7 Reasons We Should Be Worried About Video Game Violence

7. High Level Of Graphics & Realism

Games today are far more aesthetically pleasing and with this often comes a greater degree of realism. Most game players can understand the difference and progression in game graphics - even if it's simply between hand held and next generation game consoles. But along with the quality of the graphics also comes the detail. Take, for example, the game Mortal Kombat - which along with Grand Theft Auto is a tabloid aphrodisiac - and its 'fatality' finishers. The original game was released in 1992 and of course garnered plenty of debate regarding video game violence; but if you look at the fatalities from that game compared to today, it's startling. Check out Raiden's finishing moves - he shoots some blue lighting into the stunned opponent whose head then explodes into low quality cartoonish spurts of blood. Raiden shouts something like "heynamameeeh" and we all high five. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAqKAfh0cDQ Take a similar character, Kung Lao from the recent Mortal Kombat 9, and to say the violence is ramped up is putting it lightly. Kung Lao notches his hat - which is a buzz saw, obviously - into the ground and then proceeds to slowly drag his opponent - crotch first - over it, sawing them in half. Once successfully bisecting the opponent, he holds him/her up revealing plenty of blood, bone and vital organs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhfnL9q9EsM Now, gory violence is ever present in the majority of today's popular media. You only have to watch a couple of episodes of a leading TV show such as The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones or even Breaking Bad, but rarely is the shear gore the purposive focus of the scene. Admittedly, I found the recent MK9 incredibly explicit, but it's all a matter of perspective. Had I just performed that finishing move on a friend I'd probably yell "have that" and then make some sort of statement proclaiming myself the best pound for pound razor-hat fighter in the business. It's more likely to be treated as a bit of a joke, and a group of friends playing the game would probably laugh at it. But playing the game alone as an adult - or even more worrying, as a child - it becomes slightly more sinister. Add to that a point made by former games journalist and all round cynical hero of mine Charlie Brooker, and this is something a player could see happen 25 times in a night. The fact that one might witness this level of detailed sadism repeatedly, leads to the hypothesis that is the title of our next chapter.