Sun, Jun 17, 2012 | 12:39 BST
“The ultraviolence” in video games “has to stop,” says Spector
Warren Spector has said one of the things which stood out for him at E3 this year was how “the ultra-violence has to stop,” along with “combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality.”
Speaking with GI International, Spector believes it’s all in “bad taste,” and will ultimately “cause us trouble.”
“This is the year where there were two things that stood out for me,” he said. “One was: The ultraviolence has to stop. We have to stop loving it. I just don’t believe in the effects argument at all, but I do believe that we are fetishizing violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it’s in bad taste. Ultimately I think it will cause us trouble.
“I left Eidos in 2004 because I looked around at E3 and saw the new Hitman game where you get to kill with a meat hook, and 25 to Life, the game about kids killing cops, and Crash & Burn the racing game where the idea is to create the fieriest, most amazing explosions, not to win the race… I looked around my own booth and realized I just had one of those ‘which thing is not like the other’ moments. I thought it was bad then, and now I think it’s just beyond bad.”
Spector said when he was working on Deus Ex, the “spreading blood pools under innocent dogs when you kill them,” was meant to make the player feel “disturbed,” when they pulled the trigger. Now, with the carnage induced on in-game beings disappearing along with the body, it erases the aftermath of said carnage from the gamer’s thoughts.
“We’ve gone too far. The slow-motion blood spurts, the impalement by deadly assassins, the knives, shoulders, elbows to the throat,” he said. “You know, Deus Ex had its moments of violence, but they were designed – whether they succeeded or not I can’t say – but they were designed to make you uncomfortable, and I don’t see that happening now.
“I think we’re just appealing to an adolescent mindset and calling it mature. It’s time to stop. I’m just glad I work for a company like Disney, where not only is that not something that’s encouraged, you can’t even do it, and I’m fine with it.”
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Posted in: Development, Disney, Violence in games
Tags: warren spector
57 comments
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#51
OrbitMonkey
15/06/12, 3:02 am
@+51, Yeah, odd that the intelligent guys don’t run our society’s isn’t it? Always the guys with something to prove… Not that we’d let geniuses tell us what to do… They think their smarter than us!!
Like I said it’s not a popular theory, but the simple truth is, based on historical fact, is that humans are driven by insecurity. Period.
Still you can choose to disbelieve. It’s not like NASA have dropped out of the space race now that no-one else is going to challenge them…
#52
OrbitMonkey
15/06/12, 3:06 am
Oh and DSB, the least sensitive, so the least insecure run our society’s!? Lol! Show me a bully who hasn’t a mommy complex! Hiding our insecurities is the first lesson we learn as the human animal.
#53
G1GAHURTZ
15/06/12, 3:35 am
Are you talking about emotional insecurity? Because the most emotionally insecure people tend to suffer from psychological disorders, such as stress, anxiety and depression.
These are not the people who ‘drive’ anything.
Rather, these are the people who aren’t able to play any sort of key, or even productive, role in any society.
If you’re talking about a general need to feel no external threat on your family, property and possessions, then labelling this as ‘insecurity’ seems more along the lines of some attention seeking, psuedo intellectual, feminist foolishness than anything worth caring about.
It’s basically trying to define a term for wanting safety and happiness for yourself and those around you, which has negative connotations.
Why?
Probably to justify someone’s inability to compete with society’s more successful people.
‘Oh look at him, he’s so successful because he’s actually insecure, so he’s not really better than me at all. He’s actually very frail…’
#54
expose the core
15/06/12, 8:40 am
I had more fun in Deus Ex when i just used pure stealth to evade enemies or using non lethal takedowns if necessary. I can’t name any other fps where you can complete the game without killing anyone, and that’s a pretty disappointing fact.
#55
bo_7md
15/06/12, 9:04 am
I think people like to blame movies, games and literature because it’s easy. If you look at the facts you’ll note that the safest countries in the world have the same games, show the same movies, and sell the same books..doesn’t that mean there is another problem here–rooted– under all the pile of rape-ridden, murder infested movies ?
#56
DSB
15/06/12, 4:14 pm
@54 That’s sort of a meta discussion, and also the reason why I chose not to study philosophy. Too much semantic bullshit.
Insecurity will be a factor, but I don’t see it as a driving force. Human beings have will, which is in direct conflict with insecurity. If you’re scared, but resolute, then it stands to reason that the insecurity isn’t much of a factor for you.
There’s insecurity, and then there’s how you neutralize insecurity.
I recently read Carl von Clausewitz’s “On War” and he spends a few chapters attempting to describe the human psyche and what’s needed of it when going to war. War is the ultimate insecurity, because you never know what’s going to happen. What makes a good officer though, is carrying on anyway.
#57
OrbitMonkey
15/06/12, 4:33 pm
^ Oh I agree their. I don’t see insecurity as a bad thing, it’s how people compensate for it that can lead to negative results.
For example, A fat chap feels insecure about his weight. He can compensate for this by dieting or eating more to feel better…
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