War is never good. In war, terrible things happen to good people and innocent lives are unjustly taken. When it comes to developing an authentic war simulator, how then do you capture that harsh reality… or do you simply avoid it all together?
When playing a video game in the safety and comfort of your home, using digital recreations of real-world weaponry to lay waste to perceived enemies, it becomes easy to do unrealistic things, make unnatural decisions. In Grand Theft Auto, players kill police officers and steal their cars because it’s fun. In first person shooters, if civilians are around, some will shoot them to be “naughty” and this is something DICE does not want to be a part of Battlefield 3.
In fact, they won’t even allow the possibility, according to Battlefield 3 executive producer Patrick Bach in chatting with Rock Paper Shotgun.
“In a game where it’s more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child. Me personally, I’m trying to stay away from civilians in games like BF because I think people will do bad. I don’t want to see videos on the internet where people shoot civilians. That’s something I will sanitize by removing that feature from the game.”
I can’t say I agree with this broad generalization of gamers. If the narrative and characters depicted in a well-written story empower the player to play their role, why would they gun down innocents they’re attempting to protect? Can’t you say the same for multiplayer and co-op when it comes to teammates?
In video games with choice, a lot of us choose the path of “good” – just look at all my characters in the Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls games. Why not just end the mission if a player points and shoots at an innocent and have them restart? Then there’s no enjoyment from it, not that there was any in the first place.
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t want people to feel that war is not good,… We are trying to do something that is more mature. Mature not being gore –some people confuse the two. That’s childish actually, to want more blood.”
Giving the choice to gamers is the more mature option one would think, rather than a form of censorship but we can understand their side of it in avoiding bad PR from the select few doing things in-game that are controversial, things that would have FOX news lamenting against games (again).
In every possible way, Electronic Arts has taken jabs at Activision in the growing Battlefield vs. Call of Duty competition, and this smells of a jab about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′s infamous ‘No Russian’ level which had players working as an undercover operative, forced to gun down civilians in an airport. That level sure helped the franchise gain publicity, but with it came an onslaught of controversy, controversy that DICE does not want associated with Battlefield 3.
Battlefield 3 releases October 25, 2011 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
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Heres the thing none of us would give two s***’s about this if nothing was said . The writer put it in here so there sit or his article would get more hits . Lets just move on. Hey I enjoy both titles so oh well. But again I am going back to playing “No Russian” on mw2 to kill a s**t ton of civilians!
seriously people, are you that f***ed up that you’re pissed off about not being able to kill innocent civilians ? it’s a f***ing rhetorical question FYI, i wouldn’t expect any sane human being to answer (or to say yes).
i respect the dev’s decisions for not including civilians, it’s bad enough that these countries are always the bad guys (and that we never see things from their POV) but including civilians is going to far, especially after all the bs middle easterns have been through with the US and the british.
yeah i know CoD had the ‘no russian’ mission, but they where morons for including that b/c we don’t have to experience that kind of bs in a game, if i want real world matters, i would watch behind the line docos on these situations.
i think people should grow the f*** up and look at things from another perspective, either that or stfu and accept peoples beliefs. if you don’t like it then don’t buy it, it just shows how f***ing immature, self centred and moronic you people really are.
Jwalka… I sometimes almost get to where I can respect your opinions, man. I really do.
But does it ALWAYS have to contain the F-bomb?
I have the military mouth myself. Believe that I do. I’m not really one to talk in all honesty.
But dude… Minimize it. It’s off-putting and really distracts the eye from the rest of what you’re saying. It’s kind of getting on my nerves.
who would want to shoot poor little kids? even tho its just a video game! Trust me people tend to imitate what they do in video games in someway, try to badly intimidate/taunt FPS addicts and one day they’ll show in front of your house pointing a shotgun in your face.
So… Seeing as how you’re asking us to ‘trust you’ on this… We’re to assume that you’re somehow the voice of experience and that this has happened to YOU before?
Given the ignorance of what you just said… Something tells me that it wasn’t a video game that inspired them to want to put a shotgun in your face.
it usually never is. unless someone who is mentally unbalanced plays the game. or a child.
ive known several kids (in a 10 to 12 year range) that started playing cod and immediately started getting an attitude and getting violent. do you remember that game virtua fighter 2 on the sega saturn? i played that back when i was 8 or 9 and i was medicated for adhd i started getting really violent. and that game wasnt eve all that brutal.
*backs away slowly…making no sudden movements*
LOL!
I’ve never experienced that kind of phenomenon. Nor is there a single shred of any conclusive evidence that games are causing violence.
Imagine that. Years of study and perhaps billions of dollars later, they still have yet to turn up ANY kind of evidence of it.
One fact is clear, though… If I do not experience the same thing after playing games as what you’re describing…and you do…
…then it’s dependent on the individual.
If that’s the case, then it’s not JUST games. It’s any kind of media or any kind of social interaction that exposes the individual to varying degrees of violence-related material.
But more importantly… I’m having a hard time processing the idea of someone one in a GAMING BLOG who is actively advocating the idea of games being some kind of root cause of violence.
How counter-intuitive can one possibly be?
That’s the kind of person that I doubt many of the members of this community actually want here.
you sir, deserve a medal
im referring to children. if you had a kid and let him watch Terminator, 300, Die Hard, the Expendables and play CoD, FEAR, any other ultra violent game for a week and note their behavior and if youll be honest with yourself uhh yeah its obvious.
im not stating that the games themselves are the root of violence in children bc its the PARENTS duty to keep such items from their children. i obviously have nothing against ultra violent games. i have a great dislike for parents getting what their kids want without thinking that maybe CoD isnt such a good idea for an 8 year old kid.
thats all im trying to say.
Ah… I suddenly feel the need to clarify. It wasn’t you I was referring to, iDance. I was speaking about Maru.
But yes. I do believe that kids need guidance from their parents to teach them about violence and it’s many different types of causality. Educating them will help them to understand when it is (and I use this word lightly in this context…) ‘appropriate’ and when it should be avoided.
Sometimes it just becomes unavoidable… It is the human condition, it seems.
Not that I don’t enjoy it in-game myself, mind you. LOL!
okay. i get you
Um, I’ve been watching violent action movies since I was very young. Action is my favorite genre and has been forever. You will probably not find a less violent person than me… I also love violent first person shooters. I have no inclination of shooting someone in real life unless my life is threatened, but that will only be for self defense, not because I have violent tendancies or feel like committing violence toward others. Actually, I am happiest when I’m helping someone else.
So how come movies and videos games don’t shape me? Because I’m not easily impressionable. No offense, but I know what is real and what is fake… Unfortunately you sound like you were easily influenced by media. Not everyone is like that. I know plenty of people who has been exposed to that kind of stuff from a very early age that are completely kind-hearted and peaceful people… Must be something in the water where you live…
yes mentally unstable people are very vulnerable and they have this thin sheet of perception about what’s reality and what’s not, its not video games that caused it but could have been a trigger factor. I just have a heart for poor little kids and the whole “shotgun in your face” thing didnt (hope its doesnt) happend to me, but to someone i know.
O….kayyyyyy?
You’re definitely an odd one. THAT much is for sure.
OMG bf3 is NOT a “War simulator” just an average fps, its not tactical like say operation flashpoint or ghost reckon or a simulator like arma 2.
singleplayer speaking, which is linear and scripted like cod.
As for mp? lets just say its too balanced to be “reallistic” let alone a “simulator”
If you enjoy killing innocent people/animals (whether it’s in a game or you just like to think about doing it) you should make an appointment with a psychiatrist to asses you mental state (wanting to kill people/animals because it seems like “fun” is a classic sign of a sociopath).
I love games like COD and Infamous, but I never even think about killing any of the civilians on purpose (in Infamous, if I accidentally injure a civilian, I will always go to “revive” him/her – even virtual life is sacred
)
If you like lots of blood and guts and gore, it doesn’t make you more of a man, it doesn’t make you come across as “tough” and “hardcore” – in reality, people around you will only see it as sad and pathetic.
Could we MAYBE discuss the actual topic here?
You know… The topic regarding DICE’s decision?
That WAS the original topic, after all.
Masterly Said.
I’m kind of surprised of the Authors glorified view on Human Beings. Thinking that inspiring people to do good will hold off the mutilation of civilians. If that were true, we wouldn’t need to lose points for shooting teammates, would we? Cause understanding that in a Team Deathmatch, killing you’re teammates would bring your team closer to losing, is pretty simple.
DICE took the right decision. If you need to shoot civilians, play COD.
Yah guys, it turns out the situation is worse than we all expected. This game is much more censored than we thought. DICE is also censoring flying cars, ray guns, cute kittens, lava, bottlenose dolphins, Carrot-Top, and gremlins… That’s right folks, I’ve heard disturbing rumors that BF3 will have none of those… This censorship is so terrible!!
Carrot Top will be a skin in DLC. WHAT?! No ray gun? (O wrong game hehe) lol
That’s unfair to dolphins.
Butterflies!