well like I said the problem is that we dumb it down so much and make it look acceptable or even cool in every entertainment media.... before violence was reserved for the twisted and mentally sick.... or as a last resort for the hero..... so I stand by what i said before.... violence is nowhere close to what it use to be from a graphical stand point it is just presented in a way that is dangerous for the intellect of our youngsters today....

Unfortunately, the medium of video gaming was not around in Ancient Greece. Their ability to create visual works of art was pretty limited; you can't really show somebody cutting the brain out of an elephant with a carving on a pot. You could do it with a sculpture, but that would look weird (and sculpture wasn't that advanced).

The point is that God of War is meant to be an extremely dark game, and once Kratos has sold his soul to Ares, he has no remorse or pity left. He is a mindless killing machine.

I've read some comments saying games should show the reality of violence and not have it,without some kind emotion. If that was the case,then I'd just watch the news. I don't play a game to have it show me some kind of reality. Who the hell cares if you get to play as some mindless killing machine in an ultra violent setting. I play games for the fantasy of it,not for it to show me some kind of grim reality. That's what the news is for.

Those suggesting that Warren is proposing censorship for so-called ultraviolence may have misconstrued his point, at least as I interpreted it. If he meant it as a challenge because he feels feels violence is over-represented in gaming, compared with other media, then I would have to agree with him.

As a device in a game e.g.demonstrating how the will to survive can push one to extreme acts, I have no problem with it, The Last of Us strikes me as this sort of game. For the violence to be the reason d'etre i think is pretty juvenile.

Games should by all means cover the full range of subject matter as in any other media but it does seem to me that there is an excess of violence-for-the-sake-of-violence type games around in the past few years. As Mr Khan alluded to above it is the almost unspoken belief these days that games must be violent to be considered 'mature' or AAA quality which leaves me vaguely unsettled,  as ultimately I don't think this attitude is healthy for the industry.

The gaming industry is just fine. on the other hand, there is a sequel to the Human Centipede movie.

who cares,it's what sells. There only giving the people what they want. What game would you want them to make? They have non-violent tame games,but nobody buys those.

I suppose the difference between the ultra-violence in the 80s and the violence we see now is that ultra gore horror is very much a niche of the movie industry. The games that are being portrayed to the general populace and garner the most media attention are attempting to be mainstream if a bit "Mature". I think Warren Spector has a point in that it does more damage to the wider perception of games industry than good. Especially when this violence is sexualised like in that terrible Hitman trailer.

I think this is as much a media and societal problem as a developer problem. I'm sure there are plenty of mass market games that just don't get the attention of the media in the same way violent games do or are on mass-market platforms that the majority of the gaming media shuns (e.g. mobiles)

No one is saying to abolish violent games completely...but when nearly every publisher besides Nintendo promotes hyper-twitch action shooters and murder simulations as the only IPs worthy of AAA DEVELOPMENT, then it becomes a problem. In that case, murder is the top priority and a lot of time is dedicated on creating new and 'cool' ways to do it. In 2012, the traditional gamer no longer even considers a less vicious title a videogame...unless it is a sports game.

In one aspect I agree with Spector; the glorified violence in the video games industry does more harm to the industry at large (putting off audiences, negative media attention) than good. However, I think in the vast majority of games, the context of the violence is given adequately enough that it shouldn't really be an issue. How well each game gives the context for the violent acts performed is debatable, but for the most part, the context is present.

His own creation, Deus Ex can be violent but is necessary in the context of the story, the world and the role you play. In the same vein, even in God of War the nature of the story, the brutal world and the character of Kratos all work to give context to the violent acts performed by the player.

On the other hand, the way developers market violent games and the disproportionate amount of attention the gaming media gives to violent games needs to be looked at.