Modern gaming is routinely praised for its realistic graphics and elaborate gameplay, but when does it all become a bit too true to life or downright scary for some players?
While some trailblazingly violent videogames have helped shape the ratings system we have today, others are so incredibly unpleasant that society just hands down rejects them. Here, Marin Cristian-Ovidiu, the CEO of FreezeNova Games, offers his insights into the most controversial video games of all time. From the gore of Mortal Kombat to a distasteful level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, he explains how each game is played and why they're mired in controversy.
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The notoriously violent Mortal Kombat has been pushing people's buttons since the early 90s (Midway Games)Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat games have been shocking people since the 1990s and there isn’t a single entry in the series that’s avoided controversy. The first Mortal Kombat game, released to the arcades in 1992 and later ported to home consoles, follows a tournament that happens every 50 years where seven fighters come to fight a four-armed champion called Goro. This nasty beast must be defeated or else an external enemy from a place called the Outworld will be allowed to invade Earth. “Because this is a one-to-one combat game, there is a lot of gore, even with the rudimentary graphics of the time”, says Marin.
The first edition of Mortal Kombat was so shocking to early players that the game found itself at the centre of US congressional hearings in 1993 for being too gruesome for young video gamers. The case sparked a call from a state senator to enact a rating system on all games. In response, the video game industry created the voluntary ESRB rating system in 1994. Mortal Kombat got an M rating, standing for mature audiences only.
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The grim Manhunt was a dark game to say the least (Rockstar Games)Manhunt
From the creators of Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar North, Manhunt is a psychological horror video game played from the point of view of a death row inmate forced to play sadistic games. The jailbird, named James Earl Cash, is the main character in this extremely violent video game.
He’s controlled by a character named The Director who is sending hunters after him. The task of the player is to kill off these hunters in sadistic and brutal ways, using a wide variety of weapons that Cash finds throughout the game.
The gruesomeness of the 2003 game got it banned in several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. “Due to its extreme content, Manhunt repeatedly gets brought up as an example of pushing the boundaries of what is morally right to put into a video game and how far artistic expression should be allowed to go”, states Marin.
Hatred is undoubtedly a nasty piece of work (Destructive Creations)Hatred
As a game about a person who goes on a killing spree, this 2015 game was seen by many as being in poor taste, particularly in countries like the United States, where mass shootings are commonplace. Gamers play a mass murderer who simply goes by the name “The Antagonist”.
The Antagonist shows a blatant hatred for humanity and society and has a one-track mind to kill large groups of people. With straightforward gameplay, the objective of the player is to play out the killing mission. The whole game is a montage of murder from one person at a time to mass murders in neighborhoods and on the street.
“For obvious reasons, this game was controversial with multiple groups, and even many in the gaming community rejected it not only for its violence, but lack of depth and narrative”, admits Marin. After becoming notorious for its gratuitous violence toward civilians and other innocents, it made some sales just because of the controversy.
Curiosity about how bad the game really was led many gamers to buy it and find out for themselves. The game received an Adults Only (AO) rating from the ESRB, a rare and restrictive rating typically given to games with extreme content.
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Michael, Trevor and Franklin in GTA V - widely heralded as one of the greatest video games of all time. (Rockstar Games)Grand Theft Auto franchise
All GTA iterations let players move freely through the game’s world and basically do as they please. The goal of the game is to become increasingly powerful and rich by playing through a crime-filled story and side activities. To do this, players steal cars, buy weapons, kill people, and generally cause mayhem.
With fictional U.S. cities as the backdrop, players are able to jump back and forth between characters to play out storylines. As they move forward in the narrative, they can partake in countless kinds of violent and illegal behaviour.
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From interactive graphic torture scenes in GTA V, to explicit sexual content in GTA San Andreas, the series has repeatedly been at the centre of video game controversies, with iterations of the game being banned in countries like Thailand and Japan and heavily censored in others. Thailand made headlines when they declared a ban on all video games under the umbrella of Grand Theft Auto due to the level of violence in all of the games and the influence they have on people.
Marin says, “In 2008, there was an incident in which a taxi driver was killed by an apparent fan of the games and that was enough to make the Thai government enact a ban.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 contained a level that really pushed the boundaries of decency. (Infinity Ward)Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Although the game as a whole was not controversial, one level in particular turned people's heads, and not in a good way. In this game, the player switches between different protagonists in a plot that involves an ultra nationalist Russian leader trying to incite war with the United States. In one level, the protagonist is a member of a terrorist group that infiltrates an airport in Russia where they partake in an attack on hundreds of innocent people.
Marin reflects, “In a post 9/11 world, anything involving air travel and terrorist attacks is a touchy subject, so for the creators of COD to include a plot like this for one of their levels was an interesting choice to say the least”.
The blatant killing of innocent civilians and the depictions of war were seen as insensitive. In Russia, the game received plenty of negative feedback, with a temporary ban of the game and eventually the removal of the offending level from Russian version.
Although more and more video games featuring controversial content are coming out, the video game industry is still growing every year. What it comes down to is the preference of the player and the importance of protecting those who are too young to see certain content.
“With controversy leading to the creation of a ratings system while leading to bans in other countries, the video gaming industry continues to keep gamers on their toes about what comes next”, concludes Marin.
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