The Video Game Critic

Well, I'm an atheist, so I really don't have a moral code set in stone of what to play.   I'll pretty much play anygame as long as it fun.  On my list of Top 10 games of all time, both Mario 64 and Doom are on it.   They are both great games for completely different reasons.

 

But I noticed someone mentioned Custer's Revenge.   That's a horrible game.  I remember I downloaded an atari emualtor when I was 12, and it was one of the games that came with it.   I played it, and the best thing I can say about is the graphics are bad.   The graphics are so bad that I didn't notice that the Indian was being raped.  I didn't realise that she was tied to the cactus, so I thought it was concencual.   So I guess in this case, bad graphics saved me from a horrible raping game.  But now that I know its a horrible raping game, I wouldn't want to play it.  I didn't want to play it before because it sucked, so anyways I guess that that is closest thing I have to a moral code. 

 

I keep my moral code to real life events, and not Thought crimes.   I see video games as imaginary, and no reason to have morals.  As long as you don't start acting out GTA fantasies in real life like a few nutcases had, there is no problem IMO.

 

 

My rules

1.Don't get a game over 50 bucks
2.Lay down while playing
3.Rating does not matter
4.Must be able to be playable over and over again
5.MUST have killing


There are way more though

I do not play games with heavy swearing, or heavy violence, unless they are of more of a supernatural sense.  In other words, the swearing in RE4 was very sparse, and I was blowing the heads off zombies (or whatever they were), so that didn't really bother me.  But I am even more careful of what I play out in the living room when my year old daughter is around.  She really seems to be effected by the tone of different games and TV shows (mostly it's the music and sound effects because she rarely looks at the screen), so we try to keep it cheery when she is in the living room.  Mostly sitcoms and non-violent games.

I also dislike seeing sexual content in games, not just because I am Christian (Mormon), but because it bugs me to think that there are probably kids out there that are way too young that are seeing this.  I don't mind a video game hottie, but there is a limit.

I admit that there is a fine line for this stuff as a Chrisitan.  Things are obviously 'holy' and 'unholy', but the neutral stuff is tricky, and is evaluated constantly.  For me, if I feel that it compromises at all, I avoid it, because I want my forms of entertainment to build on my spirituality, not compromise it.

 

I think a lot of people think that spirituality is not involved when it comes to entertainment.  To that I ask, where is it then?  Or more accurate, where isn't it?

 

I'm really enjoying the comments by some of yall (crevelle and feilong80).

Wow this has turned out to be a pretty interesting thread...

 

When I play games I really don't have much a moral standard to follow.  To be honest something like this really wasn't an issue until a few years ago.  Games I played growing up were pretty wholesome and fun, and even the most violent stuff (Doom) pales in comparision to todays stuff.

 

I agree with Rob to an extent about acting evil in games.  For me its hard to do.  Sometimes I can play a game as an evil person, but I really don't like killing innocent maidens and such.  Yet that is why I really enjoy playing games like Jade Empire, Fable and Black and White.  These games give you moral choices in extra-ordinary circumstances (videogames)...basically while I would never dream of performing acts of cruelty in real life I might just be able do something evil in a game.  Though I might regret it after the act is done.  It proves that the little angel and devil perched on my shoulders are still working to keep me in line...in both life and even in games.

 

I really think its what separates videogames from other forms of entertainment.  In movies and TV shows you are just along for the ride, but in a game you can literally control the outcome.  Some people fear this, while other embrace it.

 

What I'm trying to say is that if I saw a person playing Manhunt and enjoying it, I wouldn't think less of that person.  Its a videogame that allows a person to perform grotesque crimes that the person would never consider in real life.  I could actually see it as carthatic to some people.  Yes killing people online in Halo or Counter Strike is viable outlet of anger to some people.  I would much rather that person blow off steam in a videogame than perhaps strike his wife...just a thought.

 

Also I think sex in videogames is a subject people consider too taboo.  I have been recently playing through my old PC adventure games and these include Leisure Suit Larry.  I first played LSL, when I was about 13...I thought it was the greatest game on Earth.  You played a cartoon looking guy who was this loveable loser that was trying to get laid.  It was hilarious and the situations were so outrageous that it couldn't be taken seriously.  The puzzles were brain taxing and the gameplay was a hoot.  People got in an uproar over seeing some pixels that looked like boobies...if that made people's blood boil I hate to see what happens with sex in 360/PS3 games. 

 

Sex happens in real life and its not an evil act like killing someone.  If it happens in a game it usually doesn't bother me.  That being said, I really don't need to see the sex actually happening and if its implied thats better than seeing polygons do the horizontal jengo fett.  For example Kratos (God of War) gets to partake in a threesome mini game about an hour into his adventure, and its all done with tongue planted firmly in cheek.  It added humour to a very serious game and it was a welcome addition. 

 

These are just my simple views on the situation, and I have really enjoyed reading everyone else's responses.  I'm glad to see that some people still have really high moral standards...the hardest thing in this world is to believe in something. 

[QUOTE=voor]

You have to understand about things like sin and salvation to understand why the cross (it's not a 'logo') is a reminder...

[/QUOTE]

no I don't and yes it is and you need to get out more and enjoy life.

[QUOTE=john-boy]no I don't and yes it is and you need to get out more and enjoy life.[/QUOTE]

 

And you need to get your head out of your backside.  Who says that Voor isn't enjoying life?  Such weighty psychoanalysis from a man who can't properly capitalize.

 

As an Objectivist who eschews questions of religion and God, I have to wonder how other atheists view your level of jeuvenile criticism.  I have a feeling that most would wonder if you could be any more presumptuous, let alone ignorant and intolerant.

Religion and religious ethics demand tolerance? There isn't a more ridiculous human construct that demands anything other than contempt.

So count me out of your bogus tolerance. I can see right through you. I see no reason, and there is no reason, for me or any one else with their head far enough out of their arse to see what is going on in the world, to show religion or the religious any tolerance at all.

It seems that most people on here are from the US of A which seems to be the least ethical place on earth right now, what with your born again President worrying about unborn children yet happy to blow other country's children to kingdom come because god told him to do it. Yeah get out more. Worry about real people rather than pixellated ones and your hypocritical Christian mores.

[QUOTE=m0zart]

[QUOTE=john-boy]Such weighty psychoanalysis from a man who can't properly capitalize.

[/QUOTE]

read your screen name recently?

I'll just quote an earlier post of mine, as it's somewhat relevant to the discussion:
[QUOTE=Adamant]
Heh, ironically enough, my current favourite game, as mentioned in the "best game of 2006" thread, Tsukihime, has both blood and nudity by the buckets (fairly mild on the swearing - only instance I can remember is the hero screaming "you f***ing bastard!" at one of the villains after said villain had committed some particulary gruesome actions, including eating an innocent passer-by alive) and certainly deserves it's rating, but it's the powerful story that drives the game and keeps you playing (and takes up most of the time anyway - the stuff responsible for the rating is a fairly small part of the game, it's just pretty extreme [I]when[/I] it's there), and that story is mature in the good way - a truly touching and sad tale of people who have lived through a greater hell than you'd wish upon your worst enemy, and their meeting with people who genuinely loves them... it's a beautiful game, and the story wouldn't work nearly as well without elements that push the rating to the top of the scale - as an example, the gruesome murder described above is what finally convinces the hero that he hates this guy so much he's willing to murder him with his own hands. It's not just some random act of violence thrown in for no reason, and this is not a story about some cold, emotionless soldier who guns down an entire army without batting an eyelid.[/QUOTE]

I'm not too much of a fan of games where violence is just thrown in for the sake of being there - the idea of it being cool to kill random civilians for no reason has never really appealed much to me. We're not really talking old arcade-style games were the object was "shoot stuff that moves", but in newer games, where a plot is actually present, and it's made quite clear that you're playing as some detestable criminal who kills people because he enjoys it, it all gets somewhat uncomfortable. Sure, the gameplay is what counts, but if they're going to have a story in the game, I'd ike to be cast as a person I can actually identify with to a certain extent, and that's somewhat hard to do with these "Hey, some people on the sidewalk. Let's splat them a bit, heh heh" GTA guys.