Poll about violence and gore (in fights)

General
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My pirate game (why yes it WAS just released today) has a lot of fighting and loads of opportunities to murder people (including close companions). The murders are mostly two-part decisions - first, are you going to kill them? Secondly, how?

The first is a personality choice, and the second is a stat choice since you can usually kill someone by either sword, gun, brawling, or one of three types of magic.

I literally don’t know how many death/murder scenes are in the game, but I think it’s about 30. I got really, really sick of writing death scenes (perhaps my next game will be set in an embroidery circle or something). They’re moderately gory depending on the method.

I’ll think more deeply about ratings next time I’m planning a story, since I think a lower rating might mean more sales. But a pirate story was always going to have swordfights and treachery, so it was the right choice this time.

I’ve been thinking a lot about violence, and why there’s so much of it in fiction. I think it’s because it’s so deliciously, unrealistically straightforward: Punch the bad thing = solve all problems. (This is also why Disney has a disturbing habit of killing bad guys.)

I think if there’s violence, there has to be a little bit of gore simply because killing is generally a messy thing to do and skipping it would be cheating - a little like picking an NPC to romance and then getting told, “And then you and [NPC] got married.” That’s not a story, that’s a summary.

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22

First, congrats on your game being published - I enjoy your work, no matter if it is depression or pirates. Just no depressed pirates? :smile_cat:

I can empathize with you on writing violence. The authors that can pull off the violence without going into the gritty details I find I enjoy more than those that go into every detail. The reader’s imagination sometimes is better than reality - and that is scary.

A lower rating may also scare sales away - I don’t know; The Illiad is thousands of years old and it portrays some very rough things.

An author has to stay true to herself in my opinion.

Violence may sometimes be portrayed as straight-forward and “delicious” yet, I think it is better when it isn’t sanitized as such. Disney has followed its tried and validated method since the 1930’s yet his studios have no monopoly on the subject matter … Steven King’s method is consistent as well; each has their fans and have made niches for themselves.

We can do the same if we stick with what works best for us.

This I disagree with - killing can be brutal and messy and even horrifying - long held folk traditions, tales and epics show us that the modern trend of Game of Throne graphic violence is only a trend and one that has yet to prove its viability over time.

It all depends on your presentation and writing method whether gore is needed or even justified.