If you spent play anytime Dead Island 2, you’ve most likely noticed the game’s progressive damage system. The Complete Placed Organ Removal System for Humanoids, or FLESH, as developer Dambuster Studios calls it, is a procedural tool that makes dismembering, melting, or burning zombies look like more realistic, as the signs of injury correspond to the attacks you perform, clearly chewing through the skin, muscles, organs, and bones. Of course, Dead Island 2 apply all this gore to a funny, schlocky effect. But FLESH might make you wonder how such gruesome detail can translate to games with more serious themes.
Questions surrounding violence in games have had a long history, ranging from moral panics in the tabloids to coordinated academic research. While the topic of whether violent gaming can lead to aggressive behavior in real life is still hotly debated, Studies tend to show that any correlation is very small. However, with the advancement in visual fidelity in the game, from the MEAT system to recent trailer for Cancel recordingthat some thoughts look too vivid to be true, it’s not surprising if the question turns around once again.
Aaron Drummond, senior lecturer in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Tasmania (and co-author of the study linked above), believes that although the topic needs further research, if the real Increasing in-game violence leads to more aggressive behavior, the signs should already be present.
“People expect to see three things,” he explains. “First, an increasing number of studies show the impact of violent content on aggressive behavior; two, an increase in the size of the impact of violent games on aggressive behavior; and three, an increase in assaults and violent crime.” None of this happened, he added, with the data actually trending the opposite way.
Paul Cairns, dean of the Department of Computer Science at York University in the UK, has a similar view. “My instinct is that if violent video games really made people violent, we would go to hell in a handcart right now,” he said. Cairns explored the concept of “bait” or the idea that violence in games could somehow change the way we respond to violence elsewhere, potentially leading to violent behavior. There’s no clear evidence of bait, he said, and “if you manipulate the realism of the game, that doesn’t really lead to any change in the lure at all.” If there’s any path from playing games to violent behavior, it’s more than just violent content. “There must be something else going on there.”
Despite previous research, it is impossible to know for certain that increased realism will not have a negative effect, simply because we have not seen the level of realism before, Cairns said. reality in interactive media. However, humans—at least adults—are very good at understanding what is real and what is not, he continued, “that is why [some people] can stand a horror movie but can’t even watch people inject drugs.” So as long as we understand that we’re not getting into a real scenario, it doesn’t look like even a highly realistic simulation won’t cause problematic behavior.
However, image fidelity is not the only consideration when it comes to the impact of violence. The fact that we commit violence in the game rather than simply observing it, as in movies and TV, makes it a different proposition, as do the structures that cause us to repeat aggressive behaviors. Indeed, if you like Dead Island 2your bloody screen, you may also notice that the novelty disappears after a few hours. Eventually, the image of blistered skin and broken legs began to become commonplace. As so many games are built around this kind of combat, do we become susceptible to the effects of violence?
It can certainly lead to “reduced emotional and physiological responses to the violence a person witnesses,” says Drummond. However, that’s not necessarily a problem. “For example, desensitization is useful if you want to help someone overcome a phobia,” he explains, “which clinicians now use VR to do.” In addition, no “reasonable player” generalizes game violence to a real-life setting without capturing the ethical and legal implications.
