The Gripe Vine: The Rising Stakes of Violence

There’s been an awful lot of commentary from the critics, journalists and even game developers, that the levels of violence appearing in games is no longer as cool as it once was. Violence has always been a sore spot with gaming, and a favorite target for mainstream media to argue the inherent harmfulness of games. It’s been that way ever since the 90s when graphics finally got the point where grotesque acts of violence—ie, Mortal Kombat—had enough fidelity that people could see what was going on.