Why So Few Violent Games?

Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by darkFunction on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @05:21PM (#7979814)

The appeal is in infinite possibilities, sport and teamwork. Single player games don't appeal to me as an adult, the outcome is scripted and the characters are hollow for the most part. It's entirely passive and a film or book gets to the point quicker for me. Violent multiplayers though- Counter Strike or Battlefield- give rise to fluid, human, tense stories. Stories in the context of violence sure, but real and non-scripted. It's yours and not the developers'.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by cyounkins on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @05:38PM (#7979924)

Please describe the story of Counter Strike, because I've logged hundreds of hours on the game and have no idea what you're talking about.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by gknoy on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @06:16PM (#7980139)

As others have mentioned, it's not about the game, but specific experiences you had. I have memories of intense stand-offs when rescuing hostages, or the one time I had an __absurd__ streak of luck and managed to single-handedly wipe out the entire other team (never since repeated).

Some of my strongest gaming memories are of the first (?) level of Rogue Spear (one of the Rainbow Six games), where I was hunting terrorists in the Met. It was fifteen years ago, but I still remember how upset I felt when I saw a virtual character fall down after being shot, and I can still remember the intense despair that crushing my elation when a hostage panicked and ran in between me and the terrorist (and I shot him). I played that level so many times that I can probably still sketch the map. I remember nothing else about the game, but the experience of playing that one map stays with me.

This is a completely different kind of "story" or memory than one's going to get from a game like Borderlands.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by Hytosys on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @06:24PM (#7980201)

With all due respect, it doesn't sound like the simulated violence had much to do with the nostalgia you're describing. Not that I don't believe that violence can't be a tool used to evoke empathy, but effective stories can certainly be devised without hyperrealistic violence.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by darkFunction on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @05:57PM (#7980029)

Story in the sense a game of football has a story.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by stonemetal on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @06:05PM (#7980080)

As per what he said there is no "Story of Counter Strike" and that is what he likes about it. It is a framework for him and his team mates to invent a story of struggle told in near misses and heroic wins.

Why he has trouble inventing the same stories with robotic team mates and opponents I am not sure, but he seems to find value in the shared experience.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by sgarman on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @06:01PM (#7980060)

I think by stories the author means real adventures with you and your teammates for that specific match - not some sort of CS lore. Each match brings new humans that will play, react, chat differently then an AI in a single player game.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by mark_l_watson on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @05:38PM (#7979925)

OK, thanks, that makes sense. That said, I worked on some prototypes of multi-player racing games and "dicing" with friends around a racetrack has a bit of the appeal you mentioned.

I do watch a few fairly violent movies a year, it is just the violent games that I don't enjoy.

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Re:Why So Few Violent Games? by Retric on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @05:48PM (#7979972)

I have been thinking you could probably build an open ended world with a reasonably deep autogenerated quest system. there are already weak AI systems that can respond to open ended text fairly well. Start with some basic relationships and the game could decide the second son wants to kill his older brother to take the therone but needs to frame someone to take the fall... Ect.

You can Restrict dialog choices while still giving the player real choices.

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