Paul that''s a GREAT IDEA!

You could also choose whether to live in USA or in, say, Finland. If you chose Finland you couldn''t buy any weapons but if you chose USA the game would start in a weapon shop. Then the rest of the game would be arcade killing in school but of course in Finland you could barely wound some ppl. Top-20 killers at the end of course.. That''d make an awesome joke game. I already started making the gfx for it.

This is a damn interesting thread.

I suppose there are a lot of reasons which could make someone act violently. Most of them are stupid but anyhow serious.
There are religious themes concerned in wars still going on today. There are cultural themes behind the scenes, as well as political or economical ones. Honestly, there are a lot of SERIOUS (and stupid) things which could "inspiring" people. When someone claims to (or is claimed to) be inspired by things which are referred as entertainment, I feel there''s something wrong.

Here in Italy a lot of people say it''s horrible to sentence to death a 13 years old kid. Anyhow a lot of people say death penalty is horrible per se, but it''s OT. I''m not impressed by the fact that you can be sentenced to death at the age of 13.
I''m disgusted when I hear people stating you shouldn''t play some games/hear some music/watch some films when you are only 13.
The point is if you can sentence to death someone who is 13, you imply kids being 13 are enough mature to pay for something they made. If they are mature enough, there''s no reason to protect them. Otherwise simply say kids being 13 aren''t mature enough for being responsable for their own actions, so they must be protected from playing a violent game. Then, if they go to school and kill 20 people, simply give them a "light" penalty and shut up.

As for the main topic, the mod/game, you are just masking yourself as the superevil anti-hero everyone is looking for.
This could be attracting medias, but if you ended up simply writing the gorest mod ever created, this would result in more prejudice and adding one entry to the black list of games.
IMO the simple use of physical violence isn''t useful.
Get grotesque and use imagination, like Shakespeare''s "measure for measure": a novel set in Austria with a english background. Try to revolve things around.

BTW tt was too interesting for not posting my 2 cents.

quote: Original post by Silvermyst


I would make a game that takes ALL sorts of examples of other area''s that have a form of violence in them, and that are accepted. Playing cowboy/indian, cop/robber, physical contact sports, etc.

Okay, so how about a satirical game, similar to Farenheit 451 (a novel where "firemen" go around burning books for the state.. to control the spread of "dangerous" ideas.) Or maybe 1984.

You are a violence control enforcer, society has become paranoid about "all" violence, in an effort to eradicate "violent personality types" they have taken to killing / imprisoning anyone who plays games with even mock violence in.

There is a resistance group of old men (not young children!) which has taken to playing these games where noone will see them.

Your police commander emphasises at the start of a mission that your actions are for the general good- and that they are necessary to eradicate the "old way of life". Thus the player is faced with the irony of using overkill agains these not - so - dangerous people.

BUT - how would you make it a challenge unless you gave the resistance group guns.. ???

Hey, there are two types of revolution: slow and non-violent, and quick and violent.

The government and major corporations prefer slow and non-violent so they can attempt to keep a semblance of power.

I say give them well-organized, blitzkrieg demonstrations from the industry... possibly get another set of riot-hoppers on our hands, start a new game industry culture of revolution and hire anarchists to do our job.

Or maybe I'm just kinda insane today.

We do need someone to stand up for the industry, to help us deal with the oncoming politicians who see us as an easy target, to help us deal with the propaganda they're distributing in our schools against games (I've seen some - VERY 1984-like)

While the IGDA is a good step, we need more than just a group of major industry people making slight changes - we need the public's support. We can organize demonstrations, distribute our own propaganda, and get those game developers still in school to fight the government's attempt to distort everyone's view of the interactive entertainment industry!

Who's with me?

Edited by - Ravuya on March 11, 2001 2:25:27 PM

I too like the idea of "Schools against games" as much as "Parents against games". Maybe a better storyline than the one i mentioned above would be you as a kid live in a world were parents are so dictorial in your actions that you are lead to a small resistance group with some kids at school. Teachers are more like police. The idea is that you are all inspired to fight back by some old computer game (similar name as this one). That''s when things start to go overboard and the aggresive dictatorship or parents creates a war of son and father with miniguns in the middle etc etc....

A designer doesnt need to know everything about code, they just have to have an appreciation for its limitations and how those limitations affect features they may wish to include in their design. - Drew

If you really want to make it satirical, the intro to the game should be a kid sitting down in front of a computer getting ready to play a game... The game the kid plays is of course the interactive part of the game, lots of gore or whatever...

When you beat the game, cut to a scene showing the kid ( who just beat the game ) going out and murdering people.

Dan (Scrambled Monkey)

Interesting aricle about violence


Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.
What a plight we who try to make a story-based game have...writers of conventional media have words, we have but binary numbers

Wavinator :

Wow, for once I disagree with you big time ! I assume it''s because you are not clearly thinking

You are not gonna shock ANYONE with gore and ultra violence.
Nowadays, gore is assumed to be comical if it''s in a game, or (much worse in my opinion) *justified*.
How violence can be *justified* in a context is beyond me, and shows how much we are deep in it...
To be honest, I am more scared at the few that were talking about *justified* violence, than by ultra gore over the top freak game.

Maybe it''s just me, but I think you miss the point of Jonathan Swift (or at least, what I think his point is ).
What he did (from what you describe, I didnt read the text yet) was to do something *obviously* not thinkable of at the time, to shock (attract attention), and make think (he cant be REALLY thinking of doing that, is he).

When you say "think Thomas HArris", I agree, but why do you qualify Harris of being gross ??? He is not. He makes you imagine something gross (or maybe my memories are mixed with the movies, but bear with me here), he makes YOU scare yourself. Jsut like in any other great scary movie, your own fears, your own taboos, are challenged, hence you are shocked.

Did you see/read Seven (David Fincher) ? If so, do you remember the scene with the dead prostitute ? In the movie, you NEVER see her, or what happenened. You have no gross description. You just have the horrifying glimpses of what happened. A man forced to wear some sort of corset while having sex with her, knowing that this would kill her. A guy that did the corset, thinking it was for a movie or something "no one actually use those things, you know", etc... you simply imagine what happened, and depending on your own limits, the picture in your head is terrifying.
Same with the Silence of the Lambs. When Clarisse enters the asylum the first time, she is shown a picture of a nurse that got attacked by Lecter. But you never get to see the picture, only the look on Clarisse''s face, the *suggestive* "she made the mistake to take off his face restraint", etc ...

If you want an excellent example of a movie that was made with the intent of make people think about violence in movies, look at "funny games" by Michael Haneke (I am pretty sure you are gonna have a real hard time finding that one, but it''s REALLY worth it). It''s just scary. The violence is not gross, nor really visible, but it''s just the whole nonsense of it. This movie is like listening to a screeching chalk for hours... unbearable. One of the thing is that the movie is not trying to denounce violence (how pointless), but rather it almost accuses the viewer of watching. I wont try to redo what the critics did. But if you dont have the occasion to view it, at least read a review of it.

It will change your view on violence, and much more importantly, on the way you accept it everywhere in media.

Wait a minute, did I just write all that ? Ah well, sorry about it. But watch "Funny Games", it should give you an idea of the direction you should take

Gross is not the way at all.

youpla :-P


Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

>How violence can be *justified* in a context is beyond me, and
>shows how much we are deep in it...
Yes and no. It shows what psychologists, scientists and those that make their lives with violence, have been saying for years - it is (and always has been) a part of the natural make-up of most of this planet''s inhabitants.

This isn''t really the place to discuss the justification of violence. But it can, and has been, justified since the dawn of time.

It''s always amazed me that some people get so shocked about seeing violent behaviour on TV/movies/games when things far scarier than Seven actually happen in the real world to real people.

Certain groups (read: governments, moral majorities) care more about what they see on a screen, than what some people in this world have to physically endure.

>To be honest, I am more scared at the few that were talking
>about *justified* violence, than by ultra gore over the top
>freak game.
Violence is not going to go away. It''s a natural trait that everyone has a responsibility to use properly - that doesn''t mean never using it, but using it for the right reasons. Those reasons tend to be defined by a society as a whole.

I would like you to add the power-up called "LOCK BOX". (i never knew al gore had such great game design ideas)

This special item when used on the final level of washington d.c. would...you guessed it..squish your opponent into a lock-box for at least 1 year...minimum!

Visit my planet: Planet John
Capt. James Tiberious Kirk -- hmm, didnt know ole Capn was a tiberia fan.