From Mario Bros. to Grand Theft Auto - How Did We Get Here?

Last night I was playing Raving Rabbids. O.K., I admit I like torturing bunnies. It didn’t start out that way. I heard them singing, and knew some were off-key, but I thought that a hard smack in the face for a lack of musical talent was really too harsh. Soon, though, it started to seem kinda funny. Then I’m taking delight in luring a sightless rabbit, (due to the toilet plunger suctioned to his face), into the smoldering embers of a fire, or a steel-jawed bear trap. And when that 50,000 ton weight lands on top of him, well, who wouldn’t find that hilarious!

When did video games turn cruel? In the 1980’s, Mario and Luigi kept the New York sewer system free of creatures by kicking them off platforms, but the Bros. were tame, mostly just jumping around while that annoyingly cute arcade music played.

Today, weapon-based combat games like Halo, or violence-glamorizing games like Grand Theft Auto, seem be favorites. It’s hard to see the attraction. Then again, I’m afraid Raving Rabbids may have turned me twisted. Those toilet plungers are just too tame. Maybe I need to trade up to an assault rifle next time those pesky rabbits try to invade my space.....

Do you play Halo or Grand Theft Auto? Why do you think we like these types of games?

I like GTA for the same reason I like GoodFellas. Good writing, good characters, good story. It definitely says something about us as a culture that we like stuff so violent, but I can't help it at this point. What I like has been shaped by culture.

I don't think that video games turned cruel just recently, because the first GTA was released in 1997, and the fighting games like street fighters or double dragon came out not long after Mario. Though they are less violent that GTA or Halo, I think it is mainly due to the quality of the graphism, which makes video games look more real.

I think that video games are more about entertainment and getting to do something that you would never or could never do in real life. It's like reading a book, or seeing a movie but it's interactive. I'd never carjack someone, or kill a hooker and rob her while running from the cops, but I can do that in video games. It's an escape, and a release from reality.

Mario is not as violent as Grand Theft Auto, but rather than looking at Mario to GTA as a gap, think of Mario as a stepping stone towards a safer outlet for aggression. Mario was a pissed off plumber stomping out Koopa's and riding dragons which is far from non-violent resistance.

mortal kombat was one of the first truely brutal video games. games like halo do show blood but it is not to the glamorized effect taht mk does. personally i prefer games like Okami which are an art. last year my roommate and i played that game basically nonstop. or games like ssbb which are innovative. brawl is built off pinball type gameplay and is unlike any other fighting game in that you do not have an amount of health, the entire goal is to knock the opponent off.

ill leave a link for okami later cause i love that game, but cant now as im in mathlab