The next frontier for objections to violence in video games would probably be the depiction of children being killed. I only watched the clip once, but I don't recall seeing any children being slayed. It would be expected of an airport for there to be families with mothers, elderly, and little children and infants in strollers. It's not like Nancy Grace doesn't run stories about children being raped and murdered, and news outlets running TV specials on true stories of murderers and rapists formatted like a detective show, not to mention Law and Order and CSI and other programs like them.
This scene, graphic as it is, is still nowhere close to being completely authentic in execution. Could you imagine if they went WAAAAAAAAAAY out of there way to hire numerous extras to voice audible death cries and pleas, so as that nearly every second of the assault was as gut wrenching as the initial slaughter? That there be children and babies killed? No BGM to be heard, only the sounds of gunfire and terror for a prolonged period of time. If they took every step to make this authentic as possible, this scene might have ended up so intense and eerily realistic that the game would have been delayed to scrap it and try something else. There's no way, if they managed to stomach making it after delusionally being allowed to make it, that they would have said, "I enjoyed that." Infinity Ward deserves praise for realizing the barometer for taste and stopping well short, while still creating a provocative piece.
Yeah, Fox and Friends had a segment on it already, apparently. I don't want to watch it because it's the same conversation that's always come from this: The smiling, concerned host feeds biased questions to the enthusiastic lawyer-type with great public speaking skills who proceeds to go over cliffnotes of unsubstantiated claims meant to scare parents. The person in defense always seems to lack interpersonal skills and crumble under the pressure while providing a weak argument. It's almost like a pro wrestling worked shoot, except Fox's opponent du jour [i]isn't in on it[/i] and inadvertently fills in the blanks in the script due to the deceptive mediation tactics.
Air Force One is another movie that had some saddening situations. The execution of the female plane worker over the intercom while the President had to listen hopelessly from hiding was gut-wrenching for me. Yeah, there were some overly cheesey "blow shit up" moments like the fuel tanker getting roasted and the fighter pilot who dies by intentionally flying in front of a missile, but you can't deny the effectiveness of the initial takeover scene of the plane and the executions.
I find an interesting observation in the fairly negative critical response to the movie [i]Gamer[/i]. I believe someone wrote something to the tune of "Video game movies always fail because video games are inherently trying to be like movies and are so dumbed down in the process they can never compare." Filmmakers seem to have a tough time making a movie based on video games to stick, yet video games are not always so clumsy when attempting to make games that have the narrative flow and pacing of a blockbuster movie or action thriller/psychological thriller. It comes down to the talent of the people involved, pure and simple. If filmmakers can't make good movies anymore, then people will lose interest in movies. Game makers are mindful of this as well.
This scene from this game is an effort against stagnation is the way I see it. Unfortunately, the opponents to obscenity tend not to understand that their mentality and arguments are sometimes harmful to progress. I think it would be best to implore the opponents to understand what obscenity truly is and observe how that garbage rarely if ever makes it to store shelves in this day and age.
Any one of us could picture something truly obscene, whether it be lewd sex acts, horrible unending racial slurs and profanity, self mutilation or scatological acts, obtrusive occult imagery or depictions, etc. that, if shown in the clip [b]in addition to[/b] the violence would easily be picked out as a [b]swan dive[/b] over the line which would destroy credibility and suspension of disbelief, as well as contribute nothing of value to the scene. Terrible, unnecessary and offensive things that would completely destroy the believability of the scene, the validity of the situation, and most importantly, the emotional response that was intended. That kind of garbage would offend anyone with a brain in this context. That would be worth controversy. That would get tons of people fired. That would greatly harm the game industry.
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I didn't intend for this to be so TL;DR but whatever. I actually started in the middle with Air Force One nostalgia.
How that brought on seven paragraphs is beyond me. Dammit, I have schoolwork to do.
