Deadly Culture

Uummm....  So does anyone else see something wrong with this?  I mean, I must admit I have played some of those games once or twice (grand theft auto, etc.), but I never found them to appealing - luckily.  But come on, not only what kind of message does this send to people, but what does this tell us about our society.  Anyone reading this blog would certainly see that I am not a very conservative person and am in favor of all sorts of non-mainstream type thinking and stuff.  But what kind of culture are we producing, or is producing this kind of 'entertainment'?  Guns and violence are such a part of our lives at this point that no one thinks twice about this type of entertainment to distract us from our daily lives.  Its not that these types of games should be regulated away, but more importantly that these games actually exist and are a product of our culture.  The fact that there is such a market for games like this is what I find amazing.  I mean lets break the audio down:

This is Rubi.
She's not big on forgiveness (as she chugs from a liquor bottle),
but she's big on revenge (as she kills a helpless man begging for his life).
There's a word for people who cross her,
Dead.

WET, rated M, for mature.

hhmmm... no forgiveness, but revenge is ok.  And when people cross you, you should kill them.  WOW!!  I mean, hey... the games we play are simply the products of our society.  There is a tremendous market share for games like this because that is the type of interests that our society produces within people.  This is the problem, not that we play them, but that we want to.

Part of the issue also lies in our disassociation with reality.  The women recording the voice for the lead character says in one trailer (as she refers to her role in creating the character): "its fun to do all that nasty, dirty stuff, and have no repercussions."  Meaning that she can be aggressive, violent, and murderous, yet not actually kill.  I guess she was forgetting about the social and cultural ramifications of having so many kids and adults playing the virtual role of killers that are doing this 'nasty and dirty stuff'.  It is interesting to, because I go see action movies with violence in them, and if this was a movie I would probably see it (says something about me as well).  But I think there is something different about physically playing the role of murderer, assassin, and killer as opposed to spending two hours watching a story about one.  In a game you become the character, you control it.  If it kills, you physically and mentally make the decision to do it, in a movie you have no control.  In games like these you let your anger and rage go, you 'kill' people, yet... you believe there are no 'repercussions' (as the lead's voice over says).  But this is to ignore what this game means both to the people that play it, and about the society that we live in.  That we like to kill people, and that we find it fun and entertaining.  

More Video:
Get 'WET' Developer Diary
'Welcome to the G House' Developer Diary
Another Trailer