[CW: violence/gore]. As the title suggests, is there a left case to be made against ultra-violence in video games? I’m thinking mostly about MK11 and MK1 fatalities, as opposed to less gratuitous and less hyper-realistic violence–in Dark Souls or something. Whenever this topic is brought up, other factors usually take up the oxygen in the room: People might immediately think of family-values conservatives, such as the Media Research Center, who act like wet-blankets towards entertainment. Or we think of nerdy Joe Lieberman, who showed the 1993 Sub-Zero spine fatality to Congress (lol). There was Hillary Clinton who decried the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and the host of rightwing politicians who blamed Doom for the Columbine shooting (clearly as a way to absolve gun legislation from any culpability). So this is what I mean when I say that the conversation on video-game violence has been ceded entirely to these dudes, as opposed to something left spaces can discuss without sounding like squares or censors. This came to mind after I was reading about the video game designer who developed PTSD after working on Mortal Kombat 11. His dreams became excruciatingly violent, and his day-to-day was interacting with coworkers studying medical anatomy and watching videos of slaughtered animals. That can’t be good for anyone. I guess what I’m asking is: should leftists see this as harmless fun, or something problematic? And, will photo-realistic Fatalities exist in the communist future?
My very specific issue with the mentioned violence is when it is an expected obligation of the workers making it to watch gore/snuff videos for “authenticity” purposes at the cost of their jobs if they refuse. That was the case particularly with recent Mortal Kombat games that you mentioned, that have left behind the comic-book-like violence of the past for the aforementioned “authenticity.”
Last year, a particularly toxic treat defender wished me a self-inflicted violent death for insisting that I do not think workers should have to experience emotional distress to the point of needing therapy afterwards just to keep their jobs.
What subreddit was this?
It was here.
Removed by mod
You literally just attacked someone for absolutely no discernible reason, you’re the toxic weirdo
Not the same person (I think so, anyway), but whatever I missed while I was away, I assume it was in a similar spirit of
reaction against how I feel about game developers getting forced into emotional distress to keep their jobs. 
I’m guessing the treat defender was defending their treats here on Hexbear.
if so hope they got banhammer’d
Yes, yes they did.
Bonus: they used AVGN for their Hexbear avatar.
god bless the mods! Could we get a QRD on the angry video game nerd? I dont know much about this small business owner other than their thing is making video game review vlogs and are a famous, old youtuber.
I don’t actually know much about AVGN except through cultural osmosis, and that he was maybe Patient Zero of the “rage as a personality” gimmick for Youtube celebrities.
Maybe he’s relatively okay and not an Onision-tier creep. His fandom tends to suck, like the fandom of TotalBiscuit that used to go around bullying indie developers for not having sacred holy FOV sliders or 60+ FPS.
doesn’t justify bullying (except of the director who said said ableist shit and refused to put one in wolfenstein) but fov is an accessibility issue and not having one in a game where camera movement can cause motion sickness or trigger migraines is comparable to having no accommodation for colorblindness
I actually agree with you there; FOV sliders are a good thing and should be there whenever possible.
That said, TotalBiscuit’s toxic fandom going around and harassing game developers about it wasn’t about inclusion as much as being assholes about it for games already launched or near launch.
You’re back?! Welcome back! I read this comment and said “huh, sounds like Ulysses” then saw your username haha .