Napalm Riot

Jack Thompson may be right. (I know, I know, you are all cringing and reaching for your mouse to type out a reply. Just hear me out, okay?) As I was saying, Jack Thompson may be right. So, I review games frequently (say about once a day, most days, here) and I was playing a game the other day that got me thinking. That game was Red Dead Revolver. It got me thinking what exactly I was doing in that game and why.

As the character, Red (which is a great name for a bounty hunter by the way), you show up in a small town and after getting shot at decide to take on the gang. The gang is led by a serial killer named Bloody Tom who, supposedly, is infamous. Okay, so, I'm up for that. He's a killer, I need to take him out. Right, makes sense. Only, there is a problem. In order to get to him I must kill a handful of other people and then kill him. That was the point I was questioning. In order to bring justice to a serial killer I must kill people to get to him, to then kill him. Does that make sense?

Surprisingly, it was not during that mission that I really began to think about this whole "murder simulator" comparison that Jack Thompson is always saying about violent video games. Once I had reached a later town, I had to fight over a dozen people for control of a town. This struck me as rather odd. Weren't most small towns in the West only around a dozen people or so? Did I wipe out a whole town? Since it is a game, probably not. Then again, I've done it in other games.

Many games today feature gameplay that revolves around killing people. Sure, maybe they clones or mutants or even aliens. Regardless, isn't that murder? Even if it is some alien hybrid or Russian solider (Why always Russian!?), isn't it the point that I am anthropomorphizing my enemy as another human? It's really strange when you think about it. Why do I have to kill wave after wave of people just to save some technology or infiltrate some base?

I'm not the only person thinking about this, of course. Some of the more popular, and some would argue authentic, recent games feature gameplay where you can knock the enemy soldiers unconscious and sneak by them (I'm thinking Metal Gear Solid games.) So, am I committing murder? If I am, does that make violent video games simulations of the act of murder?