"Headshot!"

Last week I downloaded a 1GB+ demo of one of the most visually amazing games I have ever played. Company of Heroes is a WWII RTS (real-time strategy) that fully immerses the player in the heat of the battle, with stunning graphics and an incredibly interactive landscape. The transition from cut-scenes to game play is very smooth, and makes you feel as though you’re participating in this epic movie. Nonetheless, with all this fancy features, you need a pretty pimped out system to actually run the game in its full glory. My 1-year old PC was already struggling to keep up as its specs were below the minimum system requirements.

Still on the same theme, I so happened to watch TaeGukGi last night and was both shocked and amazed by the graphic depictions of war on the frontlines. After about 2hrs of death and destruction, I found myself wondering how one could actually make a game based on war. Ok, I guess the answer is obvious. In all honesty, when I was playing CoH, I was thoroughly enjoying mowing down the evil Nazis and dropping artillery on their advancing tanks. But after the movie, I started to feel rather guilty about having sent my computer troops to their untimely end.

I’m no stranger to violence in computer games. I’ve played my fair share of Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto, and I’ve never really thought that it was a big deal when you accidentally run over pedestrians in a game. C’mon, it’s a game! I don’t think shooting someone in a game today means that I’m going to be a serial killer in 10 years. But I do think that it’s troubling that killing people in games is actually entertaining. Whether it’s Ghost Recon or Hitman, whether you’re the good guy or the bad guy, there is a morbid joy in taking the life of your perceived “enemy.”

Back in the army, a practice that made me incredibly uncomfortable was when we had to do press-ups and shout “kill, kill, kill” each time. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Singapore certainly needs an army and that National Service is important for our country’s security. If the need ever arises, I think that it is acceptable to kill in self-defence. However, killing to protect your loved ones is different from killing people for sport, and the popularity of violent computer games certainly reveal that we (or at least me and a lot of other people) take morbid pleasure in killing people for fun. Indeed few sounds are more satisfying/annoying than the computer annoucing "headshot" during a Counterstrike session.

Now I don’t know what to do with this ‘revelation.’ Should I then switch from playing DOA to DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball? (though I think that would bring up a whole different set of issues). Or perhaps stick to FIFA and Championship Manager? Or maybe play games like Halo where you are killing aliens and not people? Does that really change anything?