Why RPGs Should NOT be Severely Censored and Devoid of Character Development

by Ken Wong

Yes I agree that people going around blowing each other's brains out is not exactly a great thing but I don't think the answer is as easy as hey let's blame it on games. Whatever happened to people blaming Mortal Kombat? Has that gotten old to the point where people need a new scapegoat? Your simple answer is blame it on console RPGs while my answer is even simpler. Hey don't make it so easy for young, easily impressionable kids to get guns.

With regards to realism and FMV hey there are a lot more stuff that looks a lot more real then whatever FF7 has. What's so realistic about Aeris getting stabbed anyways? There was no blood. Just watch any horror movie and you'll get buckets of blood, guts, and other organs in alphabetical order. Heck ever watch war documentaries? Those things are really violent. Imagination is a great thing but that does not mean you have to write the entire plot of the game yourself. Also if all we needed was our imaginations we would not have spent hundreds of dollars on game consoles. Everyone would have stayed with pencils, papers, and a set of dices. I have never identified my games with reality. Something about my FF7 party surviving a Supernova pretty much would kill any chance of me believing in that game. I also don't have any urge start drinkng beer just because I see scandily clad females dancing with it on TV. I did not buy FF7 or Zelda 64 because of advertisement. Heck I was going to buy those games long before I ever saw screen shots of those games. I bought them because I have liked every FF and Zelda game so far. I don't claim to be immune to advertising. If I'm hungry and I see an ad for a double quarter pounder I'm going to McDs. I have no desire to commit murderous acts any time soon and I've seen my share of explosions and gun fire on TV. Like I said earlier

I like watching war documentaries. I do not believe FF7 alone was responsible for all kinds of death in America. Heck there are a lot more violent games then FF7. Ever played the Resident Evil games? Also getting rid of the FMV is not going to do too much considering the polygon counts on next generation systems can produce graphics that easily rival FMV. Ever seen Virtual Fighter 3 in the arcades? It's all polygons and the graphics look pretty darn smooth. As much as I liked old game graphics (my first RPG was Dragon Warrior on NES 8 bit) I don't think the industry is going to rewind any time soon. Yeah I like sprite based graphics a lot but it's pretty much polygons these days. Realism in video games is not evil. Unfortunately there just happens to be some really stupid kids taking these games way too seriously.

I definitely am not a sloth like plot freak. Is that the real reason you hate Xenogears or did the fact that the text scrolls very slowly broke the camels back? I play games mostly because I like the gameplay but hey a good story helps. Look at some of the Street Fighter games? Will Ryu ever find a worthy challenge? How many times will Charlie die until he finally dies? They have really bad stories and I play them a lot cause I just like comboing the fecal matter outta the opponent. With games like Dragon Warrior and FFI kinda need a reason to justify fighting all these enemies and leveing up these levels. Why should I work to level up to level 20 in Dragon Warrior if there is no point? I certainly am not going to do all that just to beat the Dragonlord for the heck of it. I'm not going to kill Chaos of FF1 just for the heck of it. I need some motivation. That's one thing I really liked about Zelda 64. In that game they gave you reasons to hate Ganon. He actually talks or taunts to you through the game. You get a chance to know him and hate him more. In Zelda 1 for the NES it was like "OK I'm Ganon and you're link. I'm bad guy and I must try to stop you cause those are the rules" I kinda liked the idea of these character having some personality. That way they are not so dull as just another last boss. I liked the fact that the heroes often have a personality different from the usual "Here I come to save the day" I certainly don't look for videogame characters to be models. If parents expect videogame characters to be role models it just means they are too lazy to do the job themselves. As for Square and their weird obsession with Angels I don't think they hate Christianity as much as they know that a little controversy sells. Oh that's 4 games with Angel bosses so far that I know of. FF6 Angel Kefka, FF7 Angel Sephiroth, FFT Bloody Angel Altima, Parasite Eve angel Maya. I know Christians that played FFT before and I don't think they are about to kill a priest or minister any time soon. If character, story, and development was left to imagination alone that would not leave much for the actual game designers to do. What are they supposed to do? Lots of graphics designers, sound composers, story/scenerio writers would be unemployed. Also if thing get left to the imagination that can be a double edged sword cause there are some individuals with imaginations a lot sicker then most of todays FMVs. I agree that an imagination is a good thing but if you can share a bit of it through a video game why not? That's what all these new consoles are for. They allow the game designers to express their imaginary worlds and share them with us. Hey if you don't like their world there's nothing that says you have to stay. Besides if imagination is just something that people keep to themselves and never express there would be no DisneyLand "The Happiest Place On Earth" ;)

I believe females can be given roles that are traditionally men's. I mean hey since they are allowed to serve in the military I think they should be allowed to defend themselves with a sword or dagger. Besides why should male RPG characters always be the weak magic users? Women have been scantily clad since before the NES when all video games looked blocky. By the time Chun Li appeared in Street Fighter women were already wearing less during the summer. Men shouldn't be going around beating people up either but they do it and if the women can do it they probably will do it. I also happen to like the Metroid games that stars Samus Aran who I think is one of the first female heroes in videogames. As for how many female video game players are out there? I really have no idea. I don't think there are enough though cause I can't seem to ever meet one. :(

Original Editorial: Why RPGs Should be Severely Censored and Devoid of Character Development