Tagged: Call of Duty

The Monotony of Violence in Black Lagoon

A screencap from the opening credits of “Black Lagoon”

The term “gratituous violence” is nowadays almost interchangeable with “explicit violence” when talking about media; both are used to describe intensely violent works such as horror films and crime fiction. However, there is a distinction between them that is highly subtle and which quite clearly places them as opposites as critical viewpoints. Gratituous violence is that which is unnecessary in narrative terms – it is there to titillate or elicit a basic response of excitement or revulsion. There is a quite specific sense of intent in the word “gratituous” that implies the content is unneeded. “Explicit” violence has no such intent or quality distinction; it is simply violence which is graphically depicted.

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Thinking Points (XI) – A Cynical Look At Media Outcry

Recently there has been much less furious media outcry about the content and possible harmful effects of computer games and violent media; this in itself is probably a good thing. Kneejerk Mary Whitehouse-esque decency witch-hunts muddy real debates about what sexual and violent content is appropriate in popular media, and lead to reductive situations where real discussion is avoided simply because the prevailing attitude is a simplistic censorship is bad. Closing down debate in this way prevents any possibility for improvement of the status quo.

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Thinking Points (III) – What Is Fetishised Violence?

I mentioned in the first Thinking Points article that video games are being held to be inadequate in their handling of “serious” issues by the media at large. These criticisms, though, do not appear to have stopped. Makers of games are weighing in now, and the negative media attention simply cannot be escaped – it is from broadsheet newspapers, and critics of other media. The latest complaint is that the trend for lavishly-depicted acts of violence as shown in many titles at this year’s trade fair E3 “fetishise” violence; turning it into something the viewer should take pleasure in.

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Thinking Points (I) – Taking Things Seriously

Note: These articles will be shorter than most and more focused on opening up a debate.

I don’t want to weigh in directly on the current debate about sexism and “ultraviolence”  in gaming; for one, there are two quite different (albeit linked) issues here being rolled together in the eyes of some. Firstly the juvenile, reductive and quite frankly low-quality writing in games that lets creating protagonists who instead of being central agents of plot are needing “protection” be something accepted unthinkingly. Secondly the bigoted and immature screaming of online subcommunities which, at the core of it, is no different to football hooliganism or any other kind of nastiness within those who identify themselves by a pastime.

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