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February 7, 2012

Tag: Gaming

August 15, 2010

Behind The (Developer) Wizard’s Curtain

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — Leave a comment

Oftentimes the term of “developer” or “dev”, as people like to refer to the folks behind games, takes on a kind of mythical tone to it. When you’ve seen the kinds of games that a developer studio can put out – from AAA MMOs, to awesome action games, to adventures that become iconic – this isn’t surprising. Because of this inherent magical quality, players tend to take the concept of a game developer and assign all kinds of labels to it, whether positive or negative. I do have to say, you’ve probably not lived the gamer’s geek’s life until you’ve seen someone creatively compare a developer with something as complex as the United Nations or as simple as a bowel movement.

Regardless of the comparisons, the one constant is that developers sort of take on this aura of legend, a kind of entity moreso than a person. The Wizard of Oz is a commonly used, and apt, example. Here you have what amounts to either text on a page or in some cases, a common face of the company, speaking to gamers and interested parties about what they are doing, why it’s cool, and why players will enjoy it. While you do get to see a face every so often, or attribute an actual person to what’s being said, most of the time the subtle nuances of their philosophies are obscured behind what might as well be an impenetrable curtain.

This is why I kind of appreciate developer blogs, the subject of today’s sunshine. Whether they are contained on an official site, or in a developer’s personal page, the blogs serve as a way to let people peek behind the curtain, see not just just concepts but the people behind those concepts, and understand what developers are thinking. The humanistic quality of developers is something that more recently, some studios have taken advantage of, and even though the impression of the game is still mostly dependent on the game itself, having faces to names, and having thoughts to concepts, is very valuable.

There is, obviously, a little bit of a dark side to all of this, of course. I’m typically very optimistic about the kinds of thoughts that developers share online, personal or otherwise. That being said, there’s always a risk that putting yourself out there as a developer has all kinds of consequences, some of them potentially not so nice. It’s not a surprise that some developers or members of development teams who have blogs update only very sporadically. They are, of course, busy with the work of making games, but they’re also conscious of how their words can easily lead to problems later. All it takes is a misunderstood quote, an offhand comment, or a simple answer to a question to be a snowball that turns into an avalanche.

Still,  the developer blogs we do see on the internet are filled with plenty of insight, ideas, and thoughts about making games. Finding out the wizard behind the curtain is a person just like you or me is a valuable idea to keep in mind. Like Oz, they are capable of the same things we are, both good and bad – and reading about what they’re thinking is ultimately valuable no matter how you slice it. Go find some out there – you won’t be disappointed.

August 14, 2010

The Oft-Neglected Cheerleading Of Games and Geekery

by Frank — Categories: Gaming, Social Geekery — Tags: , , — 3 Comments

Some of you who know me might think of this as a veiled attempt to link some new-ish Korean pop that my friend Amber sent to me. You may be right, but I do have a point behind doing it besides making your eyes bleed with cute. Really!

Note: Not responsible for any catchiness that gets in your head. Like I’d think that was a negative thing!

At any rate, my point in this was to expand a bit about what reader Bede talked to me about in yesterday’s comments in response to my MMO cynicism post. Bede talks a little bit about how looking at MMOs in a default “good” light is a different way of looking at things rather than in a default “bad” or “fail” one. It really got me to thinking that on the flipside of the whole idea of how geek culture perceives MMOs, games, and other new-fangled shiny, that you don’t see many people excited enough to keep up a good, encouraging attitude about things that they like.  More often than not, the kind of cheerleading that has the saccharine sweetness of the young women in the video above is absent. It’s present only in the kind of one-liner or one-paragraph initial “omg excitement” you see in response to something that looks cool, or worse yet, is outlawed among the “cool kids” of geek society as being straight up foolish idealism, otherwise known as “being a fanboy/girl”.

I honestly don’t understand what’s wrong with cheerleading something that you are excited about, especially in geek nation, where sweet new stuff always presents itself all the time. There are a lot of reasons why something that someone likes may later turn out to be something that isn’t expected, but why dampen spirits? A trailer, a sneak peek, a bunch of images, a neato website…all of these things are, in some respects, meant to generate buzz, excitement, and the kind of “rah-rah” for the creators of such things that motivates them. Let people have misguided expectations if they want to have them, I say.

Besides, cheerleading for things isn’t necessarily limited to being constantly talkative about how good something is, how the latest MMO is going to be a blast to play or the latest device is going to change the way you do things. People cheerlead things in geekery all the time without even really realizing they are doing it. Any focused-interest blog dedicated to a particular game, or item, or interest is in a way cheerleading it by merit of the fact that it’s by nature a homage to the things about it. Any fan-created media like a video, or art, or even a real-life picture having to do with it, is also an implicit cry of support. Geeks create things every day that are a nod to something they like or think is relevant to their interests, and with that kind of flattery,  how can it not be wrong ti stifle such creativity with a little too much of the “down-to-earth”?

More than anything, geeks show passion about the things they are interested in. Reducing or discouraging that just kind of makes our entire culture just a little bit more boring. Frankly, I’d rather have a little bit of excitement over the same old attitude any day.

August 13, 2010

Easymode MMO Grouchiness

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — 7 Comments

In my last post I talked a little bit about MMO cynics and how they do tend to feel about the latest and greatest to come through the online RPG-verse. This wasn’t entirely an accident, you see – during my time not writing, I still managed to read quite a few blogs and feeds from my handy-dandy Google Reader. Aside from figuring out that if I have over 1000 posts unread I should probably delete the feed, I learned one thing:

Is there a lot of grouchiness on the internet regarding MMOs or what?

Maybe it’s just me, but perhaps it’s just easier to be grumpy or frumpy or otherwise grouchy about the state of MMOs today. If you think about it, cynicism is easier to argue from if your goal is to actually be correct or viable. Hedge your bets or even fall into the negative on a response to the best MMO trailers, gameplay demos, or reveals, and you’re vindicated when things inevitably aren’t exactly as explained. Refuse to let yourself get excited over the goals that developers want to accomplish, and not get disappointed later. Maybe it’s easier to type “this sucks” rather than “this is awesome”. Regardless of the reasons, it doesn’t seem to be that difficult to be underwhelmed.

Speaking of which, I think I have a new nemesis and opposite, since I suspect  Hardcore Casual’s Syncaine has had the rough edges softened slightly by marriage (don’t worry, it happened to me too). Not to be picking on him, but Keen from Keen and Graev’s blog appears to be my new mirror opposite, and a writer I like to keep reading, partially just to see what not being optimistic looks like. Keen has a few posts where he is genuinely excited about something, but many of the posts fall back on a bit of a negative slant on MMO development in general, how the latest companies to try their hand at something are doing it wrong, and how they might fail or fall short of expectations. Even though he’s very well-written and I respect him, it seems that the posts with which he writes come from an ease of a position wrought with broken hearts, expectations, and promises, making every post in response to MMO news almost automatic in their negativity.

Optimism and idealism, which it seems gets me less readership, is a bit more difficult to deal with and have. If I’m excited about something, see the good in it, want to prod it into a decent light, in today’s MMO community I have to work hard to put it on a pedestal. The empirical evidence for an optimist in the MMO industry is certainly in the “against” column, as the titles since WoW have struggled to maintain some kind of viable market and subscriber base despite lofty missions and ideas (though there are exceptions). And a positive person puts themselves out more for being the target of ridicule and being wrong – because things rarely turn out exactly how they think.

But I’d rather take positive over negative any day. Why? Well, I think that even though it’s more difficult and disappointment can abound, I’d rather be happy about something some of the time than not be happy about anything any of the time. As adults, I think we tend more towards the jaded portion of the scale mostly because our experiences, good and bad, teach us to properly manage our expectations, or even shield ourselves from them to avoid being hurt. This is especially true in the geek world, where the new shiny sometimes has issues that tend to crush hopes and dreams. But the stuff of geekery, especially when it comes to the MMO world, has the potential to be a really fun and exciting experience. Being pleased at having your negative expectations exceeded is nice and all, but the reward for having faith, love, and happiness regarding an MMO title be validated is just that much sweeter.

Maybe it’s easier to walk around with lemons all the time, but I’d rather be doing that with a glass of lemonade and a healthy dose of sugar. Wouldn’t you?

June 7, 2010

Wot’s In An (MMO) Name

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , — 1 Comment

Recently as I’ve gotten back into MMOs that support the systems to do so, I’ve noticed that character names have gotten a lot more….shall we say creative…than when I was last logged in. If there’s anything that will define your little virtual career, it’s your handle, your name, your calling card…you get the idea. Whether or not someone will be cursing you out on the forums or laughing at you for noob moves, it’ll be your moniker.

Naming policies for MMOs aside (a necessary evil due to the people who like to name characters after various terms for anal probing), I’ve always enjoyed seeing what people come up with when it comes to telling people who they are in the virtual sense, in online games.  They inevitably fall into one of two categories – Serious Business and ROFLOL.

Serious Business names are easy to find. They’re the ones from people who’ve either had their particular unique handle for years at a time or those who name them after famous characters in geekdom. They inevitably sound flowery and fancy, so if you see an enemy player bearing down on you with a name like Lorien Foxerith or some such assemblage of random fantasy syllables, then you know you have a Serious Business named toon. And yes, even though it sounds terribly cliche to name your archer characters Legolas and your melee characters Sephiroth, you have to hand it to the people who try to do it. Sure, some of them turn out to be terribly disjointed aberrations of the original (Legolaz, Leggolas, and Legolastwo come to mind) but it just goes to show the persistence of some characters in geek lore. I hope to one day make a character name so memorable such that people rush to pick it up.

ROFLOL’s are also easy to find, but if a Serious Business name enters the stage with a flowing gown or a snappy-looking suit, a ROFLOL stumbles forward in a bright violet sports jacket with orange and pink plaid pants. A ROFLOL name can be an utter perversion of a Serious Business imitation (Leggomyeggolas is hilarious), or it can be random, weird, or simply just head-scratching. Corniepoop Toiletplopp, Herpderp Deedlyderp, Imahealzyou, and Twinkiepinkie are just some of the names I’ve come across just recently in my travels. Yeah, maybe some of them don’t cut the mustard and get edited, but it sure is entertaining to see them listed in combat logs, NPC dialog, and forum posts.

Either way, MMO naming, whether serious or not, is just going to get more imaginative in the future. I look forward to future talk about the exploits of people like Yashara Farsighter being killed by someone named Poopypower. How else am I going to make the grind entertaining,?

June 4, 2010

LOTRO’s New Free Reign

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , , — 1 Comment

Today comes the news from Turbine that like its other product, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online will be going free to play in the autumn. LOTRO’s enjoyed a particular brand of success in a rather hostile MMO-verse, avoiding server merges, decreasing population, and lessening appeal to carve out its own niche in the market. Part of this might be atttributed to the fact that Tolkien’s universe, where hairy feet are the norm and wizards are, well….everything wizards should be (old, powerful, and occasionally hilarious) is appealing to its subscribers, but I’d like to think that a strong system of classes and encounters on par with those read about in the books kind of help.

I can’t say this is a bad thing. There’s a lot of apprehension over the microtransaction model, mostly surrounding the fact that it is somewhat viewed to be a system in which the financially richest will create a gap insurmountable by those less inclined or able to pay. The way I look at it, the creation of alternative subscription models should be a welcome change. I think we all know that lack of competitive models means, ultimately, complacency, something I can’t blame. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The relative success of DDO’s model of microtransactions means that there is a way for the model to exist in today’s market, so why not try it with another title? The conversion to the F2P-with-optional-purchases model creates player volume and the option for people to enhance characters at their own whim rather than at the whim of the subscription fee.

Not that traditional subscription fees are going anywhere. There are plenty of games out there for which they make a bit more sense for, World of Warcraft and its store notwithstanding. But LOTRO’s move to the F2P model means that subscription-based models will have to think a bit harder about the benefits they offer for a flat fee versus one that offers fees as an optional idea. Could the players benefit from such response to competition? I’d like to think so.

Anyway, you really can’t beat free, and lots of players on the fence about trying the game will flock to LOTRO to give it a whirl. Sadly, my skills as a Minstrel probably reflect how good I’d be at playing the lute in real life (that is to say, playing it much like the sound a dying whale might make), so I won’t be one of them – but I look forward to the faithful who’ve subbed, who’ll receive a bit of benefit from the new model (like a monthly credit of points to buy shinies with), and who will make some new friends. Good work, Turbine, I say.

April 21, 2010

Mythic’s Marvelous Mea Culpa

by Frank — Categories: Gaming, Warhammer Online — Tags: , , , — 4 Comments

If there’s anything that sucks to say sometimes, no matter if you’re an individual or a company, it’s “my bad”. Whether it’s in everyday interaction as simple as bumping into someone and causing them to scald themselves with hot coffee, or as complex as a fender bender car accident, we’re all going to be put in the place to say “I’m sorry” at some point. Sometimes it helps (“oh, that’s ok, I was freezing and the coffee warmed me up”) and sometimes it doesn’t (“I’m gonna sue your ass for rear-ending my Mercedes, bitch”), but the key in any apology is how you go about doing it.

This is especially true for MMO developers, who have to handle being wrong while at the same time explaining what happened. In the waters of online forums, fansites, and blogs, posters and writers of a particular MMO are at times sharks, smelling blood in the water and attacking with ruthless ferocity. Such as it was with Mythic Entertainment, which experienced a billing snafu two weeks ago that had people charged a ton, some at least over 20 times, for their monthly subscription fee.

Mythic’s been raked over the coals (understandably so) by a number of folks for the messup.  I’ve got friends at Mythic, and it pained me to see the hardship they had to go through trying to fix the nonsense that had occurred because of payment processing craziness. It’s because of this personal interaction I’ve had with them that made me had faith. Faith that when the inevitable apology came, it would be a good one.

Today’s letter from Mythic’s Jeff Hickman about the payment issue comes through by explaining first, in detail, what exactly happened, second, what they are doing to fix it, and third, what the current status is. Normal stuff, right? But then comes the in-game compensation, which is as follows:

Over the past 15 years we have always strived to do what’s best for our players. We are truly sorry, and want to work to make things right and restore our relationship.  We hope you will accept this small token of our appreciation for your continued commitment to our games:

For starters all players will earn 100% bonus experience and renown when killing enemies and monsters for two weeks. As well, during this time we’ll be hard at work designing and implementing a special vendor. This vendor will only accept special tokens that will be sent to your mailbox, using these two tokens each of your characters will be able to receive two of the following items:

  • Bottomless Chaos Black Dye
  • Bottomless Skull White Dye
  • Imperial Griffon Mount (Order)
  • Enslaved Manticore Mount (Destruction)
  • WAR Tract – earn a free level
  • Choose from any of these pets – Order: Imperial Hunting Hound or Dwarf Keg Handler; Destruction: Warlord’s Fell Hound or the Goblin Bar-Back.
  • Change your appearance with any of these illusion items: Skaven Skin Cloak (skaven), Kossar’s Helm (bear), or the Signet of the Cursed Company (skeleton)

Please accept this gesture as a step towards rebuilding our relationship. From all of us at Mythic, we thank you for your time, your commitment, and your trust that helps us to make great games year after year.

Bonus experience, and the choice of what appears to be an amazing set of items normally only preserved for contests and special events. The in-game benefits of said compensation will be huge for some players of WAR, that’s for sure.

Say what you will about WAR‘s struggles, and the fact that this doesn’t completely wipe out the inconvenience some people went through – the latter is especially true. This is pretty much what sets Mythic apart from other MMO companies. They have a deep connection to their community, and an understanding of their customers that makes their service top notch. Ever since DAoC, when I first started interacting with them on forums and fansites, Mythic has always gone above and beyond when it comes to talking to their players. This is basically their stock in trade, making the fact that their design has struggled to take hold in the MMO playerbase all the more unfortunate.

When you do something wrong, you’re never going to totally eliminate the fact that it happened, or make people forget. It’d be unrealistic to think as such. But the effort to apologize and make amends is always huge when you’re at fault – and Mythic understands that. WAR‘s been in the public eye a lot lately – both for good and bad reasons – and one can hope that with so many eyes on it currently, that this will go a long way towards making people believe they empathize with their players.

April 7, 2010

Themeparks, Sandboxes, And The MMO Labeling Extravaganza

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , — 2 Comments

Lately as I’ve been out and about checking and commenting on other blogs in the geek-sphere we call the Internet, I’m seeing a bit of a trend among the MMO blogs that I frequent. Seems to me there’s a lot of labeling being thrown around, whether to call a game a themepark, which leads you on an instant gratification fest of fun that is controlled, or a sandbox, which alternatively gives you choice and freedom to shape your own experiences.

I’ve seen a lot of fierce debate over the viability of one or both in today’s MMO world, as well as those who prefer one or the other, sometimes to the point of zealotry. It doesn’t really end there, either. People are quick to label an MMO as “PvE”, “PvP”, “RvR”, and any other number of attachments meant to categorize MMOs into neat little compartments.

It must be a bit dizzying to see all this argument and labeling from the development perspective. No doubt that any developer out there is looking to find a way to make their business model lucrative, successful, and fun all at the same time. It might be easy to find some kind of appeal or solace in attaching oneself to one or more of those labels to find an audience to grow and retain.

Me? I don’t really get all the infighting about themeparks and sandboxes when it comes to MMOs. In a time when players have more choice than ever when it comes to what they get to experience with an MMO, I don’t understand why people need to find superiority in the games that they choose to play over all others. This is mostly because you can put aside subscriber numbers and find that there are plenty of MMOs that remain viable despite having vastly different playstyles from one another. I’ve always prioritized having fun over having the “right” MMO to play, and whether that is a themepark MMO or a sandbox MMO makes no real difference to me.

I’d also hope that developers take this prioritizing of fun over labeling to heart as well. I’m not really a developer, and I have no experience in the industry, so far be it from me to tell people what to do. But I would like to think that every developer out there starts off with a core design that they think is unique and fun and will engage players. In the course of design, development, marketing, and improvement, however, sometimes the labels can creep in, forcing developers to make compromises to their core design in order to appeal to a phantom element of a wider audience – and they sweat bullets doing it, too. I think that some of the best and most successful MMOs were successes purely by more word of mouth and fun design elements rather than being more “themepark” than “sandbox” or vice versa. If the core design of the MMO revolves around riding aardvarks as the endgame, and it’s fun, go for it. I’d look forward to it, that’s for sure.

March 19, 2010

The Good Drama of Developer Dirty Laundry

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , , , — 3 Comments

So by now I’m sure some of you have caught up with the whole very public spectacle that the Alganon/David Allen/Derek Smart thing has become. For those of you that haven’t, all you need to know, prior to reading, is that it’s definitely a rare case of developer rage with a lot of he said/she said shenanigans.

On the one hand, watching all this stuff unfold might seem unprofessional, uncomfortable, or just plain odd. After all, I think it’s no secret that any workplace has some amount of drama that goes on behind closed doors, right? In the gaming industry, most of the time a studio has no problems keeping a lid on what might (or might not) be going on during development – which makes the few times it does creep out something to watch.

Still, no matter what side you take in this little affair, the airing of dirty laundry and the drama that comes with it is at least a humanization of developers in general. Certainly, the human element you don’t want to associate with developers is one in which they are launching the verbal equivalent of everything from potshots to missiles across an online battlefield. But the tendency of us as players is to remove the human element from a development studio and focus only on their product, or the results it produces. Some developers prefer it that way, but I think that there isn’t any real harm at showing off passion, enjoyment, and the hard work that goes into making a game. If that means peeking behind the Wizard’s curtain, then so be it.

Personally, I find the whole exchange a bit intriguing but definitely educational. Sure, you might really think that David Allen stole a bunch of cash from Alganon’s investors or that Derek Smart is a pretentious loudmouth asshole, but the fact of the matter is that it isn’t mindless automatons who work long hours during the week to make games, it’s people like you and me, who have homes, might have families or loved ones, and who put on their shoes one foot at a time, every day. The ugly drama that results from that might not be the most pleasant of things to read, but it’s certainly a sobering, if not interesting lesson in workplace professionalism and the fervor with which developers pursue the creation of their games.

If I have any bias at all, it’d be towards the poor Community manager or team that has to deal with all of this. As someone with a bit of experience in that arena, my heart goes out to the community folks. Dealing with a member of the development team that might quote something that sparks discussion means a little stain on the studio carpet. You get out a vacuum and a steam cleaner, and the cleanup is done in a matter of days. But dealing with someone on the team that quotes something and causes a little bit of controversy? That means bringing a shovel and ton of carpet shampoo to deal with the veritable dump truck of dirt.

Hopefully Alganon will get past this little interlude – but until then, we’ll all be reading with interest.

March 18, 2010

Singing the Unsubbed Song

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — 6 Comments

Wow, it’s been a while! It’s funny how a short trip to another city can take a lot out of you, right? I’m still on the road to recovery but don’t worry – I’ll be back to 100% real soon.

Today, I’m informing my smallish readership that I have moved on from one of my subbed MMO,s Aion. As those who play MMOs know well, unsubbing from one that you’ve played is not unlike breaking up with someone you’ve dated – it’s a bit awkward, makes you feel like you invested your time for nothing, and it kinda hurts your butt for a while. But just like any actual relationship breakup, ultimately, you need to look on the bright side and see that yes, even though you probably totally made a mistake putting months of your life into the affair, that you’ll have learned something. Yes, just like finding out that dating someone who is a little too into kitchen appliances might not be conducive to a healthy relationship, unsubbing from an MMO gives you a few lessons to take to the next subscription.

For example, here’s some great tidbits I learned about Aion during my journey from 1 – 50 as a Cleric:

  • Perpetually poor people like me can’t pay for deaths and experience loss consistently. Soul Healer, you are the Donald Trump of MMOs.
  • A little randomness is nice. Too much randomness, such as critting on crafting for quests, is nice to make you want to stab your eyes out with a spoon.
  • Soul Healer, you should write a book on economical success in MMOs.
  • The best treadmill grind is the one you don’t realize you are running. The worst treadmill grind is the one that you not only realize you are on but which also has spikes on the treads as you run.
  • I like a little resistance in PvP. It makes battles more exciting. However, when encountering the resistance is like jamming your index finger as hard as you can against a brick wall to try to make a hole in it, it’s not quite as fun, you see.
  • Getting loot is neat. But in the repeated absence of any loot at all, you can at least copy and paste items into chat to fantasize about having epic gear.
  • Did I mention that if Soul Healer was a class, all they would have to have is an ability which sucks money and experience away to succeed? Easiest class ever, I say!

So the next time you bust up with the MMO love of your life, don’t drown your sorrows in pints of Ben and Jerry’s and constant YouTube and Hulu watching. Learn the lessons and move on (or back) to something you truly enjoy and can give you what you want. Trust me – you’ll be better and a little less flabby for it.

February 24, 2010

Game Violence’s Absurdity Appeal

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , — 1 Comment

Recently I began playing the God of War series for the first time (yes, yes, I know, years behind and all that) thanks to the God of War Collection game released for the PS3. I have to say, the game’s got a kind of charm that keeps me playing, even though I’m not typically the action or hack-and-slash type gamer.

Playing as Kratos and doing the things he does to keep going in the game got me thinking about the whole violence and video games argument that you see floating around the Internet every so often. Typically this tends to surface when you see some incident related to someone taking a game just a bit too seriously and carrying it over into their real lives. It’s certainly a debate that gamers like myself might sometimes tire of having with those who believe that there is some kind of correlation between the depiction of video game violence and real acts of a similar vein in reality.

Aside from the normal arguments that apply against any notion that violence in video games translates over into real violence, I think that the mere fact that violence is presented, at times, in a completely crazy and absurd manner helps the gamers’ side of the argument. When you watch Kratos, for example, as he rips bodies in half, yanks enemies off of rope ladders after slamming them, and uses heads for weaponry, you can’t help but feel the sense that this is just a bit absurd. No real person actually has the strength to impale giant sea monsters or slice a person to bits just by swinging. No person actually would come to work as Kratos either (though I suppose I wouldn’t put it past some people in the right circumstances). The point is, Kratos and what he does, while ultra-violent, is also ultra-unrealistic and sensationalist as well. Knowing that, it’s difficult to really take it seriously enough to say it influences people it shouldn’t.

As if to prove my point, I seem to recall that last year at E3 we were treated to some gameplay footage for God of War III, which was what actually piqued my interest in the series as a whole. In it, among other things,  I believe I recall one particular monster, the Chimera, suffering an unfortunate fate by getting dismembered and stabbed in the eye with its own ripped off horn. I honestly had to laugh and cringe at the same time at the insanity of that violent act – and I think others had a similar reaction to watching the footage. None of us, I think, felt the need to go out of our way to do the same to a fellow human. Instead, I might have gotten more popcorn. The point is – if violence in video games can actually have value as absurd entertainment and crazy visuals, then I have a feeling most gamers wouldn’t have a problem understanding that it stays exactly like that after they turn off the console. It’s probably one of, if not the, only good things about seeing (virtual) violence done at all.

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