Annons
Annons
Annons
Proper fisticuffs: read about MMA and more on Fightland
Compare this, then, to video games that, even as they desensitise you, force you to feel something. No human endowed with reason – which, philosophically speaking, would be no human at all – could engage in acts of virtual mass murder for hours on end without at least some reflection on these activities. The visceral reaction provoked by a critic like Anita Sarkeesian suggests that, regardless of your position vis-à-vis her claims, you have one. You've thought something about what she has to say; or, at a minimum, you've thought more than nothing. You might feel guilty or aggrieved or supportive of your games, but you feel – your hundreds of hours with these works have left you with something to say. How many people left Avengers: Age of Ultron, this purposeless CGI mishmash, caring one way or another about the exploits of its lookalike himbo leads? Grand Theft Auto V, which makes you consider mass murder in a way that few other forms of entertainment will, sits in the gut like a Guinness; Avengers, all speed and fury signifying nothing, is as evanescent and unfulfilling as Diet Coke.And so it goes with big-budget video games, which remain relevant in a way that big-budget movies once were. Their designers still give a shit, even if it's about rendering an atomic bomb blast in all its brutal majesty, and they're able to make significant bank in the process. The best all-ages fare, such as Yacht Club's Shovel Knight and Nintendo's Super Mario 3D World, transcends the Pixar Formula in a similar manner: for those game creators, there is no one path the truth, no single business model to be multiplied ad infinitum until reluctant viewers refuse to indulge another paint-by-numbers blockbuster.In every case, gamers are treated, if not as full-on adults, at least with a modicum of respect: you can handle this trip to the strip club or this suicide mission to stop the Collectors or this airport massacre, they're told. Gratuitous violence, owing to its in-your-face visibility, is a topic we can discuss. But blue laser beams, parachuting-to-safety pilots, and no-harm-done PG-13 apocalypses? "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence."@moustacheclubUS