For some reason, today I feel like blowing someone's brains out. I could go to the gun store and purchase a gun, but that would cost a lot of money and then I have to get a license, or I can just purchase it online. When I actually do commit the crime, then I would probably go to jail or get executed if in the right state. Kind of not worth it right? Yes. Instead, I can purchase a video game console and one of many first-person shooters and do essentially the same brutal act I've been pondering about (maybe more brutal), without any real causalities/consequences and as many times as I like. Wow! Video games kick ass and the best part about it is - developers are getting better at it. Getting better in the sense of perfecting an alternate reality through verisimilitude. In addition, many FPS games are based in imaginative worlds. So if I don't feel like killing people, well I can demolish aliens or strange talking robots (but that's a different story).
Essentially, 1st person shooters model a world that's simply more fun than our current state, and gives us the opportunity to do violent acts that we cannot normally do in everyday life. It creates a virtual reality so tangible and authentic, that it brings us immeasurable pleasure. We're so easily sucked in, merely because the game mimics how we perceive the natural world; through our eyes. I think it's interesting to ask, why does the USA serve as the largest and most demanding consumer of 1st-person shooters? Do we psycho-geographically have some kind of affinity towards the art of brutally murdering someone? Maybe, it's just that we've been exposed to so much war media ever since Vietnam, but the affinity is there and it's strange.
Perhaps we simply love the concept of actually entering the eyes of a character and witnessing war at its finest points. There's a creepy, voyeuristic quality about watching someone die, killing someone, or experiencing the affect of battle on ones character. When we're hit by a bullet, we usually curse and have a reflexive reaction - we react as if the events are real, which is a pretty stunning feat for the video game industry. The industry has burgeoned to the point in which it can manipulate our emotions and force us to create social networks within the game. In reality, this is a powerful concept that is at work and many of us do not realize it.
Succinctly, FPS's allow us to do the macabre things we wished we could do to each other, but granting absolutely no harm to any physical being. It allows us to pacify carnal/violent cravings, that for certain rest in each and every one of us, through a virtual medium. We all contain those feral instincts and modern society has reduced the need for them. FPS's provide an area for us to evoke those warrior instincts. In a way, it's like a fix. You know you're pissing someone off when you get that kill and therefore, it's very satisfying. As Americans, we're a populace that revolves around the myth of instant gratification. As psychotic as it may sound, we're all interested in killing something - I mean we do it all the time with bugs and with our food, so FPS's have created an outlet for us to tend to those emotions and instincts but in a very entertaining way. In essence, it's like a facade for what we really are or a new way of reverting back to those nomadic craving.
This is obviously very philosophical and psychological, but FPS games accentuate a violent characteristic within us that we ironically or deliberately appreciate. As saturated as the market is with FPS games, the products themselves will cater and satisfy these feral needs. With the inclusion of 3D and more enhanced graphics (Killzone 3), our craving could easily increase as the experience will be more visceral and realistic.
In the most concise way possible, I summarize my thesis: We are a society that "loves" violence, therefore, 1st-Person shooters will always be popular.
I can shoot people in snowy mountains! I would never do that in real life!
I can kill aliens and now with the added behind brutal kill technique, it's even more epic!
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Umn. No.
Let me clarify that. Yes, in terms of the shooter being a emotional release. Shooters do have an accessibility to them just like normal guns. You point at what you want dead and you pull the trigger. There is something invigorating about that, something empowering. I have no doubt shooters hit a psychological response within the human mind. Though what about brawlers like God of War? God of War has violence on a much higher scale than any shooter I've seen released in the past few years. In fact I personally find God of War equally catheritc if not more cathartic than shooters, do to the sheer brutality of the games.
I'll tell you the real reason why shooters are dominate in the west as appose to Japan. On top of the above mentioned accessibility to pretty much anyone that can reach a trigger, can you think of a time were the USA has been without the gun? The land itself was founded by the gun, the country's independence was won by the gun. Guns have obvious advantages over martial weapons in range and stopping power. The west has been using them ever since we could hand them out en-mass to our armies.
The Japanese have a different history based on martial weapons of war. They didn't adopt the gun as a nation until the west threatened them in the 1800's. No longer did you have to be trained and hone your skills over decades of practice. You could just simply pick up the tool point it at someone and shoot. As long as you knew what end of the gun the bullet came out of you are pretty much set, give or take loading it.
Ever notice the martial aspects of most Japanese games? Why they always seem to use swords instead of guns? It's based in that heritage, that upbringing in the martial arts. As stated the west in no different in contrast with the gun.
In application to game design the gun still stands as a simple mechanic. In brawlers like God of War you are constantly trying to learn the skills, pacing, timing, and dodging of most enemies because of the melee aspect. Shooters deliver simplicity in that there are no combo's memorizing of attacks, even when you pick a new gun it just generally involves pointing it at something pulling the trigger and seeing what happens. Not much more learning to it. Games have even added elements to keep the player shooting longer without stopping with mechanics like regenerating health and faster spawn times. This allows the player to focus less on what he's doing other than shooting.
In the east it's all been about excellence of self. Slowing growing after constant practice and learning more and more about the character and yourself along the way. The west has been about excellence of aim. The only skill most shooters need is the ability to hit what you are looking at.
I agree fully that shooters are an emotional release in terms of acting out aggression, but as said many games can do that and do it better. Guns are a part of our culture, inscribed in our DNA as a society. They give the rush that most western audience desire. They are simple and effective in holding our attention. That's why the FPS is so popular in the west.
I'm actually with Swiftfox right now (bubbles to you, Swiftfox for such a well thought out message) in that we're just doing what's been natural to us for over 300 years now or 400 to 500 if you count the Englishmen that settled here in the first place. It's just nature to us. While, yes, I do enjoy World at War a lot because of it's gritty, more realistic feel of war rather than something like CoD 4, they're both great and being the person that I am... it kinda helps me learn my guns.
Like today, I've been playing a lot of Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and I can tell you what gun it is simply by looking at it. On the other hand, I play it because it offers a more more realistic experience in that you don't just go in guns blazing with no cover or anything. You go in carefully, take out the terrorists in the smartest way possible or you simply die and die and die some more until you get it right. It's a tactical shooter and that's perhaps the reason I prefer it over Call of Duty. Realism is what really matters to me in a FPS game and if I don't get that, I want fun. Serious Sam, for example, isn't at ALL realistic, but it's both fun and funny, so I play it.
It's just all our preferences for each region and we like our FPS games just as much as Japan loves their RPG games. It just comes with the territory.
you said shooter and people thought games like rtype, gradius, defender....
Now, (us old timers) have to refer to those as "SHMUPS" That just doesnt sound as appealing rolling (or stumbling) off the tongue.
I will say this however, It has made me teach my children about firearms much MUCH sooner than expected. Games with guns are generally easy for kids to relate a real gun to. And some have paid the ultimate price for.
At least they know how to handle a real gun as opposed to the wiimote in a gun casing.
Becuz thats what most of the options are??
I shot an NPC in Reno, just to watch him die.