No... not Al Gore.

I'm talking about blood and guts, you know... GORE!


Everyone who plays a violent game knows what I'm talking about... how you just waltz onto the scene, unload a few shotgun shells, and watch as people lose their heads in an explosion of blood, brains, and bones.


But am I the only person who thinks gore could be... dropped? Lost? No longer in use? When you realize what your computer is doing just to run the game that you're playing, you also must realize that with each shot wherein there is gore unleashed onto the scene, then there is more information that the system is dealing with. If there was no gore, then could the system not do something even better? Handle things faster? Explosions are great, so they can stay in, especially since they make things look just spiffy sometimes.... but gore?

After playing Timesplitters I'd like to point out that there is NO gore, and yet I adore the damn game.. I've played it over over 40 hours and I can still keep on playing it if I wasn't trying to beat another game. Timesplitters 2 seems to keep up with this wonderful theme, and so the lack of gore is a nice and refreshing thing from all of the idiotic blood showering that occurs in most games like Doom and whatnot.


But people like gore in their games... because they're sadists? Realists?



What do you guys think.. should there be gore or shouldn't there be? (Don't bother talking about the "gore settings" except if you're talking about what you normally set it too.)

Well to be honest I think gore makes a game a little more interesting I mean without blood a game would be just dull and unrealistic... Imagine playing a horror game without all the gore I mean the game wouldn't be as scary so gore also affects the theme of the game and also the feel to the game... I'm not saying that gore is neccesary I'm just saying that gore is just something extra that could make or break a game, sure there are good games that have little or no gore but is still very entertaining like RPGs, turn based strategy and real time strategy games (well some of them)

Most games nowadays (at least on PC, i don't know about consoles...) have an option to turn off blood and gore, or to reduce it level. I think it is the best solution to the problem. Those who want it - get it (like me ), those who don't - can turn it off. And yes, I bothered to talk about "Gore settings", but it was needed to counter JP's argument here.

And about gore overall... I don't have anything against it, but it's not that I will not like the game if there is no blood. I agree with Wr4ith_Bl4d3 here.

And blood and gore also helps you to know the amount of damage you are doing to your target.

I wanted the lack of talking about any gore setting because of the fact that I'm more or less talking about how there is the potential for having just as much entertainment without gore, and the fact that there is no need to worry about gore which means they can add in things which normally they would not be able to.

As for damage.. when you're unloading fifty gazillion bullets into something I do believe you'd be doing a heck of a lot of damage...

Well, you are not always going for an overkill, are you? When you want to have some ammo left, it helps...

And for the potential for having the designers make something instead of it - it is very unlikely. Blood and gore are quite easy to implement and they don't really eat a lot of resources, so leaving it won't give a lot of extra time to designers for doing something else or that much extra performance.

And another reason, why people like gore that I thought of. Blood and gore are actually just a kind of special effects. It would be strange if instead of spilling blood a human when hit would explode with fire... So to answer why people like gore, you have to answer why people like special effects.

No.... I like special effects.. I don't care for gore in most cases. I actually find it usually to be a desperate ploy by most directors and the whatnot to use gore instead of try and create a truely astoudning game... since having people erupt in an explosion of blood and guts tends to be disgusting, and so a lot of people mistake it for being "scary".

im thinking there should make the gore a little less fancy....

and more effects into face expresions...

Well, it is a different matter. Some companies go for lots of special effects and super graphics because they can't create an interesting game, but they need to attract people to it somehow. Blood is just a kind of those effects. Same with movies. I know I'm going to be killed for that, but example of such a movie would be the last episodes of Star Wars. They look fantastic, but the idea behind those is near to null. If you would remove all the effects from it, the movie would have nothing left. But it is still good. Is it a kind of visual pleasure?

I do believe that the gore itself gives people, or more precisely, the inner-sadist within the people, a sense of pleasure.

It is one of the reasons that I don't think anyone should be playing violent video games until they're old enough to comprehend that violence is BAD.

Am I the inner-sadist?

Seriously though, you start to sound like one of the politicians trying to increase his popularity by crying out about how violence in games should be banned, etc, etc. Now this is bullshit. The more you try to ban something, the more people become attracted to it. Violence in games or movies is not a reason why people become maniacs or something, it may only be a push in that direction. The root for the problem lies elsewhere and so far I believe it is more of an overall society problem. To prevent children being attracted to bad stuff you never ever should try to hide it or ban it. Parents should spend more time explaining WHY it is bad and not just forbid it. But it is so much easier to just say 'No' instead of taking time to give reasons and explanations...

I'm not saying censor anything, nor ban anything.
I'm just saying that gore in video games, when someone is still immature, can cause some warping within a persons mind. So can any other form of violence related video game stuff.

One of the main reasons most people are fucked up is because they don't even realize they're fucked up... it's sad.

Gore, however, helps you to realize that you're a sadist, since, of course, if you kill something in a video game, watch as it erupts in a fountain of blood, and you feel a massive surge of pleasure....

have you seen the miss dynamite episode where they torture the back-street boy?

Yep seen it and I have to say it's the most sadistic, cruel and evil flash movie I've seen all my life... I dunno whether to thank you or hate you for showing that episode to me...

I think some games over do the amount of gore they use in a video game. Look at Unreal Tournament, to me some of the gore they have in that game is just right out in left field. I prefer the more realistic type of gore where in like Soldier of Fortune your able with the right gun to blow someones face apart or arm off. If they keep the gore to more of a reralistic level then i have no problem with it, but them getting to the point where shooting someone, and the just blowup i think is getting overboard.

I agree realistic gore would make the game more entertaining, but sometimes gore that's unrealistic can appear cool and entertaining too depending on how they do it...

The inner sadist prefers to see a flood of blood gushing forth.

The inner masochist wishes to see their own blood filling the screen.

And the inner gamer just wants to play a game which is entertaining, and doesn't give a damn if it's gore ridden or not. If losing the gore makes the game better, then more power to the anti-gore lobby. If more gore makes the game better, then more power to the pro-gore lobby.


Ohhhh yeaaah..

I would be an inner gamer because I enjoy games with little to no gore such as RPGs, RTSs, TBSs, heck I just enjoy the game as long as it's good and enjoyable...

So which one would you be???

It looks like I am like you in this. I just like good games and I don't care that much if it has gore or not. And I never play games because of super graphics or effects. They are nice of course, but they play a role of a bonus for me... Gameplay itself, the storyline and design are much more important for me.

That is a good point.

dammit, stupid gore. practically every game i pick up has gore in it, haven't even thought of it. really i don't care, and i don't think gore is really holding back improvements, except maybe online speed. though it is understandable that gore today can get out of hand, i see it only attracting the more younger (no offense to anyone) people, generally more immature, that have the mindset that guts exploding=sweet. doesn't bother me, what ever works for them. i enjoy a game for its qualities that don't just make you go ''whoa'' and forget about it 2 seconds later.

don't get me wrong though, i love explosions. they don't have to be gory, but they are damn sweet. (seems a little contradictory but hey, you can lump it if you don't like it.)

I dont aggree!!! There should be gore ..... ? I mean ... thats what made me who i am ....