I largely agree with both of you, but I think this is about tendencies. Generalities.

I generally believe that most violence in video games is used as a crutch to be cool. Mortal Kombat started it, and most games are using it in the same fashion today. Keep in mind that this is most -- which is to say, there are counter examples.

The easiest parallel would be movies. Violence in movies has a bell curve; you don't watch it much when you're young (because you aren't allowed to), you watch a ton of it when you're a teenager (the "fascination with the abomination," as Joseph Conrad put it), and then interest in violence tends to wane or even become an aversion as one gets older. Again, generally speaking. Because there are counter examples; some (serious) war films and dramas do contain violence, although it's usually displayed in a very serious manner.

Blowing away hundreds of aliens with a laser or people with an uzzi in the course of a twenty hour game... is not serious. It's banal and bourgeois.

So my stand would be this: violent games tend to be aimed largely at the 14-25 year old male demographic. Non-violent games can be aimed at everyone else: boys, girls, adults, or the elderly. Thus, one should note that non-violence can be both kiddie or adult-ish or both; one should also note that these are just tendencies, and shouldn't be taken as hard-and-fast rules.

Good for nintendo! That is why i bought a wii for my kids (and a ds lite each!) and i keep the 360 for me. I know nintendo will put out a lot of good games for kids that aren't overly gruesome or nasty.

Ah i get you.  Only Dynasty Warriors i've played is 5 and it's add ons of Legends and Empires.  Only Samruai Warriors i've played is the original.  So I still have a while before i get sick of it.  I'm hoping the first person view will add something more to it in the end but who knows.

Wow, even Ckmlb is getting in on the action. "50th Mario" huh? You sure Killzone3 isn't just another screen name you use to post under to avoid sullying your mod handle? Or is adopting the language of a Sony troll just something you do as an unbiased owner of all three consoles?

Listen kids, this isn't a matter of blood & gore vs parental values. It's a simple matter that Miyamoto is entitled to his opinion and is for the most part right. There is nothing wrong with gory games but time and time again the "mature" factor is undoubtedly used as a crutch for lazy developers and games with lack of innovation.

Games like Super Mario Galaxy are innovation based. Whether just as fun or not, the fact remains the Mario franchise is a franchise that reinvents itself everytime almost like a pheonix reborn from its own ashes where as FPS games by and large just put on a different skin and some minor adjustments.

The Graphics Whores in this thread just seem to be comming to the aid of this current trend in gaming where you make as many mediocre mature games as possible under one of three settings (Urban/Sci-Fi/Fantasy) and either make it a car steeling sim, slasher action adventure or an FPS. Its a cash-in strategy where the same game is virtually being rehashed over and over, and you fall for it every time buying into the hype alone because the game just looks so pretty or has this undeniable "wow" factor to it. You're sheep and you don't even know it using a child's logic of graphics and gore alone make you a big boy gamer.

As much as you want to deny it, you can't hide the fact that the PS3 is just shoveling out FPS after FPS to disrupt the 360's market and steel their thunder by trying to appeal to the bad boy crowd that is mostly defined by tasteless adolescant males who value excitement over fun. NEWS FLASH! This isn't Sony's intended ideal of the future of gaming, this is what they're left with when all their third party support jumps ship. ALL THEY HAVE LEFT TO WOW YOU WITH NOW ARE THEIR FLASHY DISRUPTION TACTIC GAMES THAT WERE ONLY EVER MEANT TO BE SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE GAMES THEY'RE FOR THE MOST PART NOT GOING TO BE GETTING!

Don't get me wrong though, MS is similaraly doing the same with mediocre games like Bullet Witch and Call of the Juaro which act as little more than speed bumps in the history of gaming. But no MS fan has ever tried to convince you that every crappy 360 game was going to be the measure by which all gamers after would be measured like Sony Fans do now. The key difference is that Sony is putting more money and a lot more hype into its games trying to make you think you're buying the best game ever made everytime where as MS just keeps trucking doing their own thing, and the behavior is pretty accurately reflected in most fans..

Stop trying to convince yourselves that "mature" themed games in this current trend are intended to appeal to anyone other than adolescant boys so stop attacking anyone (Nintendo) who tries to save this stagnant market driven by games which sell themselves on excitement value and graphics, not the fun.

.... Can I get a side of condiscention with that sarcasm? 

Considering this thread has pointed out a million things already, I will just state this:

Drugs do not equal mature games.

Well, things are probably going to get interesting in this thread because of these recent rants. . .

DonWii, what about the addictiveness that is the game themselves? Heh, Jack Thompson should be all over that one.

Well ,I dont like how Mario has ingested for years hallucinogic mushrooms to get his powers and "grow bigger " ....


Just kidding ....

Maverick Hunter:

I actually was being serious! I have 3 kids and one on the way. They love all the cheesy wii games. They are in the play room right now playing sonic and the rings or whatever its called. Tons of parents buy the wii and ds because they trust ninendo more than sony or ms for kid content. I myself like the violent content, but not for my little ones.

Wow I took some heat back there. Guys I wasn't jumping on the "playing GTA will make you kill people" bandwagon. I'm just saying it would have a greater chance of inducing violent thoughts than a game like Zelda.

Earlier in the thread people were saying "GTA is no less violent than Zelda/Metroid" and I was just pointing out that GTA is probably more likely to have influenced those mentally unstable kids who end up shooting people.

Once again, not saying playing GTA makes killers. Just saying that while GTA has a controversial past, there is no way in hell Zelda would make someone go out and stab people.

There is a study being done by someone trying to prove that playing violent games does not make you a violent person. Unfortunately he's had a bit of a setback in his research because the study of brain activity while people are playing violent video games has shown that it does cause a lot of activity in the area that applies to agression & violence. Now he has to prove that it's not directly an influence to acting out these agressions.