Laziness or neccessity? How murder is treated in gaming.

Allow me to paint you a picture – or perhaps evoke a memory. There’s an elevator, you’re boxed in with four other guys, nervy gruff types. The air, thick with frenetic discomfort. They twitch, jerk their neck. There’s nerves in the room, but there’s an overriding sense of impending glee. Ping. This is the right floor. The one by the door pivots toward you, he says something – a preface to the inevitable massacre that is to come. ‘Remember, no Russian’ it’s a mission statement. Doors open, you know the rest. There’s this overlooked facet of gaming due to how trivialised it has become. From the very outset of the likes of Pacman and space invaders we were posited as murderers and sent on our merry way. All whilst we earn our rewards. So just why has it hung around so long? Ease? Enjoyment? Well, as it turns out, a bit of both.

Gaming has diversified to a point where thankfully, this is no longer the crutch of which gameplay loops ubiquitously hinge upon. I mean we’re in the era of the cosy game for god’s sake. So it’s evident there is demand for a respite, to some degree, from this monotony of shoot, stab, kill. But this three pointed mantra is ingrained in the gaming industry. I’m guilty of it, not the whole shoot stab kill, but the enjoyment of its – let’s be clear, digital equivalent. Yes, mowing down aliens and angry baddies on the opposing bad team is rather fun, if not simplistic. Even in my favourite games there is the mechanic of murder. Though often than not I find myself favouring games which incorporate this as a necessary evil as opposed to the centrepiece from which other elements attach. Divergence from this feels warranted in this current state of the world outdoors. There’s enough talk and enough misery that simulating a murderous deed for me to enact simply wanes in its appeal. Though for my teenage self, I simply couldn’t get enough of Halo, gears of war and Call of duty. Now though, the power fantasy can ring a little hollow, particularly when pertaining to the recreation of real tragedies, or in the case of Call of Duty – allusion without commitment.

It’s not hard to see just why I found it enjoyable. These games utilise murder as the crucible for which other elements stem from, to reduce them to mere shooting galleries is rather reductive. Though Halo admittedly provides the most variety for passive gameplay when contrasted against the aforementioned titles. There are the systems which link to this, separate from other game modes, allowing for expression in the moment to moment gameplay and the necessitated urge to go on in order to acquire achievements, cosmetics and so on. Though still, there’s that familiar spectre looming above it all. The element of murder is used as a means of reaching these self-set milestones. It is a pathway mechanic to story advancement and narrative delivery. Yet still, the undeniable fact is that at the centre of this all dwells the necessary evil, and that is murder.

It was enjoyable yet senseless monotony. For that’s exactly how I approached it, through a senseless lens of my teenage eyes. Though believe it or not, murder can indeed be monotonous, again its digital equivalent of course. The repetitive cycle of thirty seconds of fun can only be elongated to such a point where it crosses the threshold of tedium. For you that threshold may be higher, for me it becomes a far more reachable prospect with age. The urge to express becomes muddied when playing through this loop. Becoming more akin to an endurance run for me – if the story hasn’t hooked me then this loop necessitates avoiding the FPS and hack ‘n’ slash genres almost entirely. I know, I know of the titles I may be passing on but a game ultimately has to be enjoyable. Yes the extended edition of Return of the King is the definitive one, but sometimes four and a half hours is just too big an ask! Point being, the media we consume should not be a test of one’s ability to endure it. Not to say it shouldn’t test us, or even probe into our thoughts or question that which we deem to be concrete, all of these elements are vital to the creation of great art. Rather, the experience should be one that accommodates the yearning for entertainment whilst also bringing to the forefront that which we are willing or unwilling to question. It’s just that, why is this so commonly accomplished through the act of murder?

We, as the protagonists in these games are primed to operate on ideas of absolutes, we’re good, you’re bad, guns go bang – you die. And so on. Yet our actions are never truly examined nor questioned during our time in the, for lack of a better term, ‘shooting gallery simulators’. Though what if the undertaking and the committal of our violent acts is questioned? Our misdeeds brought to light, suddenly we are granted the gift (or curse) of clemency pertaining to our precursive misdeeds. How then, do we feel? Pretty crappy, or at least I did.

Shadow of the colossus seeks to do just this. It presents us with the monument of our deeds, or sins – you choose. Having hacked and slashed our way through its gallery of beasts equal in their grandeur as we in our insignificance. The protagonist, Wander, seeks to bring life back to his beloved. Yet the further we pursue this endeavour, led on by a disembodied voice, the less of us there truly is. There’s a great many games that bring into question the agency we believe we hold. Be this in the form of Bioshock, System shock, a great many shocks indeed. Point being, very few games present us with this image of that which we once deemed a righteous pursuit, cum-hollow aim. By the concluding hours of its runtime we see Wander reduced to a bristling mass of tenebrous particles, unrecognisable of the young warrior we once were. For during this time, for me at least, the questioning of why I was on this warpath of murder and beast-slaughtering indulgence, rarely if ever did I enter into a state of introspection. I simply just went on, it is a game after all, so murder, conquest and bloodshed are necessary evils, right guys? Right?

When the inevitable guilt began to sink in, my role as puppet revealed, I was left feeling wholly empty. What I thought was a righteous pursuit was an utterly vacuous undertaking which saw Wander lose his sense of self, aesthetic, initial motivation in the process of achieving just what? The initial motivating desire seemed so distant. But I accepted the aims based purely upon the supposition of it being a game. How else could the narrative continue if I simply refused? It had become an accepted evil, a means to an end, that the developers were inherently aware of. I pursued this on the basis of continuing on. Agency is one thing, accepting murder as a necessity for progression is another. I never once ceased in my tirade, nor had I taken the time to observe the various colossi. Had I done such a thing I would have noticed that they are passive beasts.  They were roaming in their own corner of the land I had happened upon. It was I who was the parasite, an unwitting slave to the powers that be, embarking on his rampage of murder and conquest. Let’s back it up a bit.

Shadow of the Colossus shares this kinship with Spec ops the line. Both titles rely upon the player’s understanding and acceptance of established genre conventions and thus seek to subvert and bring into question this acceptance. Not only is agency an ambiguous concept, but our drive to kill is too. The power fantasy of the FPS genre is undermined by the revelation that ensues during the concluding moments of Spec ops’ final act. Yet in the majority of my time spent with these titles, I continued on with the solidified acceptance that murder is inherent to games and thus bears such insignificance, that it is not worth questioning. How wrong I was. Narrative revelations in the aforementioned titles do indeed hinge upon murder, yet rather than advancing the plot to seek the conclusion, the conclusion occurs to question our precursive acts of heinous violence. Hack and slash I did, all the while unaware of just how ingrained this notion had become.

And so I was led to seek alternatives. The resulting existential crisis regarding violence in gaming sent me on a warpath of my own. A route of self-imposed atonement for the years of accepting brutality as a necessity in my gaming endeavours. The remedy to this ailment came in the form of the indie scene, which does have its own selection of brutal titles – Hotline Miami, Vampire Survivors etc. However my atonement saw me being drawn to the realm of, and this needs no introduction, the cosy game. Though my ingrained British scepticism prevented me from initially embracing these games, I grew to love the sway from violence they allowed. Any emerging trend in my eyes is filtered through the lens of scepticism and must be treated with the utmost scrutiny, I am Bri’ish after all, moaning and decrying is what we do best. Eventually relenting, I dived into a slew of titles which served not to question my brutality, but rather, provide no reason for me to enact it in any degree at all.

A short hike led me through a minuscule yet densely packed open world, for indeed its runtime is short, that’s kind of the point. Pacificity became the desired draw for me. The ceaseless relent that high tempo online multiplayer demanded from me waned in its appeal. Being an adult is hard, I’m not that teen anymore and that squeaky disembodied annoyance I once was is now the new generation trampling upon me. When I settle down to indulge in a gaming session, I look for a moment of peace. Trundling around the island of A short hike, cleaning the areas of power washer simulator or be it 2016’s Firewatch, which saw me conversing with Delilah’s disembodied charm as I wandered through a pasture at sunset. These titles presented an opportunity to stick on a podcast, turn off my brain and undertake an act which felt at once productive and satisfying.

Now, we see just why I stray from the FPS titles. Mindless? Perhaps. Fatigue of said genre? Definitely. The present day slew of yearly releases and high-tempo multiplayer options present no appeal for my present desires in gaming. The yearning for the cosy, for the charm of acting as a creative pacifist rings out more strongly than ever. Despite this, I always find time for my yearly revisitation to the lands of Boletaria and Lordran in Fromsoft’s Soul series. The critical lens for which I view murder as a means of gameplay involvement and plot advancement remains unshifting here too. The surmise I have reached is that a game must extend beyond this mechanic acting as the core appeal. Exploration, discovery, expression and cooperation are all prospects which, believe it or not, can involve murderous deeds. Yet the enjoyment hinges primarily upon the incorporation and utilisation of murder. I’m not going all hippie on you just yet, there’s always room for shoot, stab, kill, it merely has to be the centrepoint from which deeper elements and motivators tie to.

Given what I’ve alluded to, and my evident disdain for a reliance upon violence, do not take what I have said as ‘gaming is the corrupting entity and that indeed games are the root cause of the violence in the world’. That talking point has been done to death – pun intended. I’m harping on about freeing oneself from the cyclical boredom that has surmounted the threshold of stagnation and entered into a place of over reliance. The acceptance of murder is no longer a thing I unconsciously accept. Yes, when I boot up Minecraft its in peaceful mode – yes when I need a couple of extra levels I will slaughter some skeletons. My draw in gaming now pertains to that of productivity, expression and relaxation. High tempo power fantasy simulators no longer satiate my dopamine needs. I’ve embraced the cosy game, my inner sceptic hates to admit, though in a world where I see such horrific events play out, atrocities more televised than ever, the respite that the world of gaming can allow for only increases in its appeal. I am getting older, so these things become more transparent. Sadly, as a child I was cracking the spines of aliens and chainsawing locusts like there was no tomorrow. It is the need in adulthood for that sense of escapism, rather than the simulation of power, which keeps me returning to the familiar cosy that passive games present. Murder is no necessity, and no this isn’t a PBS announcement for veganism. You guys do you.