We're looking for new writers to join us!

Survey says... gamers play violent games for the challenge, not for the violence

by: John -
More On: Spanning the Net
An independent study exhibited results that those that play a violent video games aren't doing it because of the violence but rather overcoming obstacles and challenges in the game. Personally, I am pretty much the same way. For example, back when I played a lot of fighting games I was really glued to Mortal Kombat II and Virtua Fighter II. Now, they both offered different experiences but I didn't prefer MKII because of the finishes or blood. You get kind of bored seeing the same finishing moves over and over again anyways. No, it was the challenge of fighting new players day in and day our as well as challenging the local arcade experts to a match. The same can be said for VFII as that game is devoid of blood and I still enjoyed it. In the opposite spectrum there was a game called Time Killers which prided itself in the violent aspect of the game. I played it a few times and found it was horrible and not even the blood and gore could make me put more quarters into it.

Nowadays, I'm more into the co-op experience and you find a lot of that in violent games. I'm hooked on Gears of War 2 Horde mode as I find it a great challenge to maneuver through the various levels with four other folks as the enemies get harder and harder. Left 4 Dead offers two unique challenges in stopping the Survivors as the Infected and surviving the zombies as a team. The violent aspect of heads blowing up and blood splattering quickly wore off for me but the challenge of working as team is always a fresh and fun experience. And there's Team Fortress 2 where you really have to work together to get the other team's intel and bring it back to your base. While the violence is pretty tame in that game compared to the others, it's still the matter of working with other people online around the world that makes this game enjoyable for me.

So, what do you guys think? Do you like violent games just because they are violent or are there other aspects that draw you into the game?

Thanks Digg.