Video games “are fetishising violence”, says Warren Spector

Guns and guts are the meat and potatoes of video games, but is that really such a good thing? Industry veteran Warren Spector thinks not. Of course, he’d kind of have to because he works for Disney now, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a point.

“The ultraviolence has to stop,” he told GamesIndustry, commenting on the games shown at E3 this year.

“We have to stop loving it. I just don’t believe in the effects argument at all, but I do believe that we are fetishising violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it’s in bad taste. Ultimately I think it will cause us trouble.”

He explained that the reason he left Eidos in 2004 was because “I looked around at E3 and saw the new Hitman game where you get to kill with a meat hook, and 25 to Life, the game about kids killing cops, and Crash & Burn the racing game where the idea is to create the fieriest, most amazing explosions, not to win the race… I looked around my own booth and realized I just had one of those ‘which thing is not like the other’ moments. I thought it was bad then, and now I think it’s just beyond bad.

“We’ve gone too far. The slow-motion blood spurts, the impalement by deadly assassins, the knives, shoulders, elbows to the throat. You know, Deus Ex had its moments of violence, but they were designed – whether they succeeded or not I can’t say – but they were designed to make you uncomfortable, and I don’t see that happening now. I think we’re just appealing to an adolescent mindset and calling it mature. It’s time to stop.”

Spector’s next game is Epic Mickey 2, which will not feature slow-motion blood spurts, impalement, knives, or shoulders and elbows to the throat, but will feature a demonic talking mouse.