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Concerns about violence in video games are not new.
I matured in the 90s, the decade that has earned us congressional hearings under the impulse of the ultraviolet of the caricature of the glorious and notorious film Deadly fight. In the night news segments, then-Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and other paroxysmally worried politicians wrenched their hands, desperately trying to convince my parents that overexposing my sister and me to pixelated deaths would inevitably lead to beheading the family dog or to commit a whole series of other acts of moral degeneracy.
Fortunately, my parents did not listen to Lieberman. If they had done it, I might never have had a job as a narrator and co-author of Mortal Kombat 11.
Being that I grew up playing violent Mortal Kombat and, in recent years, making a living by writing the most violent game of Mortal Kombat of all time, you can deduce that I love, that I want, even that I sometimes resort to violence .
This hypothesis could not be further from the truth.
[[[[Ed. Note: This post contains major spoilers for Mortal Kombat 11.]
The pill in the pudding
I am a pacifist who thinks that violence is never justifiable except in case of emergency defense. I am a parent who fears for the safety of my child in a country overwhelmed by senseless gun violence. I am an American citizen, patriotic, law-abiding and worried about rising tides of authoritarianism and police brutality around the world. I am a student of history who mourns the millions of souls lost in the industrial wars of the last century. I wonder if the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japanese cities in 1945 was a morally justifiable act. The realities of violence are repugnant to me.
When it comes to fictional media, games, or whatever, I think people are naturally attracted to the portrayals of violence as a hypothetical way to contemplate the terrors of the real world.
This does not mean that all violent media get a free pass from me. I often feel that contemporary creators are extremely lazy in their use of violence. The range of possible human expressions is so rich and varied, and yet, as Chris Plante said, many games limit and reduce the expression patterns of their protagonists to "shoot" and "shoot". kill, leaving no room to consider others, perhaps. more constructive and relevant ways of overcoming obstacles and resolving conflicts.
Given all my moral efforts, how on earth can I justify working? MK11, a game that speaks of violence? From my point of view, Mortal Kombat is more valuable than ultra-violet graphics suggest. As rapper Danny Brown explained to NPR in 2014.
Brown is a Detroit icon whose works skilfully weave the stimulus of hip-hop shocks and fantastic flourishing (the pudding) with layers of social commentary (the pill). For example, start with his classic 2011 flash album, XXX. The title of the album is undoubtedly a reference to the pornographic content, and it keeps its promises in the cunnilingus odes ("I Will") and well-rounded party goers like "Blunt After Blunt".
But in his title track, XXX turns out to be Brown's meditation on his 30th birthday without achieving the success expected for his 20 years. Far from a clubbing celebration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, "Party All The Time" is a parable about a groupie that does just that, to end up "lost in the fog, head in the smoke , making fun of the world because she's life's a joke. "
From one song to the other, what appears to be a festive album is actually a rumination about the struggles of lost potential, addiction and economic despair. This whole nuance may not resonate at a conscious level the first time you listen to a Danny Brown album, but you feel and it's wanted. As an artist and entertainer, Brown knows that fans come to dance his shows to party, but they will feel his message long after they leave.
Mortal Kombat 11 mix the pudding and the pill in its own way. You have this well-known hybrid of stylized ultraviolence, thrills of popcorn and kitsch, as well as characters from martial arts, fantasy and science fiction. It's pure pudding. It excites the senses and ignites the imagination at all primary and visceral levels. But all this pudding will not feed you alone; he will not arm you mentally or emotionally to face the difficulties of life as we know it.
The most nourishing aspect of MK11 is its basic combat gameplay. It is accessible enough for newcomers while offering an almost endless skill curve to passionate players. The main mode of expression is "fighting" and "killing", but fighting in MK11 is a complex and stratified esport, an outlet for competition and achievement that engages millions of fans around the world.
Players can come to Mortal Kombat 11 for the violent shows, but they remain for the competitive spirit and to have the opportunity to express themselves creatively by gathering their movements and finding strategies that even the designers could not anticipate.
Few players have time to learn the ins and outs of each character in the game, making it all the more important the choice of the right one. Spending hours training with a character, is to build relationships with them, not only know how they fight, but also how they think, speak and feel.
I think that's why the players were unexpectedly drawn to the short biography of the Mortal Kombat arcade characters. As co-founder of the series, John Tobias, explained to Stephen Wilds: "We went into a video game room on one of our test sites and the players were not playing. They stood around the game and did not let anyone play because they let the mode attract play and read the biography of the characters. "
As the list of characters grew, so did their knowledge, and these short enticing biographies evolved into long cinematic tours of the game world. More than 25 years later, Mortal Kombat has accumulated a wealth of familiar and iconic characters, providing a solid foundation for new stories.
The same could be said of the iconic Street Fighter and Tekken franchises, but their story modes are much less celebrated by fans and critics alike. Why?
Show for victories, stay for the sensations
What sets the stories apart from Mortal Kombat games is their commitment to developing emotional motivations to drive and justify fighting.
"The tale also excels with smaller moments, too," wrote Eric Van Allen in his review of Mortal Kombat 11. "There are really poignant story beats." These poignant beats are a pure pill. The heroes of Mortal Kombat 11 fight in a fantastic world of gods and monsters, but their hearts are rooted in the same emotional reality that we all share. That's the hook. Each game has fights, each game has a high-impact action, but not all games move.
Which brings me back to the original question: how to justify a murder-based game? By telling personal stories about heroes who overcome anger, fear, selfishness and dogmatic thinking, are the overly human root causes of so many real-world conflicts. Our heroes are juxtaposed with villains who voluntarily adopt such destructive tendencies. The contrast between heroes and villains expresses a fundamental value of my pacifism: the wicked provoke conflicts; the heroes solve it.
Resolving conflicts MK11 usually means "fight" or "kill". But, thanks to the magic of history, we can also consider other means of resolution, such as acts of compassion and mercy, that punctuate the most critical and epic moments of the day. 39; history. MK11 saga.
Raiden's story in chapter 11 is an example, a decisive confrontation between him and Liu Kang, whose roots go back several decades. And we will have to dig in the tradition to discuss the end.
Fans of the 1990s Mortal Kombat games and successful movie adaptation knew Liu Kang as the hero, the elected, named by the benevolent god of thunder, Raiden, to defend Earthrealm from the conquest.
But Liu Kang and Raiden both fell out of favor in the 2000s. Liu Kang died in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, which was released in 2002. Raiden exchanged benevolence against anger a game later to become Dark Raiden. Liu Kang was resurrected – not as a hero, but as a wicked zombie villain.
Both characters found redemption opportunities when MK's timeline restarted in the ninth game, 2011. Deadly fight, but these opportunities have been ruined. Liu Kang defied Raiden's orders, leading to a fight in which Raiden himself killed Liu Kang.
2015 Mortal Kombat X Once again, Liu Kang is resurrected as an undead villain and makes Raiden a dark, dark version of himself. This game ended when Dark Raiden declared war on Revenant Liu Kang, who had become the emperor of the dead.
Which brings us to Mortal Kombat 11. Kronika, a powerful deity who controls time and destiny, has the mission to restart the timeline again. In doing so, she opposes the past and the present by drawing characters from the past to the present. The previous honorable versions of Raiden and Liu Kang confront their tragic future and they do not appreciate what they see.
Raiden is intent on changing his future for the better, but soon enough, events go beyond his control. His desperate desire to defeat Kronika leads him to another battle against Liu Kang's past. The story repeats itself. They fight as they should. It seems that violence is inevitable and that these characters are locked in a horrible loop.
Until it is not. The past Liu Kang repeats a key phrase from 2011 as they prepare to fight: "Enough of your madness. If you must die, so be it. At that moment, Past Raiden sees a vision of several past chronologies. He fights and kills Liu Kang in everyone.
Raiden is now fully aware that he is, in essence, a character in Kronika's fighting game. His literal fate is to fight, and fight, and fight. He refuses to fight beyond Liu Kang, but even then, Kronika forces him to fight the evil Revenant Liu Kang of the future. Revenant Liu Kang says the only way to end this fight is for Raiden to kill him.
But now, Raiden is aware of this cycle of perpetual violence and breaks it with a spectacular act of mercy and self-sacrifice. Raiden has learned the lessons that history has taught time and time again to humanity, but that we often ignore in a convenient way. Fighting leads to fighting. The leaves only end when we humble ourselves to make peace.
The war is over if you want it.
Does everyone who is fighting through Mortal Kombat 11 to derive these same mores from history? Maybe not consciously. But I hope they and you feel he.
Disclaimer: Shawn Kittelsen is an independent contractor and therefore does not represent NetherRealm Studios or Warner Bros. Games. All views and opinions here are his.
Shawn Kittelsen is an independent writer and narrative designer. More recently, he was chief narrator and co-author of Mortal Kombat 11 for NetherRealm Studios / Warner Bros. Studios
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