Violence has been in gaming ever since the '80s, and I'm afraid the probability of it leaving is much, much less than the probability of it increasing in amount, lol.
Which is why I'd rather put my money on how the aspects of a game that surround it influence the violence, and vice versa, rather than just being put-off by the violence itself, tbh.
For example, God of War is great -- however, I was never a fan, simply because I, personally, thought that its concept was a tad bit boring and the mythology didn't interest me quite as much (absolutely no offense intended to fans of the series, though; I mean, I myself can't help but marvel at the graphical quality and fluid animation, but, well, as a whole, it's just not for me).
On the other hand, watching Watch Dogs and The Last of Us, I was really excited because I've always been a sucker for open-world and well-paced action games. Yet, when I came across Far Cry 3, I was not as impressed, probably because it just...feels a slight bit too familiar for my taste.
In the same time, though, all of these games have one thing in common: violence. Yet why am I not bored of it?
In the subheading for this article, you claim that developers and publishers are "selling themselves" on explicit violence (or, apparently, even chaos). Of course, if you look at it in that perspective, you would be yawning -- the thing is, that's not what you should be yawning about! xP
Or at least, not for the likes of The Last of Us, anyway; if anything, you could yawn at the synopsis, or the Uncharted-esque gameplay, or even the graphics, but yawning at the violence implies that you believe Naughty Dog wants you to be attracted to the game simply for the sake of its, well, violence, lol. Although that's not exactly the case. They want you to witness the violence to convey the realism and desperation that engulfs such an environment, and portray how, if this was real-life, "what the stakes are" and that this is not just some sort of 'shoot, kill, then run over to kill the next guy' kind of game, but rather, one that makes you morally consider what you've just done and compare the importance between crossing such moral lines or staying alive. (And I swear that almost none of that was originally stated by me, lol -- that was mainly all ND.)
Whatever the case, though, since this is mainly rooted in opinion and personal taste, anyway, I'll probably just stop there. It was an interesting read, though, I suppose. Trying to agree to disagree here, lol. But whatever the case, here's to seein' more nonetheless, 'ey..! ;P
(And, er...just to put it in perspective, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, and Need For Speed are all on my imaginary list of most exciting titles of E3; I swear I'm not just completely intent on killing people on a regular basis, really, lol. [Seriously, though, The Sims 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Instant -5 to my savagery meter there. :P])
Although, I can't help but feel that the "I hate tombs." remark in the end was somewhat of a tribute to Nathan Drake's own numerous quips about his own stance on, er, "helicopters", "trains", and "boats" and whatnot, 'ey. Which, if that was the case, was a nice little touch, lol.
Please let someone other than Justin Marks be hired as the screenwriter.
It's already risky making a film on such a widely renowned, historic video game, lol -- giving Marks the reigns in its screenplay would just make it even worse.
Although, then again, the fact that it even has a screenplay is somewhat...interesting. Obviously, there's going to be some kind of twist to the original story here, but only time will be able to tell exactly what it is, 'ey. ;P
While he does make some sense, I honestly think that gaming as a whole is still far too broad to be summed up the way he makes it out to be, imo -- yes, Call of Duty might be the best-selling game franchise in the world, and yes, most kids enjoy playing games with violence and gore, but, in the same time, there are also people like David Cage himself who tries incredibly hard to make interactive experiences that are appealing to anyone who craves a melancholic, sometimes over-the-top but decently emotional story, or thatgamecompany, who also tries incredibly hard to turn games into a possible medium for artistic expression; to me, it's this diverse, endless variety of game design that makes gaming such a unique, intriguing source of 'entertainment', because what was once a simple way to kill some time is now a full-blown subdivision of entertainment that is constantly evolving and constantly growing, approached by numerous people with much different perspectives on the game industry yet all united by a single reason: makin' games. (And making money...but that's a different story for a different day, 'ey. :-P)
Either way, fact of the matter is, I respect what David Cage is trying to do and I'll be interested in seeing how he aims to pull it off; however, his perspective on the game industry itself and its current indulgence in violence, exaggerated fantasy, and the like, is, nevertheless, something that I'm afraid can't be fully nullified or even wholly enriched all that easily, since, unlike film or books, gaming isn't influenced by culture or popular philosophies, but by the evolution of its consumers.
(Anyways, that has little to do with next-generation hardware and stuff, lol, but what the hell, I just found the second half of the article somewhat more intriguing. :-P)
I say that we keep our expectations low but our hopes high, 'ey? CoD may not be the most innovating experience in the industry, but its single-player certainly is one hell of a ride nevertheless. Still, that leaves me wonderin' how the developers will tackle the multiplayer this time, after countless reiterations -- something tells me that they will (emphasis on 'will') implement technological and futuristic aspects of gameplay into the online mode, but on the other hand, I also have the feeling that it may just end up being a forgettable, underhanded new feature that was seemingly slapped onto the headlines of previous releases of information solely as a way of collecting hype. Hopefully, it's the former, but until then, I shall actually be looking forward to seeing more updates regarding this, lol. ;P
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