File:Spec Ops - The Line and the Anti-Aesthetics of Violence in Game Design-3

Spec Ops the line is held up as an example of a game that critiques violence through its use of violence, what we can call violence anti aesthetics. However, this only brings up the age old question of why games are violent to begin with, and whether this is stifling our creative instincts as a medium. In tracing the history of violence in games, and the perspectives of different game designers on the topic, we can try to search for how to solve the problem that the lead writer of spec ops, Walt Williams, brings up. How violence in games desensitizes us to violence in games.

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Sources

-We are not Heroes, Walt Williams GDC talk https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017980/We-Are-Not-Heroes-Contextualizing

-Significant zero, Walt Williams

-Getting Gamers,  Jamie Madigan

-Game Feel, Steve Swink

-The State of Play, The Joys of Virtual Violence

-Shooter

-On Gunplay, Clint Hocking https://www.clicknothing.com/click_nothing/2015/10/shooter-in-storybundle.html

- Persuasive Games, Ian Bogost

-The Ethics of Computer Games,  Miguel Sicart

- Train, Brenda Romero GDC talk https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012259/Train-(or-How-I-Dumped