10 Biggest Mainstream Misconceptions About Video Games

2. That All Games Are Violent

Such a sweeping generalisation is typical of the media, but it's simply not true. What is, is that a good proportion of games are based around violence in one form or another, but most are fairly good at framing the action in context or being so outlandish they're unbelievable. There are very few games (if any) that are simply brutally violent for the sake of it. The truth is, for every violent release there is an equal and opposite game which isn't violent, which has a point besides mowing down thousands of bad guys. Take Journey, a wonderful game about exploration with no combat in whatsoever, or Gone Home, a curious little indie title which has no real antagonists, just a puzzle to solve regarding a girl and her missing family. Games these days are trying different things to stay fresh, for instance modern horror games are making use of implied violence to create a sense of fear, but actually show very little directly. Alien: Isolation did this brilliantly, with bodies occasionally in the level but all of the graphic violence was kept off screen. Even when the Alien got you, nine times out of ten you wouldn't see any blood, it would catch you and the screen would cut to black as it killed you (granted the last one time would have it skewering you with its tail). The game is made scarier because of the lack of overt violence, instead the remnants of it are what you remember. Nintendo are making waves with less violent games on the Wii U too, with the likes of Mario Kart 8 selling faster than hot cakes, Pikmin 3 being utterly amazing and Luigi's Mansion proving that you can be scary without being bloody. So no, games are not inherently violent, which leads nicely on to: