I love violent games.
I love shooting. I heart punching. I make “brrrm!” noises when I move tanks around, and cackle gleefully when I make those tanks demolish other tanks or buildings. Who cheers for war? I cheer for war.
If it’s done well.
Luckily, violence is one of the easiest things to simulate in a videogame. People both inside and outside the culture of games wonder whether the popularity of realistic warfare simulators is a sign that today’s youth are becoming brutalised (as though people haven’t always been fascinated by war), but sit Jack Thompson, Michael Atkinson, Hillary Clinton and Joseph Liberman down in a Basic Game Programming 101 class and I guarantee you they will all start by making a 2D shooter (if they think nobody is watching). Continue reading →