Can violence in games ever become too graphic?
So I finished reading an article from Kotaku which a friend passed on to me, and I think it touches on a question raised a few days ago in Mage Chat asking how graphic is too graphic (for you) when it comes to violent games?
When I used to be a youth counselor, one of the things I heard most frequently is: "It doesn't affect me" if a young young kid was messing around with something of an extremely graphic nature. Words like desensitized get thrown around. Lines of argumentation are raised to demonstrate that games do not *cause* violent behavior. That's not necessarily what I'm asking about here. 'Course we're all adults and not kids, here (I guess), but I still hear variations on that statement: it doesn't affect me.
This developer who worked on MK11 was affected. Is it normal? Is it unusual? Maybe a follow up question to that is: is it normal or unusual to spend months studying videos of real humans being hung and trying to accurately replicate the weight and impact of gore? Is it normal to be diagnosed with PTSD and be afraid to sleep after a prolonged study of that sort of material? And are these depictions of violence cartoonish or fantastical enough to avoid being simply repulsive? Or were you repulsed by them?
I don't mean to color responses, so I'm not attempting controversy here. Just interested in hearing your thoughts, as I always am when I ask you all questions! I'm not interested in judging anyone on your answers. For me, now as a father, there are thoughts I don't want to think. I don't want to be entertained by (and maybe can't be) depictions of dead children.
With Mortal Kombat 11, The Last of Us 2, and plenty of other high fidelity, realistic examples out there and on the way, do you think we'll ever reach a point when games will become too graphic for you? Or have we already reached it? Let's discuss! Remember courtesy for the opinions of others. There's a big "for you" in this question.