Should Games Allow Us To Skip Violent Or Disturbing Content?

Clipping Error discuss whether or not games should have to give players the opition to avoid their violent or disturbing content. They make the argument that if you took a piece of art and judged it by a small part of it with a blemish, then your opinion would be warped.

[DarkOcelet]

Then why the hell are they rated 'M' from the first place?

[VenomUK]

The best way to allow consumers to skip violent or disturbing content is for publishers and retailers to make it crystal clear on packaging and sales displays as to what type of content is contained in the game. In this way the consumer can make a choice to not buy it.

[DarkOcelet]

They do btw.

Alcohol Reference
Animated Blood
Blood
Blood and Gore
Cartoon Violence
Comic Mischief
Crude Humor
Drug Reference
Fantasy Violence
Intense Violence
Language
Lyrics
Mature Humor
Nudity
Partial Nudity
Real Gambling
Sexual Content
Sexual Themes
Sexual Violence
Simulated Gambling
Strong Language
Strong Lyrics
Strong Sexual Content
Suggestive Themes
Tobacco Reference
Use of Alcohol
Use of Drugs
Use of Tobacco
Violence
Violent References

If a person has a problem with any of those then they avoid that game.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Everything you need to know about any game's rating can be found online. Complaining about the content after buying it these days is like eating shellfish knowing that you're allergic to shellfish.

[jambola]

I think they mean specifically violent/disturbing content, eg, the airport in modern warfare 2

[UKmilitia]

i would like a censor for language,i dont mind the odd swear word but constant f this and f you annoys me.
im 33

[SilentNegotiator]

If it's something comedic, I sometimes find censored swear words funnier in some instances. I guess it's just because dialing down the crudeness fits the overall tone better.

As for overused words, it doesn't matter what they are, they annoy me. Like, if I'm really going to hear f-ity f (just being careful...was once suspended over using asterisks lol) used more than once in a game, my eyes will be rolling.

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

so people that can't play that content know that they can't play those games. when you give them an option to disable it, they can play those games too

[Hellsvacancy]

It depends, my daughter plays Fat Princess a lot, she's only 7 so for obvious reasons I turn violence/gore off, but when I played it I had it all turned on

[Summons75]

I don't remember violence or gore in Fat Princess...

[ChronoJoe]

It has blood and a gib system. Quite violent, but for the most part I would not imagine it matters, Fat Princess' artstyle and perspective leave the game very, very detached from reality.

[Baka-akaB]

You can remove or color blood all you want , but if a game is truly violent and feature content dubious for kids , it's the parent's job to filter it ultimately , not the option menu

[MasterCornholio]

As long as its optional I have no issues with that.

[Summons75]

No, if you don't like the content in a game then buy something else. If you are worried about what your children see (which is understandable), be a responsible parent and monitor what your children play and know the rating system. If you are one of those people that cause over reactions to things in a fictional game that are optional to do, then go somewhere else.

Now not everything needs heavy heavy violence or gore in it but for the games that do use it, most of the time, use it for the sake of the content and the story though there are devs who will do disgusting things for the sake of controversy (Modern Warfare 2 *cough cough*). We have a rating system for a reason. Children should NOT be playing Call of Duty or GTA and it's up to the parents to monitor them. There are plenty of games for everyone, don't limit the experience because of a few who will complain about something they only bring upon themselves.

[TheFirstClassic]

"don't limit the experience because of a few who will complain about something they only bring upon themselves."

It doesn't affect the experience who don't want it censored, only the people who want it censored will choose to skip it. What's wrong with that?

[Summons75]

Again, if you DON'T want it there are plenty of other games out their. It's messing up the creators vision, their art, their work and that's not fair to them to have to change it and do twice as much work just so a couple people who don't even want to play can be happy. How is that fair to anyone ? Don't like it don't play. You don't see people demanding rappers learn to sing, stop stealing music, and get more content in their work that is appropriate that doesn't involve beating women, taking drugs, and dropping out of school....you see people not listening to it. You don't see people complain 50 Shades of Grey to improve it's awful writing and changing the rating to NC-17 for it's near pornographic scenes, nope you see moms going to watch that dread and dads taking the kids to age appropriate movies. Everything has the whiners and complainers but generally if parents don't like or want their kids watching it or themselves they take the action themselves to avoid it.

If literally ever other medium doesn't have to get censored because parents keep in check of what their kids are watching/listening then why not video games too?

[mydyingparadiselost]

I remember when Mortal Kombat had just come out and I showed it to my parents, they wouldn't let me play it after seeing some of the finishing moves and the gore. I would go to the arcade and watch from a distance when I could, read the articles (the June 1993 issue of EGM is what I used to convince them I could play the Snes version of MK) and only got to really play the game when it was on released on consoles. I never did tell them about the Genesis blood code though ;)

Anyway, my point is that I would have missed out on the beginnings of what has become a hugely successful franchise spanning decades without the censored versions of the game. Fortunately today it doesn't need to be a censored or an uncensored version, they could be in the same game and turned on or off using a password. Not all games are going to be a good fit for it of course (The Bioshock and Dead Space games come to mind) but if it's something that can be done in a relatively simple way without breaking the game then giving the option is only going to increase the amount of people that you can reach. It gives kids with stricter parents, the more sensitive types and people that just don't like tons of gore or whatever in games ways to enjoy more of the latest and greatest from the industry without ruining the game for anyone.

Honestly, I think the biggest hurdles would be making sure the censorship is done tastefully without taking much from the experience, the decision to censor being up to the devs and only the devs, and that censoring the game doesn't take anything away from the uncensored game. As long as any censored version of a game takes nothing away from the uncensored version then there are only benefits to this for the industry and players.

[jambola]

Twice as much work? you really think having an option to skip certain parts of a game would be twice as much work?
also with rappers and 50 shades of grey, you can skip certain....raps if you don't want to listen, and you can skip scenes in 50 shades of grey if you want to see everything but the sex,
and lastly, nobody is saying censor anything, what part of "allow us to skip" don't you understand?.
allow, as in give the option to.

[moomoo319]

Its mature themes vs mature content. I was always allowed to blow up zombies and play socom, but never GTA because of the subject matter.

[Two-Face]

Fuck no

[DillyDilly]

Parents should do their jobs properly & if they cant the Government should take away the kids

[Stapleface]

Over what video games they get to play? I sure as hell hope you never get a job in an area of government that gets to make those kind of decisions.

[aLucidMind]

I doubt he only means video games, he is referring to what this behavior indicates overall. They're not raising their kids, they're giving their kids everything they want and then they look for everything under the sun to blame for their kid becoming a spoiled, bratty waste of space. Meanwhile, they simultaneously claim they're raising their kids right, but those scapegoats somehow nullify it.

Meaning they admit their incompetence while claiming they're great parents. If they do this for one instance, they do it for all and thus have no right to raise a child because they're more concerned with being friends than being a parent.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

I think TheRandomOne was trying to make a valid point but didn't word it in a way that conveys his thoughts. Far too many parents use television and video games to baby sit their children while they engage in frivolous activities themselves and in most of these cases the parents that do this sort of thing have absolutely no idea what types of games their children are watching or what video games they're playing. His point is valid, but the punishment is a bit extreme. People who allow young children under 14 to play games like GTA 5 or TLOU should really consider not having any more children instead of blaming video games.

[Baka-akaB]

. Every little things counts when it comes to educating kids , so yeah "over games" . If monitoring hobbies and games is already an hassle for parents , they shouldnt be so surprised when there are negative consequences .. that is if there are any of course .

[Stapleface]

I can only imagine the games you folks played growing up. None of you played doom, golden eye, anything with killing, gore? And if you did, do you feel that you would have been better off growing up in foster care? Because video games are now some how more harmful than foster care to a childs mind. I don't think of of you thought that far though.

[aLucidMind]

You may want to reread our comments, as you're putting words in our mouths. None of us blamed the games, as there is nothing wrong with the games themselves. We all placed the blame where it belongs: with the parent. It is a fact that your average child should not be playing GTA. The reason for this is that your average parent doesn't raise their child properly.

There are a lot of parents that raise their children competently, and the result is that their child is intelligent and mature enough to handle even the worst 'M' rated games. Those individual children are obvious exceptions. And yes, a child who is not being raised to be like that rare exception is better off in a foster home because their parents are more concerned with censoring everything so they don't have to raise their child rather than actually raising their child.

The incompetent parents calling for censorship are also complete idiots for demanding the industry to infantilize everything even though every electronic device, including consoles, have parental controls... Meaning if they feel a game is too inappropriate for their kid at the moment, they can set up the parental controls to make it so that game cannot be played without an override code. Once again, "YOU raise my kid because I don't want to".

[LoveForGames]

hell no!!!!!

[hkgamer]

Don't see a problem with that tbh. Just give us an option in the game and it be OK. But I guess that is up to the developers if they want it in or not. I mean DOA gives us an option to turn bouncing boobs on or off or even change the sizes. Mk had blood node on or off. Why not have stuff less violent. If I had kids and I was still gaming I probably don't want to let him see heads getting blown off, and if I had an option to turn it off it would be great.

[Summons75]

Or if you had kids you could just make sure they are play age appropriate games.....It's not that hard, I do have a kid and she knows what she can and can not play because I taught her to ask and I know games. That goes for movies and books as well.

[hkgamer]

i meant for playing myself.

what i meant was maybe turn something like gears of war into something less voilent, its just simple things such as bllod gore and maybe bullet holes off so it can be something similar to uncharted.

i guess for my kids i would just let them play nintendo or lego games. im not sure how i would be on restricting them on media hough, it would be too hard. i grew up with older cousins so i grew up with adult movies such as aliens, robocop, pulp fiction, al pacino and robert deniro etc.... not sure if it took away my innoncence but in school people talked about disney and other family movies which i never really got to take part in conversations.

[Baka-akaB]

More power to you if you do get that choice . But how many games where it is even an option to blow heads off , arent just filled with content , besides graphic violence , that arent suitable for kids ?

Someone mentioned something cute like Fat princess featuring such things in a still "kiddie" fashion , but most times those game are just violent shooters , hack and slash or horror games , whatever you cut from them via the menu , and not suitable for most kids under some age .

Publishers just include the option to maximise sells from people that should know better , if it's a concern to them .

[hkgamer]

i aint gonna have kids for a while and i dont even know if i will play video games in the future, but if i was playing a gears of war in the living room i would love for a feature to make it less violent into something like uncharted.

kill bill with no blood would be something like a pirates of the carribean movie tbh.

i guess if they dont have that option then i just wont play it in front of my imaginery future kids.

[finite]

Just dont buy the game if it contain content that does not suit you or your child this is why we have the age rating on games

[Toiletsteak]

Well if it is an option then it doesn't matter, if you don't care about the violence then leave it turned on if you do then turn it off, if you don't like violence then you really shouldn't buy a game that is violent then.

[HeartlessGamer]

Fuck no that's censorship if people can't handle those types of games they shouldn't be playing them

[TheFirstClassic]

It isn't censorship because the content is still in the game, you just have a choice to not view it if you want... the reaction of people in this thread confuses me.

[HeartlessGamer]

If they give you the option to skip it it is censorship I don't see a point for people to buy an rated M game and have the option to skip violent Or disturbing content that's the ponit of rated M games if they don't wanna see it then they can simply not buy the game

[jambola]

Yeah, dvd's are full of censorship with the damn scene select button, and books, i can turn a few pages ahead.

[_LarZen_]

Articles like this makes my head hurt.

[scark92]

Trigger Warning!

[aLucidMind]

I can understand an option to turn off gore and blood for games, but not violence as a whole. That said, it's an M rated game; how about instead of censoring it, you just don't let your kid play it? Oh no, but being a competent parent is so much harder than finding scapegoats for your incompetence, isn't it?

[jznrpg]

If you want to skip it, dont buy the game .

[ScorpiusX]

No , cause such a feature would add cost & time to developer's plans . Beside it up to the consumer if they want to play certain games , if to violent then move along .

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

alot of people here are acting like the only reason we have ratings is so we can know what games not to buy our kids, or that if we don't want the game, we just shouldn't play it.
I'm an adult with no children, and I choose to not play games with explicit content. I'm not going to buy a ps4, xbox one until there are games I can play. I want to play the order, the witcher, wolfenstein, and even ryse. But I feel morally obligated to keep myself away from the explicit content in those games. I know lots of people that feel the same way but play those games anyway who would love to be able to filter out the gore and the language.
Not to mention, look at what kids are into, what do the kids you know under 10 all play, minecraft...clash of clans...there are few to no triple a action game that they can play
generally I hate all of those kinds of games, i love action titles, which basically means that nothing is available to me except for the select few games where there are content filters. So yes, please include them in your games

[Spotie]

Then don't play those games.

[wraith4912]

no, free will allows you to skip violent games instead of expecting everything to be dumbed down to your level.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Hell yes lol. I'm glad MW2 allowed me to skip that fucked up mall massacre virtual replica even though I still played it. Nothing wrong with adding skip options for torture or other fucked up shit that I don't know how it doesn't push it to A rating. Getting your character tortured in front of you is one thing but doing the torture is another and I would like to skip that stuff. You don't have to censor anything like these mindless hardass gamers commenting above me are freaking out about. Sorry if I find doing virtual torture, innocent massacres, or virtual rape fucked up when devs try to make it realistic as hell. I can understand if they add it to effect the story and torture or rape happens to your character but I sure as hell don't want to play as a character doing this fucked up shit during story scenes. I really liked GTA IV but hearing about all the fucked up shit in GTA V has turned me off getting it even though I probably will eventually.

[Baka-akaB]

I can understand the sentiment , but ultimately even without that mall scene and with a filter, MW2 is still a morally dubious game with overblown violence . Games that could be avoided by those having issues on such topics , just like you chose to avoid GTA V

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Overblown violence is one thing but making me torture a game character or rape them is too much for me and if devs are for that stuff let me skip those scenes.

[underwaves75]

yes there should be an option. Gears of War did a great thing when they put a swearing filter in the game. Also, someone made a great profanity filter for left for dead 2 for PC via mod... the issue is that just not enough people care. The further on we go in this world, the worst kind of perversions are becoming the norm and widely accepted.... read the bible, it'll tell you all about that. I love the action in games, the fast car chases, the big explosions, the dragon slaying, the shooting aliens and saving the galaxy stuff, but leave the abnormal amount of swearing and sexually perverse stuff out of the games.... I know it'll just keep getting worse, but hey, this is the internet, and everyone's got an opinion. lol sadly though, you stand up for anykind of morality these days, your the bad guy... what does that say about the worlds cultures...? food for thought.

[Gohadouken]

Or not ...

For starters it's not even getting worse , far from it . Gaming's content and freedom has never been as much threatened and attacked than this decade .

There are less and less retail games featuring T&A as a matter of fact , with so many crusaders against it .

In 2015 there is no way a game like Manhunt could be fine ... and stuff like Carmaggeddon are tiny kickstarter projects lost in the shuffle , or indies .

Mass effect and Dragon Age's tame sexual content has been much criticized and downgraded each new game ... and people are still whining over OPTIONAL gay romances in mature bioware games.
And even 10 years ago , no one would throw the tantrum some did at the release of Dragon's Crown , because of its art .

Like others above , i find hilarious people submitting themselves at content , they know might clash with their faith , moral ûpbringing , core ethics and principles ... worse when it concern even their children . And then complain that those games arent systematically aleviating them of their guilt and doubts .

if it's an option , fine , enjoy , but it's nothing essential when the nature of a game and it's rating is laid bare for everyone to see , before purchase .

Aside form my general rant not necessarily aimed at you , but about your point , let's say that if i'm looking a show or movie with lots of swearing and it bothers me , which actually sometimes do , i'm not going to stick around for a "beeep" "bbeeep" fest .. i'll just find something else

[Bytor]

They should have warnings like they do on HBO. Games like Diablo 3 should be T not M rated. Any fag shit should be should have a warning stamped on the front cover better yet it should be banned from games altogether.

[SegaGamer]

Are gamers turning into a bunch of wimps or something?

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

No that like people who watches ecchi anime and complain about fanservice but they are watching an anime that has the genre tied to it and higher age rating.

People hated Cross Ange and Rail Wars! for fanservice not knowing it is ecchi.

I don't like games that are too much surrounded by Hell, Hatred, or anything Sinister.

So games like God of War, Souls games, Saint Rows and few others.

[jambola]

I don't understand his reasoning for disagreeing with it, he basically says skipping part of a game is like only listening to one song from a musician, or only a gruesome part of a movie,
wouldn't it be more accurate to say it's like not listening to only one song, or only looking away from a really gruesome scene?

[TheDivine]

Of course. And books should have ratings and a warning before disturbing content and films also. Schindler's List should have a skip function so people won't be horrified at the things that actually happened. It would cut out the whole film.

Then again you could research what you read/watch/play beforehand so you don't buy something you won't like. Why would I play The Evil Within if ogre and creepy shit makes me sick? Why? Common sense is lacking these days. People think they are entitled to do everything and have it tailored to their expectations and tastes. Its sickening.

[jambola]

"Schindler's List should have a skip function so people won't be horrified at the things that actually happened"
You mean like a forward button?
i don't think anyone is asking for an option to remove all the graphic content for a game, i'm sure it's just for the more graphic stuff, or sexual stuff.

Why should games be the only form of entertainment where you can't skip any parts?

[VER1ON]

That would be an interesting feature that could allow for multiple ESRB ratings when implemented correctly.