Are games trying to be too 'gritty' and 'mature' ?

[Migey]

Hey there.

There seems to be a trend in games these days, wherein many games and franchises, some of which were once light hearted or even humourous, are now trying very hard to be 'mature' and 'gritty'. I find this annoying when it happens to series and franchises where it quite clearly doesn't belong, and even when it does, gratuitous blood, titties, gore and burly men running around yelling 'FUCK' a lot just tends to get boring. It's not completely prevalent over everything, but it still is a pain.

Does anyone else agree, do you think it is a bad thing, or shouldn't be done?

[Xothic]

Saints row 3 has blood, tits, swearing, etc, and it is the most ridiculous game i've played this year.

[Denalian]

Relevant: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/hard-boiled

There's nothing inherently wrong with 'grittiness', but doing just for the sake of it annoys the crap out of me.

[Ravenyx]

There's something to be desired in games that are unrealistic and built around fun rather than grit and/or realism. Just look at the majority of Wii stuff out there. Having played games in the 80's stuff was almost always just fun, and I think some of the non gritty/realistic stuff actually appeals to older gamers (as well as kids). I'll certainly be getting a Wii U at launch to take advantage of some titles that don't contain gore/blood etc. I've recently kind of reverted away from the gritty/gore/blood kind of games its just too based on people buying extra content via ps3 network/xbox live which I hate.

[OrcsRLame]

DmC Devil May Cry. "DMC isn't mature enough. Let's make Dante an emo punk that has a problem with the police and likes to smoke. Then let's make him half human half angel half demon with a goth hairstyle because I'm Tameem Antoniades and I think teenage London punk is ultra cool and mature and I give zero fucks about canon and continuity. Someone please kick me in the balls so I can stop raping Devil May Cry!"

Somehow I thought that was relevant.

[clockwork71]

The one that really gets me is Battlefield 3. I mean, I understand that in a war there is a lot of cussing......but it is way over the top in that game. There are numerous references to gay sex too - what the hell is that all about?

[Digglett]

Yes. Brown Bloom Shooter number 802 agrees.

[pocky_rin]

I don't mind it as long as it's there for a reason and not just shock value. If it's valuable to the storyline. But there are some characters that just start swearing like a kid that found a bad word. It just comes off as immature and weird. It's not like I'm offended by it, it just detracts from the immersion a bit for me.

[Deadraline]

Part of why I am looking forward to Mists of the Pandaria. I am so sick of every game being so real...so serious all the time. I just wanna have fun and play as some cute bouncy character where the biggest worry is some evil bunnies ruining and stealing all the crops. <3 I seen a preview for a game the other night...can't remember the name for the life of me. It looked very real and I just remember thinking sure it looks good, but how is it any different than any other game out there right now? I get excited when a new Ratchet and Clank is released...still has the light hearted humor I remember...and I love that little robot Clank

[Elim Garak]

Finally adult population can have gritty games and here we go - some guy complaining about it. Well go play the fluffy ones and stay away from adult entertainment.

[Kisho]

Spec Ops: The Line is basically the only example I can think of where the 'gritty/mature' thing works really well for the story.

Otherwise I entirely agree: it's one of my pet hates of recent games. That new game coming out soon, Sleeping Dogs? There's these 'finishers' which are obviously only in there just to get gore-lovers rocks off. It's entirely pointless and only serves to make games look even less mature, which is probably the entire opposite thing they're trying to go for.

It all comes across as some kid whose gotten into smoking, screaming 'LOOK AT ME I'M SO COOL, I'M AN ADULT'. I mean, if it helps the story of the game then yeah, go for it. But just putting it in for the sake of trying to look cool? It's pathetic.

---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 02:50 PM ----------

Finally adult population can have gritty games and here we go - some guy complaining about it. Well go play the fluffy ones and stay away from adult entertainment.

Hm. Someone with a pony avatar believes games need to be gory/gritty to be 'adult'. I would've thought you'd know that to be entirely untrue, but ah well.

Honestly, I'd put something like Kingdom Hearts as more mature than something like, say, Call of Duty. Or Gears of War.

Let's stop on the personal attacks and stay on topic please!

[Elim Garak]

Hm. Someone with a pony avatar

How very adult of you!

believes games need to be gory/gritty to be 'adult'.

Who said anything about "NEED"?
But if it's a game about killing people - it should be realistically gritty. Also common sense.
A thug who cites Shakespeare to let the steam out - puts me off. Fluffy games are for the kids. I do not need protection from foul language.

I would've thought you'd know that to be entirely untrue, but ah well.

I'm adult - I know it to be true, but ah well.

Honestly, I'd put something like Kingdom Hearts as more mature than something like, say, Call of Duty. Or Gears of War.

Honestly, do you really think that a Call of Duty type of game where you have to kill people in a realistic way - is a kiddy game? Rated Mature for a reason.

Let's stop on the personal attacks and stay on topic please!

[panterarules]

I think it's great that games have mature references however grittiness tends to just be an graphical style these days and doesn't really push the game towards mature audiences. I don't believe graphical images will ever lead to a mature audience (take an old school game with a load of gore back in the game like Soldier of Fortune, i think it ended up leading more teens playing the game) but then again i prefer games to be somewhat tricky in the way that you have to think at every turn.

When pulled off though, a gritty style can definitely work. Take Fallout 1/2 for example. Both these games are loaded with prostitution, drug references, gambling, people getting sawed in half with a minigun etc. The difference is the writing i guess which leads to immersion. Games these days a lot of the grittiness just seems over the top and out of place. It's almost way to fantastical to even believe (even though they are aiming for realism).

[oplawlz]

Go nintendo, you'll never have to worry about "gritty" game again. Of course you'll also starve for "good" games, unless you gotta catch em all :P

OT though, I personally enjoy very dark games. I also enjoy very dark books though, so it stands to reason I'm just a morbid SOB.

[Pony Soldier]

Yeah I find it annoying also. You can definitely see the difference in how games are these days compared to the PS2/Gamecube days where there was a HUGE variety of games. There were the gritty/mature games then the adventurous and funny games and all sorts of genres. But now it seems like all they want to make are games that are constantly super serious all the time and cursing constantly. I miss the games where they had original ideas and creativeness to them. Today it just seems like there basically all the same, ESPECIALLY the shooters! Oh my gosh especially the shooters its like every FPS/TPS that comes out its like they stole everything from the previous game and just copied it and put there own stuff in it to make it seem like its unique.

But this is why I still love Nintendo so much because they make games that are creative not a constant FPS with hardly any color to it.

[Alidori]

How very adult of you!

Who said anything about "NEED"?
But if it's a game about killing people - it should be realistically gritty. Also common sense.
A thug who cites Shakespeare to let the steam out - puts me off. Fluffy games are for the kids. I do not need protection from foul language.

I'm adult - I know it to be true, but ah well.

Honestly, do you really think that a Call of Duty type of game where you have to kill people in a realistic way - is a kiddy game? Rated Mature for a reason.

People who use "adult" as a term of approval are pretty immature. Just sayin


Let's stop on the personal attacks and stay on topic please!

[lopk]

;_;

....Spyro. Spyro. The Dragon.

SPYRO THE DRAGON. It was such a fun platforming / collecting game. Without a doubt, one of the iconic games of my childhood. And they took it, and they scraped away all the fun and turned it into a terrible combat focused game.

Spyro, you will me missed. RIP

[vizzle]

I think so. Honestly, I prefer my movies to stay gritty and my games to stay bright. I like my cartoony graphics

[Lynix]

It's all relative. I don't think it's an argument of how much is too much but more how much gore really fits the story. Zombie games were done to death last year and if you go back and look now I think you will be hard pressed to find one where gore isn't the main feature of the game (The walking dead is the exclusion here).. Those games use gore as the comedic value of the game so that those with a dark sense of humor can really get into it. I think games do well when the gore is limited to when it's needed, for example it should be gory if you are removing someones head but if all you are doing is shooting them multiple times in the chest there doesn't need to be chunks and blood flying everywhere. That in my opinion is when it becomes too much.

As for swearing, I couldn't care less. Welcome to the world, believe it or not some people do talk like 12 year old kids that think swearing is cool. I think if that's the type of character you want the player to be controlling that's the developers decision. Ideally I would like to see swearing used less in general situations and more in 'oh fuck' situations (ie. a huge mass of zombies running toward you). This way the developers could make swearing more relevant to the story and expend their rating target.

[Deleted]

As the second poster said about Saints Row, swearing, nudity and blood and gore doesn't translate into grittiness and maturity. Something which many game developers don't understand. Maturity and grittiness isn't about what is shown imo, it is about what is told. Not about how many boobs you can fit into a screen, but about what happens in the story and the way these events are conveyed to the player.

This is also why I don't understand the praise for the Witcher games. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they are bad games (but I really don't like the gameplay in them), but most people that seem to like them applaude the maturity in the game, ie tits, blood and swearing. So players don't understand maturity either. What is mature bout the Witcher for example? The story I think, it's told in a serious manner and brings up serious subjects. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is also a mature game I think for the same reasons, yet there is no tits in the game (that I know of).