Friday, October 15, 2010

Killing humans is OK, if done right!

Two victims walk into a bar. One is a fictional monster. The other is a human. You shoot both of them in the head. They both die.

Which death is more disturbing?

In theory, the human death should be more disturbing to you than the fictional monster because the human has an emotional link to your reality, while the fictional monster should, in theory, have less of an emotional connection to your world.

Whether blood spurts were shown or whether they deserved to die or whether you were hired to kill them should have no bearing on the fact that you just killed a fictional monster and a human.

So, why is it that shooting a human in the head in a game such as Call of Duty on the DS is rated T, while shooting a fictional monster in a game such as Dementium on the DS is rated M?

Don't get me wrong, I like the Call of Duty games on the DS and we knew Dementium was going to be rated M before we started making it. I have no issue with the rating the games received. I just find it interesting that our society is more OK with seeing a human die (as long as there's no blood and it wasn't a so-called "senseless act" - even though war is pretty senseless IMO) than seeing a fictional monster die (with blood, etc.).

What do you think?

Hope you're having a great day! ;)

Jools