Lesson 8-Violence and Games Flashcards
What was a violent, controversial game?
Splatterhouse. The game gives you a massive meat cleaver which lets you chop the heads off enemies and green goo explodes out of their neck stumps
There was a japanese and american version(american version was toned down)
Painting that created a legacy in the gore visual aesthetic found in games
Francisco De Goya’s Saturn Devouring his son
What genre emerged from the 1980s
The platformer
What is platforming?
Jumping onto, and swinging between platforms
The first platforms had static screens
What is the best known static screen platformer?
Donkey Kong. But the idea of having these screens stitched together, where when you got to the edge of one screen you'd jump to the next, was really kind of a middle ground that took us from the static screen platformer of Donkey Kong, to the scrolling platformer that we saw later.
What are common in platformers today?
Power-ups(ex. mario can have fireball power when he touches the fire flower
What was the advantage of the game, Faith. Why was violence secondary?
End of 8-1
Because the designs of the game utilized on Faith’s stealth and running abilities.
Sega’s Nights Into Dreams was very underreated. But what did it do a good job at? (Think of Kingdom Hearts)
Controlling your character while moving the camera at the same time. It did a really good job taking advantage of these sorts of constraints
What was the controversial game that had a Japanese and American version?
Splatterhouse. The Japanese version was much more violent than the american one.
A massive meat cleaver lets you chop the heads off enemies and green goo explodes out of their neck stumps. Additionally the green blood splattered in the setting stays where it is, and provides a sort of aesthetic for the game.
What is the painting that left a legacy on games?
Francisco De Goya’s painting, Saturn Devouring his son
Violence is a part of how we tell stories, and how they can actually shape a game mechanic. SO which game uses stylized violence but does so ineffectively?
The game, Dante’s Inferno which follows the original epic poem. It could be argued that the game follows the spirit of the original.
ex. Dante’s lover Beatrice is slaughtered in the game. The gory scene is meant to motivate the hero to take action, but its gratuity and senselessness comes off as lazy writing. (female in the refrigerator)
It also depicts Beatrice poorly
From an aesthetic standpoint, violence can
be used within the narrative to set a mood and a sense of urgency within the story
Given our discussion then, the purpose of blood and gore in a game is. A, to induce gut-wrenching fear in the player. B, to give the player a sense of agency as he or she witnesses the incredible power of their avatar. C, to provide hilarious and excessive death animations that amuse the player. D, to add nothing. Publishers force studios to use these elements to increase sales. Or E, dependent upon the way these elements are used in context with the game's genre, story, and mechanics.
End of 8-2-Blood and Gore
E is the most correct answer because context is what matters. The meaning of blood and gore in a game is dependent on, and changes with the context of that game.
What do most games use to keep the player engaged? (This is what you would call a game mechanic)
They use feedback mechanisms. Since games are interactive mediums, players are able to receive feedback, for all kinds of actions like solving puzzles, exploration, treasure finding etc.
But in the context of violence, the feedback mechanism may be good or bad. Such as you are punished for unlawfully killing a citizen for doing nothing at all in Assassin’s Creed.
End of 8-2-Blood and Gore
….
Which game (from the same company as Ultima III) allowed players to kill NPCs with little consequence?
Crusader: No Remorse
The protagonist is an assassin sent to infiltrate a heartless multinational corporation.
The assassin generally kills guards, but what is most troubling is that the player is allowed to kill office or construction workers with little to no consequence. The player is not punished, but rather is rewarded with loot drops.
While the Ultima series has punitive consequences for undeserved violence, The Crusader series upended(basically contrast) that mechanic by giving rewards for killing harmless NPCs
Where did the term NPC first rise in?
In tabletop role-playing games where the dungeon master or game master would control these characters.
What is the reason for displaying two games that contrast each other in relation to feedback mechanisms in games?
To show that games really have no middle ground. The point is that in many games, consequences for killing are unidirectional.
You are either rewarded or punished for killing an NPC
Sometimes, the issues of consequences from violent actions is neither about rewards nor punishments. What do they sometimes involve(in relation to a character/player’s conscience?)
What is a game that demonstrates this element when dealing with violence in games?
end of 8-3-Consequences and Morality
Sometimes they involve making moral choices.
This changes the relationship to the game and gives the player a moral context. They player can choose to avoid or commit act of violence.
The game is Fallout. In dialogue, the player is often presented with the option to talk their way out of a situation or bribe, or attack the NPC to get what they want.
The choice the player makes affects the story of the game.
It is worth noting that these feedback mechanisms are long term, so players have to think hard about their choices
different note: Dishonored is a good game that rewards the player for using non lethal methods to solve puzzles. Rewards for player is that they have better relationships with NPCs
Many games use violence to manage progression.
What is an example of this? And what is the term for this example called?
Practically almost any RPG game since you need to kill a boss to advance in the game.
The term is gating. Gating keeps a player confined to a certain space until they satisfy some condition. Think of the Legend of Zelda, where when Link is in a dungeon, he enters a room. Suddenly there is a gate that shuts behind him. He looks, but he knows there is no escape. He looks back forward, and there is a miniboss in which he must defeat to get the key treasure item as well as make the gates retreat from their blocking position.
Many games use violence to manage progression.
What is an example of this? And what is the term for this example called?
Practically almost any RPG game since you need to kill a boss to advance in the game.
The term is gating. Gating keeps a player confined to a certain space until they satisfy some condition. Think of the Legend of Zelda, where when Link is in a dungeon, he enters a room. Suddenly there is a gate that shuts behind him. He looks, but he knows there is no escape. He looks back forward, and there is a miniboss in which he must defeat to get the key treasure item as well as make the gates retreat from their blocking position.
What is the distinction between passive and active violence?
In Postal 2, the player must, passively view violence throughout the game but the player does not have to actively commit any violent acts.
The player is put into frustrating situations like waiting in a long line at the bank, which encourages them to commit the violent act. Or the player is put into dangerous situations like being attacked by hate mobs. Regardless if the player decides to act violent or not, the story moves on. The violent acts are always optional in Postal 2.
Some game manipulates the plater into committing acts of violence against innocents. What is the term for this?
end of 8-4- Violence and Mechanics
The unreliable narrator. The unreliable narrator misleads the player into believing one thing, when in fact reality is much different. The player does horrific acts of violence for what they thought were ethical reasons.
ex. in DreamWeb, the narrator convinces the plater to commit a series of murders in order to prevent a world apocalypse. What the player does not know, is that the protagonist is undergoing a psychotic episode. By the end of the end, the player learns that they have killed seven innocent people, due to the unreliable narrator. In other words, the player does horrific acts of violence for what they thought were ethical reasons. But these reasons came from the mind of a delusional man.
What is the term for where games try to finesse(make delicate) morality and violence by making the player walk a moral tightrope?
Ethical harm.
In the game Wasteland, Bobby begs you not to kill his rabid dog Rex. If you kill the dog, Bobby attacks you and your party. What if you just let the situation be(in which the rabid dog will probably infect others)
Some game manipulates the plater into committing acts of violence against innocents. What is the term for this?
end of 8-4- Violence and Mechanics
The unreliable narrator. The unreliable narrator misleads the player into believing one thing, when in fact reality is much different. The player does horrific acts of violence for what they thought were ethical reasons.
ex. in DreamWeb, the narrator convinces the plater to commit a series of murders in order to prevent a world apocalypse. What the player does not know, is that the protagonist is undergoing a psychotic episode. By the end of the end, the player learns that they have killed seven innocent people, due to the unreliable narrator. In other words, the player does horrific acts of violence for what they thought were ethical reasons. But these reasons came from the mind of a delusional man.
The big elephant in the room is that we have been ignoring the relationship between violence and realism, and how they bleed into one another. Realism is part of a larger conversation about violence and aesthetics. So now, we will be focusing on how realism plays a role in aesthetics of games
….
Gory and cartoony games tend to stylize violence by depicting it in a…
less realistic fashion. It goes to show the different portrayals of violence can lead to an emotional response.
What was seen as brutal, photorealistic violence?
Mortal Kombat II. Though now it is seen as over-the-top cartoonish violence
House of the Dead chooses to make zombie blood green instead of red. Which makes things seem a little more cartoonish.
What is something in the real world that allows for graphics and physics in a game seem more realistic?
engine technology which allows developers to produce more realistic physics simulation. They spend millions to create realistic physics simulation to increase the degree of realism.Developers assume that realistic physics simulations lead to improved player immersion
While in Devil May Cry, the physics is over realistic making the gameplay feel more cartoony ballet, it borders on comedic(and awesome in my opinion)
Point is, we feel something when we are put in a violent situation. Going back to Goya’s painting, most people feel pretty squeamish looking it at. But there is more to psychological violence than blood and guts.
What are the three claims that game violence research proposes?
Exposure to violence desensitizes individuals to real violence
video game violence causes individuals to act more aggressively
the more realistic violence in the game is, graphically, physically, or contextually, the more likely the person is to express aggressive thoughts
Over all, there are complex relationships between a game’s mechanics, its story, its characters and how the character experiences all these things together. The simple good and evil dichotomies that make headlines for media do injustice to the ethically gray world of game violence.
End of 8-5-Violence as aesthetic
…
Despite the mimicry, children do not outright copy behaviour, they modify it a little as they internalize it. So in relation to the children behaviour, what do we do?
We also internalize violence as a belief or thought and potentially act on it. From this, we reframe our whole persepctive: When a person experiences violent beliefs, they are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as hostile in nature.
EX. After playing a few hours of Gears of war 2, video game violence causes individuals to act more aggressively
the more realistic violence in the game is, graphically, physically, or contextually, the more likely the person is to express aggressive thoughts
The two questions,
video game violence causes individuals to act more aggressively
and
the more realistic violence in the game is, graphically, physically, or contextually, the more likely the person is to express aggressive thoughts
are based on which psychological theorist?
A. Jean Piaget
B. Carl Rogers
C. Alberta Bandura
D. William James
What is the man’s theory called and what does it do?
Alberta Bandura
Bandura’s social learning theory was based on a series of experiments involving children modeling violent adult behavior.
video game violence causes individuals to act more aggressively
the more realistic violence in the game is, graphically, physically, or contextually, the more likely the person is to express aggressive thoughts
General idea behind this social theory is mimicry
If kids see something violent on tv, theyre more likely to do something violent in real life.
Despite the mimicry, children do not outright copy behaviour, they modify it a little as they internalize it. So in relation to the children behaviour, what do we do?
We also internalize violence as a belief or thought and potentially act on it. From this, we reframe our whole persepctive: When a person experiences violent beliefs, they are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as hostile in nature.
A frequently cited meta-study, showed a positive correlation between engaging in violent behavior in video games and one, experiencing violent thoughts afterwards. Two, desensitization towards violence. And three, a lack of empathy, and antisocial behavior.
What does this mean?
It suggests when we see violence on a screen, we experience negative personal effects. However there are many critiques of this perspective.
Do academics dispute the idea that certain video games are violent in theme or content, or would they dispute the meanings and consequences of violence in video games?
They would dispute the latter since video games, when they have violence, they have violence. There is nothing to dispute about the designer’s choices.
When academics discuss research that has methodological problems, we mean that, A, the researchers used the wrong theory when supporting their claim. B, what is being introduced as a problem isn't a real problem. C, the research techniques are either not valid, or inappropriate. Or D, the researchers didn't include enough people in their study.
The correct answer is C.
This criticism is levelled at researchers
when someone asserts that the research
techniques were invalid or inappropriate,
or perhaps were poorly executed.
What are some major methodological problems when researching about game violence
the level in which game violence affects a person is hard to measure since people come from a variety of backgrounds and it is unethical to get the case study to harm another case study. It is not accurate to make a case study(after playing the violent game) create a bowl of the spiciest liquid that they would give to a person based on their amount of violence. This is called the Hot Sauce Paradigm Sometimes an annoying sound(to an imaginary victim) is used instead of Hot sauce. Furthermore, all subjects know they’re participating in an experiment that has passed ethics review they all know or suspect that there is no person they are harming. There are also built in biases in how journals publish positive and negative results. So far, there is no answer to whether video games cause increased violent behaviour or decreased empathy.
ex. Undergraduates are either exposed to a violent game like Mortal Kombat or a non-violent game like Tetris. Afterwards, the experimenters try to indirectly measure if playing the game changed that person's level of aggression or violent thought
Bandura suggested that children who witness an adult beating up an inflatable toy, a Bobo doll in this case, were more likely to copy that behavior. Bandura argued that children learn to act by modeling adults, and mimicking their behavior.
Bandura's social learning theory is based on the assumption that, A, witnessing violent behavior only has a psychological effect when it is experienced in real life. B, for violent behavior to have an impact on an observer, it has to appear real. Meaning this theory does not apply to animations, or drawings. C, the observation of violent behavior can lead to the replication of that behavior. Or D, witnessing violent behavior only has an effect on people who are already predisposed to aggression.
The answer is C. What Bandura is saying is that the mere observation of some behavior, violent or otherwise, helps to teach the observers about that behavior. His Bobo doll study showed that children who witnessed other people acting violently towards an inflatable doll were more likely to repeat the same behavior.
What were some methodological problems with Bandura’s study?
First, Bandura's study itself was fraught with ethical challenges. The children were taunted, put into unfamiliar situations, and teased about toys they couldn't play with. It was highly problematic and wouldn't pass an ethics review board in that form today. Second, many other studies, as mentioned, use undergraduates as their research subjects. Mostly because they're convenient and available.
Further, experimental studies often fail to describe what they mean by violence. violence in games is really hard to define, nevermind study. Are they violent when they allow the protagonist to kill an in game character, or are explosions and fast paced action considered violent?
Many of these experimental studies compare the behavior of players who play a so-called nonviolent game, and then a violent one. Given what you've learned so far in this course, you can appreciate that two games will differ in all kinds of ways, not just in their portrayals of violence. It is a mistake to assume that two different games differ in terms of violence and only violence. ex. half life and mario(completely different) So think of experimenters comparing players with two entirely different games
