Post
by Endoperez » Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:22 am
I see now, I think.
You seem to have defined evil like so:
'A game is evil if a human character dies in it.'
That happens in several games. They should all be evil.
I disagree with your definition of evil.
However, if I accepted, I would agree with your conclusion.
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What I'm saying is basically the old 'can a tool be evil' argument, plus a bit of the 'if a tree falls in the wood and no one hears' paradox.
A gun, a sword does not kill on its own. It needs someone to use it. It is the user who is evil, if innocents die, not the weapon.
A game is a tool, not the actor. However, it's a tool with such a defined usage that if you use it, it can do one of a predefined set of things. A killing weapon, a torture machine, that can only be used for one, evil purpose... It is either a tool for evil, or useless.
That's how a tool CAN be evil - when using it is automatically evil.
If an evil thing happens, but no one was harmed, and there's no sign of it afterwards, did it really happen? If a game is left to run and lemmings keep dying, is it evil? Using your argument, it would be. All those gifs of stick figures dying, looping endlessly, are evil... How silly. If I put a hidden computer somewhere to replay billions of stick figure deaths, it wouldn't make me any more evil.
I've not fully defined evil, for this argument. Defining evil is hard. However, I have an example of what is evil, and why playing Hatred is evil:
I believe that enjoying the sight (illusion or not) of helpless humans crying for help as 'you' shoot and kill them is evil, and the more you enjoy the killing and the targets' virtual pain and the more immersive the illusion is, the more evil it is.
In most shooters, the gameplay, the challenge, team play or kill streaks effects and announcements or frak stats are also a big part of the enjoyment. They are innocent enjoyment, so while those games might give someone the evil, murderous satisfaction that marks Hatred, that is not the ONLY way to enjoy most games.
As far as the tool analogy goes, that makes CoD a sports rifle - a tool that has several uses, only some of which are evil.
If Hatred could be enjoyed without killing representations of unthreatening, innocent humans, it wouldn't be evil. Everything points to that not being a consideration for the devs, so I call Hatred evil.