Developers have an ‘obligation’ over game violence, says Warren Spector

Warren Spector says he’s finding it ‘very hard’ to balance gore in System Shock 3.

[Smokehouse]

Meh. It’s entertainment not a morality lesson.

[Tapani]

Entertainment is just one of the many forms video games take. Besides, you are not the only one to decide which one it is. Movie directors, authors and game directors decide what their genre is and you have to go with it. I’m taking a break playing Spector’s masterpiece just now to write this, and I honestly think Deus Ex GOTY is much more than just simple-minded entertainment. I’m sure he has life experience quite the lot as well, being over 60.

[blacktiger]

umm what?

[meep316]

I don’t get what you are saying, nobody is allowed to have an opinion? Who cares how old he is as well.

[rainslacker]

I respect the mans work, and honestly, years ago, he was a visionary that not many others in the industry could touch with the same level of insight. But, in more recent years, like the last ten or so, she seems more like he just has a problem with everything the industry does, and thinks nothing is good enough to match his morality or ideals.

Developers have the same obligation that directors of films or other media do with violence. And that's if it's included, present it in a way that is relevant to what you're making. Otherwise, it's gratuitous, or ends up in a crap film. I can only think of one director who felt remorse for having excessive violence in his movie, and that was Stanley Kubrick for "A Clockwork Orange". And his regret wasn't so much that he had it in the film, but that others took that as a reason to mimic what was done in the film.

You say "you are not the only one to decide which one it is", which is true. But that doesn't mean that Spector's opinion on the matter is the only one worth taking note of. How other people feel about their games, or the content within is their own personal thing, and I don't need devs feeling they have to have an obligation to anyone when designing their games, because there is absolutely no way in hell they can make a game that will appease everyone. They should make what they want, and let others decide if it's for them. Otherwise, we get this bullshit we have going on with sexual content being censored right now, because someone decided they were the arbiters of what was successful.

I almost with publishers would actually just go by sales and focus groups, instead of listening to people who have no stake in the matter. I'm not one for paint by numbers, but I respect a game more if the devs make what they want, because it's what they want to make, and they tend to make things that appeal to their audience, which is represented in sales and focus groups.

[Smokehouse]

I watch trashy b-movie films too. Nobody has a right to tell people they can’t make cheesy gory movies. Or say that they have an obligation to uphold some ridiculous standard. If he wants to regulate his own games, fine, I can respect that. It’s his vision, what can anyone say to him? Nothing. He’s saying that all devs have an obligation, do you know what obligation means? Screw that lol. Mind ya business is what I say to that.

[blacktiger]

i agree

[harmny]

The guy let us murder children in Deus ex

[Tapani]

That is simple-minded. Terrorists do the same thing, yet I could easily say governments let them do that. I won’t still blame the governments for it. I know it is complicated.

[Poopmist]

Gore is pretty irrelevant. I care 1000x more about a game avoiding negative role models than Gore when allowing my son to play a game. I'd let him play something like Halo wayyyyyyyy before GTA 5 because of the main characters.

[rainslacker]

Disregarding what you'd allow your son to play, do you feel that Spector is correct in his statement though?

Does the dev have to have the obligation to make sure that the gore or violence is within certain arbitrary threshholds, with absolutely no standard in place otherwise...outside regional ratings boards.

Are you as a parent taking on the obligation of deciding that for your son? Aren't you, as a a gamer, taking that obligation on yourself, for yourself?

I can't see how the devs could possibly try to be obligated to everyone over violence, because the only way to achieve that is to cater to the lowest common denominator....which is obviously those who don't want any violence. But then you end up neglecting people that want those kinds of games, and someone should feel "obligated" to provide for them.

[Poopmist]

No, a parent should be responsible and pay attention to what their kids play

[Magog]

Sad to watch greats become cranky old conservatives as they age.

[MWH]

Remember this comment when you age.

[franwex]

Not everyone becomes like that though. Just some. Scorcece didn’t slow down.

[MWH]

@franwex if you mean martin scorsese, i think his use of violence was always within the context of the story unlike for example tarantino who tend to exaggerate the violence delivery a bit. Nonetheless, I agree that not everyone will develop the sensibility warren is expressing and even though i agree with warren that distasteful violence is distasteful but i still love Doom.

[eddvdm]

You say it like conservative is the only people that defend that. Not even close.

[Dizzy11523]

If you grow up and are still a liberal you really have no brain.

[l33t_haxx0r]

I remember when age rating actually ment something

[CrimsonWing69]

What’s next, no swearing in music? No violence in shows or movies and no sex or nudity?

Warren, I feel the world you envision is one boring Grateful Dead album cover.

[rainslacker]

Aren't we kind of seeing some of that last thing right now? Some devs and a console maker seem to feel they have an obligation to keep that content away from the consumer, to protect values or something, neglecting that it's rather hypocritical given that more games have lots of violence, and they don't seem to feel people aren't capable of deciding what is right for them in that area.

it's weird. Every other media industry...sex sells. Gaming, not so much...although it does, but some want to not let it sell

[kayoss]

No, Gamers have a responsibility to distinguished violence from a video game and violence from real life. When will we hold the individuals accountable for the crimes that they committed?
Why no one blame movies but games is always the one that are targeted?

[NiteX]

Pretty surprising to see someone feel conservative towards violence in games, today it's usually about sexualization.

[isa_scout]

I do wish more games had a gore and profanity filter.

[BrianOBlivion]

A developer's only obligation is to make sure there's an appropriate age rating on the box. Beyond that, all bets are off and the gaming industry should be held to no different standard than any other medium.
As a game dev, Spector should have understood the complete lack of context better than any of those schmucks in the white house but instead he chose to jump on the judgmental idiot bandwagon and run his mouth off.
If he doesn't have the stomach to make SS3 -a game that's predicated on violence and horror and destined for the majority of gamers: adults, he can take his candy ass back to Disney. But apparently even children's games are too much for him.

[Dizzy11523]

Keep voting Democrat morons.

[MadLad]

iM sO eDgY. I mAeD iT PoLiTIcAl

[jeki]

Just a thought...is he saying maybe developers should be careful so that the federal government doesn't step in?

I remember after a mass school shooting Trump talked about violence in video games, it was very worrysome.

[Scatpants]

Tired of everyone on their soap boxes telling me what's right and wrong in games. They are an artistic medium, there is no right or wrong. Sick of how censorship happy this new generation is. You're not going to catch PTSD from playing a violent game.

[AK91]

Censroship is never the answer Mr Spector.

[franwex]

He could make a puzzle game...Tetris doesn’t have weapons.

[Lightbullz]

“I think developers have some obligation to just be sensible about stuff. But I also don’t want to fall into the trap of telling people what games they should make.”

This seems like a contradictory statement at first, but wanting to ban something and finding something disgusting are two different things. Although I don't believe he doesn't believe games being able to affect our behaviour, otherwise his views wouldn't make much sense. Even then, consenting adults have the right to expose themselves to whatever degeneracy they want, as long as it doesn't hurt others. Different strokes to different folks, but telling someone their behaviour is/might be hurting them isn't wrong either.

[Kostche]

he is such the wrong person to be working on this game, its going be fail..

[MadLad]

He was lead designer of everything from the Theif series, to Deus Ex, to previous System Shocks.

His personal taste on violence never super-ceded the narrative at hand, and he's held views such as this since the days of early gaming.