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General discussionDo you think it's wrong to kill....in a video game?(145 posts)(145 posts)
(145 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 25, 2015
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yoshino: I don't mind at all.
Even Mario killed a lot of mushroom soldiers by stamping.
He... goes on a stampede?
Posted March 25, 2015
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Emob78: As to whether or not it's wrong to kill in a video game. No. Now, losing the mental ability to distinguish reality from fantasy and actually killing actual human beings in real life in a very real way with real weapons? Yes. That is very much wrong.
I do have a saying that I've been saying for years
"Keep the violence virtual"
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Emob78: This question also brings the various extreme elements of left and right in politics to a firm and total agreement... just for different reasons. For the right it's because 'God said so.' For the left it's because 'those killed may have been women or minorities.' How about killing in a video game is a fantasy, and killing real people in reality isn't. Obfuscating the lines between the fantasy and the reality for political, social, or religious reasons just takes people down bad paths time and time again. To say nothing about all of the unhinged lunatics who get to run amok while politicians get fat on donations and kickbacks for promising a war on ___.

Jesus Christ. All I wanted to do was have some fun shooting zombie chainsaw monsters in Doom. I turn around and suddenly we're having to graduate MIT in tech AND Harvard in philosophy just to keep the hobby alive. I do NOT wish to have to think too deeply about anything that involves fast cars, machineguns, or naked motorcycle sluts from hell. Video games cover all of those quite well.
this here is part of the reason I started this thread, there are those that seem to want games to *only* be a reflection of the real world (or rather their perception of it) sans the fun bits

for me gaming is about enjoyment & escapism
Posted March 25, 2015
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Rusty_Gunn: do you think it is "wrong in some way" (like being a sin)
Never heard of anything called a "sin" except as some sort of ID in Shadowrun.
Care to explain what you want to point out by "sin"?
Posted March 25, 2015
It's a game, so, no.

I just didn't get the thing about Spec Ops or the furore over airport mission in CoD
Posted March 25, 2015
Actually you are killing creatures in a parallel universe so yes it is a sin.
Posted March 25, 2015
Interesting question. Personally I think no, it is not wrong, per se.

However, in games like Thief or Deus Ex: HR that gives me the opportunity to turn the pixels from "alive" to "unconscious" rather than "dead" then I will choose that because it seems to me to be right for my gaming.

OTOH, most other immersive games like FPSs, RPGs, etc. don't give you the decision to knock out or kill. Do I lose sleep? No.
Posted March 25, 2015
Not sure. Honestly i want to say no. If it's abstracted out so you don't know it's happening, then no. People play D&D where they take out hordes of orcs or monsters, but when it's just numbers and enemies aren't present anymore mechanically. In pokemon they changed the text to the pokemon 'fainting' rather than being killed.
Posted March 25, 2015
Keep in mind a collection of pixels doesn't begin as a person by default like us, it has to earn its way closer to that status with good characterization and writing. I would never hurt Clementine, but I don’t feel bad about removing the ladder from my Sims swimming pool until they look like the bathtub hag from The Shining. The Sims only has as much character as I give them. It’s like crushing a can of refreshing coke (diet, because I’m watching my figure). Can you kill a coke? No. Nine years Syrio Forel was first sword to the Sealord of Braavos, he knows these things.

As to whether that’s morally wrong, well, as we’ve covered they’re not real, or self-aware. If we could give pixels actual feelings and simulate pain from a Star Trek holodeck, then maybe we’ll get into a moral quandary. As it is the closest we’ve come is David Cage yelling ‘EMOTIONS!’
Posted March 25, 2015
Simplest way to find out is find whoever is the moral authority within the game, and ask him.
Posted March 25, 2015
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Rusty_Gunn: do you think it is "wrong in some way" (like being a sin)
or not?
Yes, surely it can be. Just imagine "Concentration Camp Simulator" and you will immediately agree that killing in a game can be extremely wrong and a sin.
Post edited March 25, 2015 by Trilarion
Posted March 25, 2015
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Rusty_Gunn: do you think it is "wrong in some way" (like being a sin)
or not?
As much as I am a gamer, this is one of the the difficult questions.

In short: "It is wrong for you, if it feels wrong for you to kill that pixel/person"

It's a personal question, that only you can answer for yourself. And there is no way, that you can answer that question for another person.
Posted March 25, 2015
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Rusty_Gunn: do you think it is "wrong in some way" (like being a sin)
or not?
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Trilarion: Yes, surely it can be. Just imagine "Concentration Camp Simulator" and you will immediately agree that killing in a game can be extremely wrong and a sin.
That's surely sick, just like Hatred - well, actually even more than that. And while I would consider it problematic or outright evil (I don't like the term sinful, it's too religious to me), I think the problem lies not in the plain act of killing pixels (or just statistics in case of the simulator). There's a difference in that kind of killing and in, say, killing off billions in Plague Inc. It's not the numbers that count, it's the context.
Post edited March 25, 2015 by PalioDeMonte
Posted March 25, 2015
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Rusty_Gunn: do you think it is "wrong in some way" (like being a sin)
or not?
Depends on the current laws and religions inside the game world. If it some post-apocalyptic setting where the strongest wins and people fight for life, it is not wrong to kill someone attacking you. Otherwise you'll face game over, and we can't have that.

The good thing is that the games usually penalize you automatically if they feel killing is wrong, or maybe make killing even impossible, like was it in Crazy Taxi and/or Midtown Madness where the pedestrians are always magically able to jump away from the front of your car, as if the game has given them superpowers to defeat death.

Carmageddon pedestrians aren't as lucky, but then killing them is even endorsed, so it is quite ok.

So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. The worst that can happen is that you go the hell (in the game world, that is), but you can escape from there quite easily with your bazooka. You may have to kill the Cyberdemon first, though.

If all else fails, exit the game and all is forgiven. Amen.
Posted March 25, 2015
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timppu: You may have to kill the Cyberdemon first, though.
And you do so, by shooting at it, until it dies.
Posted March 25, 2015
Every time you sanitize your hands, you're killing off more real lives (bacteria) than you ever virtually killed in all your games combined.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionDo you think it's wrong to kill....in a video game?(145 posts)(145 posts)
(145 posts)