Murder and Killing in Video Games

Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog recently interviewed Hermen Hulst of Guerrilla Games about Horizon Zero Dawn and a comment from Druckmann made me think about a certain aspect of video games. That aspect being murder, now that might sound dark but I would like to remind you that I will be discussing the killing of pixels only.

Big, evil and terrifying pixels.

The comment that got me thinking was when Druckmann and Hulst was discussing how people claim to be unable to relate to characters that isn't their gender and Druckmann retorted with "...But you're okay with playing a murderer?", interesting comment. Now I understand that it was a simplification and not a 100% accurate depiction of protagonists in violent games but it still got me thinking, do we as gamers relate to murderers when we play games about killing people?

In some regards we do, but I would say it's more often than not highly justifiable. Gaming is by all means a very childish medium and often paints conflict in a very black and white manner. You, the player, often play as an underdog oppressed by some pure evil force and is often forced into the conflict through self defense or to protect loved ones. Some would say it's murder regardless of the reason but our medium goes to extreme lengths to make it seem like the right thing to do, because if a game made you feel like an actual murderer I'd argue that not many would actually enjoy playing that game.

That said, there are games that more or less intentionally play around with this. Games like Spec Ops: The Line with more on the nose commentary on killing heaps of people and others more subtly. The example I'd like to bring up is Fallout 4 for a very specific area with very specific enemies. I'm referring to the raiders at the FMS Northern Star wreck who unlike other raiders speak Norwegian. Now the other raiders you meet in the game have few redeeming qualities and often speak about horrible stuff they've done or are going to do, but the Norwegians don't. They will say things like "Leave us Alone!" and "Get off our ship!" when attacked, simply put, they're not bloodthirsty raiders but a stranded crew who simply didn't speak the language and couldn't communicate with the locals and ended up having to fight for what was theirs in a cruel world.

What got to me was how this detail would likely be lost on a vast majority of people who played Fallout 4 as most don't understand Norwegian. However as someone who do understand the basics I was rather mortified about learning that they just want to be left alone and that I am in fact the villain who attack them. This wasn't me defending myself from an evil, faceless entity but me going into someone's makeshift home and actually murdering the inhabitants. Naturally I felt horrible and avoid going there unless I have to, and I think that's an important thing to highlight.

Gamers as a whole will try to do good, and that is why it's dishonest to say we identify with murderers. There's a lot of data that will back this up, games that offer gamers the choice of good versus bad a majority will choose to do good. Not only that, but study from University of Buffalo suggests that doing anything immoral in games will lead to guilt and in a sense make us more morally sensitive. Such a study would hardly suggest that gamers get into a killer mindset even after killing thousands if not millions of pixelated enemies. I've personally been killing virtual bad guys for over a decade and I still felt horrible after killing the previously mentioned Norwegian raiders, as a personal experience to back it up.

Not that it can't be interesting when games do turn the tables, anyone who has played Spec Ops: The Line will know that a morally gray game will also be very entertaining. It was advertised as a standard military shooter so when it turned out to be a "Heart of Darkness"-inspired adventure that really tested the moral fibers of gamers. It's quite welcome to actually question if we should feel so indifferent to killing so many and I'd like to see more games where we strike down our fellow man to not be so careless about it. If we want our medium to mature we should ask for games that aren't just mindless shooting galleries, games that encourage other approaches that perhaps doesn't involve shooting the enemy in the face.

It could be even more beneficial for us if games reminded us that it isn't always so black and white, perhaps have the enemies chat about how they're doing bad things for a justifiable reason themselves. Then give us the option to avoid conflict either through dialogue options or stealth. Life imitates art, as they say, and today more empathy couldn't hurt. Considering that such a large part of the modern population play games it could be a very effective way to inspire more care to tell encouraging stories instead of the same old ones where you are the absolute hero and the enemy is an absolute evil.

To mention another game that kind of dabbles in moral gray areas but not really, The Last of Us is a game that put the player in control of a very brutal man, named Joel. Joel is a man who has survived in a cruel world for many years and as a result has become a very cold killer. If it wasn't for his companion, Ellie, someone who hasn't seen as much violence and in turn give Joel a reason to care again, he would probably be the villain in someone else's story. Would overall be hard to relate to considering how cold he is if it wasn't for even more horrifying bad guys in the game. Would've been nice to hear them talk about anything but how they basically enjoy kicking puppies in their free time. It can be fun playing a anti-hero but as a result the enemies often become so absurdly evil to make it justifiable to kill them without feeling too guilty. Breaks the immersion to some extent.

I understand that devs don't want us to feel too uncomfortable playing their games but I do believe that gamers are more mature than they give us credit for. If they want to depict a very morally gray world then don't be afraid to depict it properly, the previously mentioned The Last of Us would be a good opportunity to show us that the enemies aren't necessarily outright evil and that you might prefer to avoid conflict instead of depicting them as monsters that the world wouldn't miss. You could say it's weird how they instead encourage killing your fellow man because he's an irredeemable monster.

Not that I want mindless shooting galleries to disappear, but like I said our medium is still in a very infantile place as a whole when it comes to how it handles killing. Some games that depict a more realistic take on conflict could be good, games where killing does make you feel uncomfortable. Solving conflicts more creatively could be interesting and could be the next step for gaming to take if we want it to mature as a medium.

As a conclusion, it's a false oversimplification to claim that gamers are put into the role of murderers when playing violent games and call them murder simulators. However, it could be interesting to push boundaries by putting the player in a position where killing could be considered "murder" while giving the choice to simply avoid conflict through more creative means.