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What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

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Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#121

Post by balfirevic »

lone_haxx0r wrote: post #109
_448 wrote: post #11

I was once part of a project where we were porting "MK:Deadly Alliance" to mobile platform. Every time when I saw heads being ripped-off or likes during unit and integration testing I use to think "People(lot of young people) will be playing this?" I am not a gamer and have not directly worked in gaming industry, so this could be just me I think.

I guess we are desensitized. I played Carmageddon and Mk 3 when I was like 7. In my teens I watched videos of middle-east decapitations, limb mutilation by the narcos, etc. just out of curiosity. I'm not proud of it, but I don't think it has made me a violent person or anything.

That's interesting. I too played Carmageddon, Quarantine (what a great game), MK3 and MK X - and didn't think anything of it, it doesn't even register as violence. Yet I'm sure I would have trouble sleeping for a couple of days if I watched the real stuff you mentioned.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#122

Post by dorkwood »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #28
stevenwoo wrote: post #23

I have worked on ultra-violent games but never did research on what actual killings looked like as referenced in the article. As the one quote said, context is important as well as how close something gets to realistic looking. That embedded Mortal Kombat trailer was pretty unrealistic looking IMO, the physics was cartoon like and several what would be real life death blows were not death blows until the fight was ov…

I found many movies (war, horror) unwatchable after having been in combat. People do die in some of the worst ways. Their last moments will make you shudder to think about. I don’t find pleasure in, and I look down upon those who enjoy, terrible death/torture scenes. Some scenes in games are too much for sure, but there are far more horror scenes that I think never should have been made and have no place as entertain…

I’ve gone through a similar transformation just by getting older, I think.

As a kid I’d play violent video games and my mother would get upset, claiming that I was becoming desensitized to violence. But I think it might actually be the other way around: kids lack sensitivity to begin with because they don’t have any context for the violence they’re enacting. As you get older and death starts to feel more real, the idea of a WW2 combat simulator, for example, begins to feel a bit tasteless.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#123

Post by watwut »

malvosenior wrote: post #49
ryanmarsh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found many movies (war, horror) unwatchable after having been in combat. People do die in some of the worst ways. Their last moments will make you shudder to think about. I don’t find pleasure in, and I look down upon those who enjoy, terrible death/torture scenes. Some scenes in games are too much for sure, but there are far more horror scenes that I think never should have been made and have no place as entertain…

One point of view is that it's important for people who have not been in combat to see these things. It makes war less abstract and educates people on what the reality of combat is like.

Yeah, but that would require different filmaking. War and horror movies made for entertainment pretend to criticize violence, but mostly glorify war presence and makes you wanna be soldier or hero.

It is possible to make war movie that feels bad, but generally they tend to be obscure (as you wont watch it for fun).

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#124

Post by watwut »

XorNot wrote: post #97
teh_infallible wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty sure we’re inundated with violent entertainment because powerful people want us to kill each other. Ever wonder why this stuff is considered ok, but a glimpse of a woman’s nipple is not?

It's because violence is much easier to explain then sex. In western civilisation most people can get through life and never even come close to having to make decisions about directly committing violence. The answer of: just don't is in fact entirely adequate - not necessarily complete but almost always the right answer. Whereas almost everyone "does" sex at some point. But in depicting it the exact same act takes on…

Female nipples exist outside of sex scenes too. Movies from countries where nipples are not censored have them in non-sex scenes occasionally.

But also, I am not sure how much your explanation makes sense. Germany has more censorship on violence and less on sex or naked things and their experience with sex is pretty much similar.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#125

Post by johnchristopher »

pvg wrote: post #119
antepodius wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge crowds watched people kill each other in Colloseums. Huge crowds cheered as people were executed, as a matter of course. It was entertainment. So, were all those societies of the past being harmed and corrupted by their entertainment in a broad-sce way? In a way we can see in retrospect, that caused them to become worse than they already were?

Those societies were worse off because they valued human life less and this was reflected in their entertainment. Seems like a reasonably unobjectionable no-brainer.

Yeah, but "no humans or electrical gods were harmed in the making of this video-game" ?

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#126

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

thatoneuser wrote: post #113

Ppl in this thread are acting kinda strange. Why is this so traumatizing to everyone? You know EMTs and doctors and whatnot see this kind of stuff irl fairly frequently and still manage to live healthy lives afaik. I can't imagine being someone on a mortal kombat dev team who goes home and has recurring terror from their work. If that's the case like - go work for Kirby or something. Funny story - I broke my leg in h…

> You know EMTs and doctors and whatnot see this kind of stuff irl fairly frequently and still manage to live healthy lives afaik.

Depression, anxiety, PTSD and even suicide rates are some of the highest among these professions, FWIW.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#127

Post by EForEndeavour »

daenz wrote: post #76
stevenwoo wrote: post #23

I have worked on ultra-violent games but never did research on what actual killings looked like as referenced in the article. As the one quote said, context is important as well as how close something gets to realistic looking. That embedded Mortal Kombat trailer was pretty unrealistic looking IMO, the physics was cartoon like and several what would be real life death blows were not death blows until the fight was ov…

>That embedded Mortal Kombat trailer was pretty unrealistic looking IMO, the physics was cartoon like and several what would be real life death blows were not death blows until the fight was over. It's still super exaggerated, but FWIW, the trailer is pretty mild compared to the actual content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iynVeWhFqsw

Damn. The game engine physics might be "cartoon like," but that didn't prepare me for the sheer volume of over-the-top, intricately detailed blood and gore for its own sake. That's the entire point of MK fatalities I guess, and I'm definitely not in the target audience.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#128

Post by malvosenior »

UncleEntity wrote: post #120
thatoneuser wrote: post #113

Ppl in this thread are acting kinda strange. Why is this so traumatizing to everyone? You know EMTs and doctors and whatnot see this kind of stuff irl fairly frequently and still manage to live healthy lives afaik. I can't imagine being someone on a mortal kombat dev team who goes home and has recurring terror from their work. If that's the case like - go work for Kirby or something. Funny story - I broke my leg in h…

> Why is this so traumatizing to everyone? It's not traumatizing to everyone and everyone reacts to things differently. I've spent almost two years of my life in combat zones, seen some pretty fucked up shit and can sit down and watch a war movie with no problem. Other people, not so much. Though I did watch the trailer in TFA and do think it is surprisingly violent for no real reason.

> surprisingly violent for no real reason.

We're talking about it, that's pretty much the reason. MK have never been good fighting games and have relied totally on the "edge"/shock factor to market themselves. There are probably people who read this thread and think "wow this game is shocking people! I need to check it out".

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#129

Post by failrate »

failrate wrote: post #117
folex wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the recommendation! What are others good fighting games that run on PC and support couch co-op with joysticks?

Do you want traditional 1v1 fighters or more variety?

In nontraditional, I recommend Towerfall and Nidhogg.

Guilty Gear is generally recommended in my circles, but I dont play it.

Re: What It's Like to Work on Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat

#130

Post by pkroll »

kderbyma wrote: post #98
malvosenior wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't disagree more. We should stop worrying about what other people are doing for entertainment. Totally fine if you don't want to play or watch violent media but judging others and calling their enjoyment unacceptable is a pretty far departure from an open and free society.

I disagree with your dismissal as some form of 'free society' bs. Free society is all well and good but we have reasonable laws for a reason. There are some people who find torture amusing and end up serial killers....no offence but their opinion is not equal to every one else's and should be removed from society imo. Just because someone is entertained doesn't not make it acceptable. That's a farce

"There are some people who find torture amusing and end up serial killers..."

You've described maybe what, 100 people in the country at this moment? Vs. the 11 million sales of the previous version of Mortal Kombat, and will likely buy this one. So sure, 100 folks remove from the equation, but you do NOT get to take the 11 million who found it entertaining out of the equation.

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