What Labradoodles can teach Susanna Reid about videogames: the Will Porter column

It’s that most wonderful time of the year. Come 8 November, through the medium of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it has been written that BBC Breakfast television will rediscover the hoary old games and violence debate. They might as well print off a special edition of the Radio Times to signal its terrifying advance.

Every year it’s the same arsecheeks on the same sofa. Enter stage left a frumpy person who does not like games because they are violent and, oh God, think of the children. Enter stage right an energetic industry representative who reminds Mrs Frump about the BBFC, and indeed the family values of Kinect and/or Brain Training. Then Bill Turnbull makes a gag about how the last time he played a game it was Space Invaders. Then it’s Carol with the fucking weather. Every. Bloody. Year.

What no-one asks during the debate (and what the unquestionably lovely Susanna Reid should be asking) is just why the human brain enjoys simulated violence quite so much. This might be familiar ground, but it’s still ground ignored every time the issue rolls around the corner. So buckle up.

The emotions I feel while playing Call of Duty are like those of a dreaming Labradooddle.

 

In his waking hours this dog carries sticks, noses tennis balls and shows little interest in the wildlife that skitters in his path. When he’s asleep he’s a trained killer, hunting down inferior beasts in his mind’s eye. In reality though he’s feebly yelping, fidgeting his right leg and farting a bit. (The very model, in fact, of the FPS gamer in full flow.)

We’ve bred the ferociousness out of the Labradoodle, and in the most part modern society has done the same to the human condition. Inspect the virtual racks of Steam, or the real ones in your local Game (or the superior GameStation), and you’ll see that the majority of games are devoted to destruction – but there’s also a huge proportion devoted to collecting, managing and building things. This (and for clarity I first heard this from the mighty Will Wright rather than my own ken) pretty much reflects our shared roots as primitive Hunter Gatherers.

On one level we hunt and destroy, on the other we collect and conserve. It’s no surprise, then, that increasingly the very best and most compelling games are simultaneously about hunting and gathering. Within Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer there’s the simulated murder of thousands, but beneath it there’s the rolling XP accumulators and unlocks to hook themselves into the compulsive desire of the Neanderthal to communicate, collect and build.

It’s too easy to say that as a gamer I attune neatly to the mentality of first-person action because my genetic roots are ‘built to kill’ though. If there’s anything that popular modern FPS games tell us, it’s that with first person violence the pleasure is not purely in the kill and the amusing ragdoll. The best shooters are about running, panic, confusion and surprise: they are about being hunted, just as much as they are about a final victory and subsequent adrenalin pay-off.

What’s Mirror’s Edge if it’s not a tempered, safe version of the primal nightmare of being relentlessly chased by an unseen, unknown force? The human brain is perfectly suited to absorbing films because their narrative, edits and cuts mimic our dreams. Extend this comparison to video games and you arrive at the spooky doorway of the lucid dreams where you have active control over what happens next. Some Buddhist monks spend years of meditation in pursuit of lucid dreaming, but to get a taste of it all they’d have to do is buy a copy of Skyrim.

You see, delightful Susanna Reid from BBC Breakfast News, I like violent games. They give me a cotton-candy simulation of what it was like to be my distant ancestors – albeit without the fear, pain and imminent death. It’s for exactly the same reason that, as a child, I played Cops and Robbers, Hide and Seek and What’s The Time Mr Wolf?. Susanna, Susanna… can’t you remember the thrill of the hunt and primal fear induced through the terrifying medium of a game of Kiss Chase? It’s the self-same emotions, just with a more bloody and polygon-based overlay.

There are valid debates here. Some games go too far to shock with content that deliberately taunts the knee-jerk brigade. At the same time some parents are way, way too lax. These two arguments seem destined to clash until the end of time.

Violent games themselves, however, are merely reflections of ourselves – or, more accurately, who we used to be. They’re a symptom of the way we are, and not some new and unidentifiable disease that’s suddenly the rack and ruin of modern society. Here endeth the lesson of the blindingly obvious. Now, over to Carol with the fucking weather.

Will Porter writes about games and for games. In a former life he was the editor of the dear departed PC Zone magazine, right now though he pulls the narrative strings on Project Zomboid and has some secret stuff that he'd like to tell you about - but probably shouldn't. If you want rolling updates on how hungry/sleepy he is then follow @Batsphinx on Twitter.

Please register or login to post comments