think seeing more realistic repercussions for death would do more to stimulate emotional reactions than simply having a realistic portrayal of the act of dying.

 

[BraveSirRobin]

I think we're still pretty damn far off from anything close to calling photo realism. Until an enemies guts start falling out every time you slash them with a sword it's going to be hard to really disgust people. Even then we're looking at a really gradual progression up to that point so likely it will slowly ramp up which will make it less shocking and fairly standard when we do get there. And honestly that could actually make for some great story telling. There is a lot of interesting story decisions you could create around the basis that this type of violence really should disgust you.

Though if movies are any kind of example, even as we approach photo realistic graphics the violence you see in games will maybe get a bit more graphic but will remain a far cry from the results the actions would produce in real life.

 

[briankoontz]

It doesn't matter. The graphical quality doesn't change the real meaning of a video game.

To see how silly that argument is along with the opposite one (more and more desensitized) consider a movie - according to this argument people would get more and more offended by on-screen violence as the screen resolution increased - so HD murders are worse than non-HD murders and old-timey murders on black and white TV sets are practically innocent.

How a player views a murder in a video game depends on the meaning of the murder in the video game, just like how you view a murder in a movie depends on the meaning of the murder in the movie.

So a player who's saving the world, one corpse at a time enjoys murdering monsters because each kill makes him more powerful and thus better able to save the world and each kill weakens the enemy forces. The meaning of the murders is not impacted at all by the graphical quality.

What matters in how a player views video game murders is how he interprets the murders. Developers can impact how a player views video game murder, like in Spec Ops: The Line, but graphical quality is not a factor.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Nope, I will relish in it.

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."
- Desiderius Erasmus,

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

We may add more pixels and what not, but I don't think we are trying to make the violence more real. Simply because it would really freak people out to play a game with realistic violence rather then other over top stuff we have now.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Not me at least, I have never had a problem admitting that I enjoy me some ultra violent gaming after my daughter goes to bed. Bring on that photo realistic super gore, the more over the top the better.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I don't know, I enjoy getting my cage rattled but it still has to look fake neough for me to... appreciate it, I suppose.
The Last Of Us had some pretty intense violence, it really rattled my cage, sometimes it still does; whether it's because of the visuals of the feel of it, I don't know, but it's getting there.
I saw some people in the comments for Mortal Kombat X previews who said that the game looks way too real for them, and I can't blame them, it's really getting there, I'm still going to play it but if it gets too real, I don't know, I might opt out.

 

[Super Cyborg]

The only possible thing I can see is people getting tired of gory/violent video games. Most games are going to have some sort of violent action in it, whether it's beating up enemies or destroying stuff, but people might eventually get tired of the blood and constant death that they want something new. I played God of War, and while fun, didn't care for all the blood and other stuff. I like the cartoony type games that depict fighting in over the top ways and not bloody, like God Hand. Those who are already protesting about Video Games causing violence might try to use it to their advantage, but overall, I have to say no.

Captcha: heebie jeebies
I don't think people will be having that kind of reaction captcha.

 

[Smooth Operator]

People who cringe at gory movies might, otherwise it's just more of that.
What makes my stomach turn is when the display really invokes the idea that real people got really hurt, but as long as there are merely stunt puppets there is no amount of blood and guts that will make me care.

 

[Remus]

Movies have certain limits as to how "real" they can make graphic violence. That's one reason the color and consistency of blood in those horror flicks is never exactly right. I suspect videogames will go through a similar phase as graphic fidelity passes that uncanny hump. There will always be a place for blood and gore in videogames, but unless the intent is use as an educational exercise for EMTs, I doubt realism will ever truly reach the plateau people think it might.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Movies have had "realistic" violence for ages and nobody seems to have been too revolted by it. And no matter how photo realistic something looks, the human eye can always tell when something is fabricated.

 

[m19]

The violence will become as stylised as it is in movies and that will be that.

 

[Majinash]

Movies have had "realistic" violence for ages and nobody seems to have been too revolted by it. And no matter how photo realistic something looks, the human eye can always tell when something is fabricated.

I think Jim did a bit about this, where he showed an actual death caught on film, to just people just how different they see real death vs fake death.

Movies have live action death and I don't bat an eye. But I've seen my share of real death and it bothers me everytime.

So no, Don't think better graphics will change this.

EDIT: Looking at it again I feel like I quoted too much there. I don't at all agree that the human eye can always tell when something is fabricated. I should have only quoted the first sentance there, not both.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Movies have had "realistic" violence for ages and nobody seems to have been too revolted by it. And no matter how photo realistic something looks, the human eye can always tell when something is fabricated.

I think Jim did a bit about this, where he showed an actual death caught on film, to just people just how different they see real death vs fake death.

Movies have live action death and I don't bat an eye. But I've seen my share of real death and it bothers me everytime.

So no, Don't think better graphics will change this.

Found it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6692-Desensitized-to-Violence

Warning, contains footage of Budd Dwyer's suicide

 

[Vausch]

Doubt it. The games that have made me wince the most when seeing violence was during Walking Dead, when Lee has to hack off a guy's leg with an axe and it took so many whacks to do it. I was with Yahtzee, curled up in my chair and thinking "Oh god oh god oh god."

The other was during season 2, when Clementine has to sew up a wound herself. That was probably the hardest thing to watch because it was not only painful from experience, but went through every detail.

 

[Evonisia]

I think we will be in the same position we are now, desensitised to video game violence. Video games, comics, film, hell mostly everything show a stylised or exaggerated version of normal violence. People will be able to tell the difference when somebody is punched or shot right in front of them in real life and react accordingly.

However I do think it will make us care less when to comes to theories. I imagine playing violent video games will lesson your reaction to the idea of somebody getting shot, then said person will get a big shock when it actually happens.

 

[stroopwafel]

In my opinion proper particle effects and physics play a much larger role making violence 'realistic' than photo realistic character models. Like Resident Evil 4, RE Remake, Dead Space 2, Last of Us, Max Payne 3 and one of the most underrated gems in videogame history: Manhunt. Atleast the particle effects in these games made it feel/look like bullets had actual impact, something most games lack. If it still feels like shooting at papier mache, rubber dolls or(worst of all) nothing than making enemies look photo realistic won't make the actual violence look more realistic.

As a side note Sniper Elite V2 got the sound effects right. When you shoot at an enemy's head with a sniper rifle in that game first you hear the *ping* of the bullet entering the helmet, than *crack* of the bullet ripping the skull followed by *splat* as the brain turns to mush. All in gory X-ray kill cam! For such a mediocre game I thought that was pretty neat. Sniper Elite 3 unfortunately didn't really seem to have these little details in the sound effects.

Imagine designers getting both physics, AI, sound and particle effects and photo realistic graphics right. Now that would be rad!

 

[Thebazilly]

Movies have had "realistic" violence for ages and nobody seems to have been too revolted by it. And no matter how photo realistic something looks, the human eye can always tell when something is fabricated.

I think Jim did a bit about this, where he showed an actual death caught on film, to just people just how different they see real death vs fake death.

Movies have live action death and I don't bat an eye. But I've seen my share of real death and it bothers me everytime.

So no, Don't think better graphics will change this.

Found it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6692-Desensitized-to-Violence

Warning, contains footage of Budd Dwyer's suicide

This topic made me think of this video immediately. There's a difference between movie/tv/video game/whatever death and real death. This video of suicide is intensely disturbing and unsettling, and I have never felt anything like that from a form of entertainment, because it exists to entertain, and giving the audience PTSD isn't really going to achieve that.