Does anyone else think Mortal Kombat X is too gory?

Puxido

Puxido

New Member
I've been watching gameplay videos, when Jason Voorhees has the least gory Fatalities, you've done smomething wrong. Too me, they seem to make the game a little less "amazing", when the fatalities are so cartoony/over the top.
 
Mortal Combat has always been about the gory fatalities and special moves. From it's first days in the arcades to now, it's only gotten worse.
 
The "joke" of Mortal Kombat was always that it was supposed to be over the top unrealistic.

The problem I have with the above is unrealistic is a bit subjective. Bear in mind those of us who model or game often have learned to see the polygons and repeated blood textures. I'm quite certain those inexperienced with graphics or games perceive it far more realistically. Admittedly I found it amusing in the old games when 14 rib cages popped out, still do, but now I'm not so sure the gore in the game doesn't matter. Regardless of realism it's pretty clear Mortal Kombat deliberately pushes the envelope to try to shock people. In these times it seems like everything is a joke to people already and I just don't feel right desensitizing them more. Adolescents egging each other on with two girls jokes or joking about Isis massacring people. They no longer care to remember those people are real. Levity is supposed to make lighter difficult situations not turn them into legitimate sources of amusement. Yes their problems go far deeper than anything one game could cause alone, yes Mortal Kombat gore is fake, but if it desensitizes them to the real deal, even a tiny bit more, I just wouldn't feel right supporting the game. I like competition, I like the art of fighting but I don't like hurting people just to hurt them, in real life or pretend.

I've actually watched quite a few, ok tons of, videos on the game but I've done the same for Killer Instinct, Street Fighter and scores of other games so it's nothing special. As such I do believe most people are interested in it for it's game play, not gore. Due to that, and because I didn't want to take the time to articulate my objection, I wasn't going to make a post until you posted. It seemed like there were more immediate things to spend my time objecting to, however, I recently found other objectionable content in the game. Sadly I have to add Mortal Kombat to the list of games that support homosexuality. Raiden, the now unofficial elder, guide type character of the series, has the conversation below trying to help Kung Jin...

Raiden: Go to the Wu She academy join the Shaolin like Kung Lao before you.
Flustered, Kung Jin argues: “I… I can’t. They won’t accept-
Raiden cuts him off, saying decisively: “They care only about what is in your heart. Not who your heart desires.”

It's a minor bit of dialogue but clearly the developers, like so many, wanted to show their support and as such I can't support the game even without the gore. The game's cinematic director seems to have confirmed it or at least media has.

Actually the irony that stands out to me is Raiden is asking Kung Jin to become a Shaolin Monk. I'm sure the Mortal Kombat interpretation of a Monk is super loose (and we will probably see a female one training with the men if the series continues long enough) but in the real world Monks often live in Monasteries to avoid the temptations of the outside world and dedicate themselves to their religion. You know temptations like the opposite sex. For Kung Jin you're basically sending him into temptation. Yup the wiki says the same thing...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery#Monastic_life said:
In most religions the life inside monasteries is governed by community rules that stipulate the gender of the inhabitants and require them to remain celibate and own little or no personal property.
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I guess the context is indicative of the whole argument for homosexuality, redefinition. Ah well I also find it ironic that the rainbow is a symbol for homosexuality when in Christianity it was a sign of God's promise not to flood the Earth again. You know the flood he sent when he saw how wicked man was.

Side note: Honestly I miss Friendships but I get the feeling they are universally reviled by the Mortal Kombat um... "K"ommunity. Sub Zero could have made an ice swan or snow cones! :p
 
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Perhaps I'm just getting old, but what I saw of the fatalities disgusted me. I didn't finish the video that displayed them all.

I found the x-rays to be not quite as disgusting (almost, but not quite), but far more puzzling. How does one stand and attack after having their spine shattered? I realize that realism is not the point, but even as far as games go that seems a bit odd.
 
Another problem with the gore I have is it could heavily effect the market. Games in the future may be forced to compete with Mortal Kombat and without the same level of gore, they may fail. I have no problem Gore, It shows the horror of war, fighting, and violence. But Mortal Kombat doesn't have gore to show the effect of violence, it shows gore for the sake of gore. It shows gore to celebrate it, to revel in it, and it is evil. Gore should be used to show the horrors of evil, to reveal evil, not celebrated. A hero must do something that involves gore only if it is just, and this is certainly not Mortal Kombat's case, you can even have characters perform fatalities on their friends and relatives, even the one guy who complains about fighting and doesn't like violence, why would he even have a fatality, and such a violent one at that (throws his hat into the ground and uses it as a sawblade). Another problem with the gore in Mortal Kombat is that its so over the top, when violence is shown in a game, in a justifiable, morally righteous way, whether it is to advance story plot, show the evils of an evil character, or the show justice, or any other possible thing, it will not be taken seriously, because the level of gore does not even hold a candle up to a game like Mortal Kombat X.
 
On the one hand, I hear you. On the other hand, Street Fighter is less gory now than it was in the early 90s if memory serves correctly (not that it was particularly gory in the first place, but the bloodied brawlers in win/lose screens aren't the same as they used to be), and it is far and away the biggest fighting game in the American market. Tekken and King of Fighters (popular elsewhere in the world) are also pretty lacking in gore. It's really Mortal Kombat that revels in its gore; nobody else has had to play on their turf to survive, nor do I think that will change any time soon. Maybe it could. Maybe it will make other things seem "not so bad" by contrast. Nevertheless, these major fighting game series have been around for somewhere in the neighborhood of two decades now, and most of them haven't changed to try to match MK's style.
 
Kendrik said:
On the one hand, I hear you. On the other hand, Street Fighter is less gory now than it was in the early 90s if memory serves correctly (not that it was particularly gory in the first place, but the bloodied brawlers in win/lose screens aren't the same as they used to be), and it is far and away the biggest fighting game in the American market. Tekken and King of Fighters (popular elsewhere in the world) are also pretty lacking in gore. It's really Mortal Kombat that revels in its gore; nobody else has had to play on their turf to survive, nor do I think that will change any time soon. Maybe it could. Maybe it will make other things seem "not so bad" by contrast. Nevertheless, these major fighting game series have been around for somewhere in the neighborhood of two decades now, and most of them haven't changed to try to match MK's style.
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You have a point, but I'm looking at it through the point of view as a writer, which I am, and a game designer, which I want to be. I have had villains die in ways from an impaler falling from a castle onto one of his own spikes, to a sorcerer who dies ironically in fire. But after watching the fatalities, nothing I have ever written in even my darker stories holds a candle anymore. I feel as a writer that the bar has been put up high for me to make interesting storyline, and I may not want to make such disturbing imagery, but I feel as a writer, if its not up to there level, any dark storyline I could write (I don't normally write dark storylines, but occasionally I try to change things up with dark happenings in my stories) would just be underwhelming.
 
Kendrik said:
Street Fighter is less gory now than it was in the early 90s if memory serves correctly (not that it was particularly gory in the first place, but the bloodied brawlers in win/lose screens aren't the same as they used to be)
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I never thought of those screens as gory so much as realistic. You're in a fight you get beat up, sure, but you don't play jump rope with their intestine that's shock for shock's sake alone.

Puxido said:
You have a point, but I'm looking at it through the point of view as a writer, which I am, and a game designer, which I want to be. I have had villains die in ways from an impaler falling from a castle onto one of his own spikes, to a sorcerer who dies ironically in fire. But after watching the fatalities, nothing I have ever written in even my darker stories holds a candle anymore. I feel as a writer that the bar has been put up high for me to make interesting storyline, and I may not want to make such disturbing imagery, but I feel as a writer, if its not up to there level, any dark storyline I could write (I don't normally write dark storylines, but occasionally I try to change things up with dark happenings in my stories) would just be underwhelming.
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Don't go with the world and try to one up them on being disturbing we aren't here to please people but God! You will also always lose because without values the world will always be willing to go further. Besides using shock value to be popular is BAD writing plain and simple. I mean here I'll make up a graphic fatality but put it in a spoiler...
Knocking them prone Jax grabs the loser's legs and braces his foot against their crotch. With a mighty pull their legs come off. Then punching the loser in their stomach the victorious Jax pulls out their intestine, raps it around their neck and lifts them aloft by it with one hand. They wriggle and struggle in vain as they are hung by their own entrails. Still suspending them Jax triumphantly stares into the win screen.
IT REQUIRES NO TALENT! The world is filled with people, who never had values, doing this and filling the world with garbage (usually by pushing sex). Earthly success by shocking requires nothing but selling out your values. Writing which has meaning, which redeems, which endures, requires so much more. Whatever you do, or in this case write, do it for God not "success" or it's pointless.

On a functional level if blood and gore was used for a moral point I'm ok with it but it most certainly wouldn't be like Mortal Kombat. If you've got a game with monsters that eat people or aliens that transform you'll have to have some level of gore. Though you wouldn't make it gory to sell gore but because the story wouldn't make sense without it. If a villain get's impaled or burnt to death their is no reason to show it graphically the way Mortal Kombat glorifies it. Old movies had people get shot or stabbed all the time but fountains of blood didn't spurt out. Actually by not showing it a user's imagination can make a scene graphic alone. That's how suspense works and it is often more horrifying than showing things because people get desensitized to it. Even the secular youtuber I watched said "the first time I saw that fatality I cringed but now it's nothing (after having seen it so much)".

Yes people may play Mortal Kombat for game play, as I said earlier, but it is the gore which distinguishes Mortal Kombat from other games. There is no reason to go the Mortal Kombat route, distinguish yourself by making good + Godly, stories.

On a similar note: I do have a Christian game idea that uses the word which means "illegitimate son" once at the end of the game.
Normally the villain is calm and collected but at the end, pressed against the wall, a second motivation becomes apparent. He loses his cool calling the protagonist this in a moment of rage. You see the villain, views the protagonist, his half brother as illegitimate and this brings an under tone of father issues to what we thought motivated him. It makes the story all the more personal and I've little way to get around it. In my opinion this is appropriate use of the word as it means that and the villain is angry.
Comparatively I could imagine a moment of gore having a relevant place but as I've said their is no reason to make a game about it or shock to shock.

On another similar note: I've also got game ideas which require monsters and you to slay said monsters. I haven't decided how gory they should be but it wouldn't be like the relish Mortal Kombat takes. What I'd do would be driven by the realistic needs of combat.
 
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The Mighty Gerbil said:
I never thought of those screens as gory so much as realistic. You're in a fight you get beat up, sure, but you don't play jump rope with their intestine that's shock for shock's sake alone.



Don't go with the world and try to one up them on being disturbing we aren't here to please people but God! You will also always lose because without values the world will always be willing to go further. Besides using shock value to be popular is BAD writing plain and simple. I mean here I'll make up a graphic fatality but put it in a spoiler...
Knocking them prone Jax grabs the loser's legs and braces his foot against their crotch. With a mighty pull their legs come off. Then punching the loser in their stomach the victorious Jax pulls out their intestine, raps it around their neck and lifts them aloft by it with one hand. They wriggle and struggle in vain as they are hung by their own entrails. Still suspending them he triumphantly stares into win screen.
IT REQUIRES NO TALENT! The world is filled with people, who never had values, doing this and filling the world with garbage (usually by pushing sex). Earthly success requires nothing but selling out your values. Writing which has meaning, which redeems, which endures, requires so much more. Whatever you do, or in this case write, do it for God not "success" or it's pointless.

On a functional level if blood and gore was used for a moral point I'm ok with it but it most certainly wouldn't be like Mortal Kombat. If you've got a game with monsters that eat people or aliens that transform you'll have to have some level of gore. Though you wouldn't make it gory to selling gore but because the story wouldn't make sense without it. If a villain get's impaled or burnt to death their is no reason to show it graphically the way Mortal Kombat glorifies it. Old movies had people get shot or stabbed all the time but fountains of blood didn't spurt out. Actually by not showing it a user's imagination can make a scene graphic alone. That's how suspense works and it is often more horrifying than showing things because people get desensitized to it. Even the secular youtuber I watched said "the first time I saw that fatality I cringed but now it's nothing (after having seen it so much)".

Yes people may play Mortal Kombat for game play, as I said earlier, but it is the gore which distinguishes Mortal Kombat from other games. There is no reason to go the Mortal Kombat route, distinguish yourself by making good + Godly, stories.

On a similar note: I do have a Christian game idea that uses the word which means "illegitimate son" once at the end of the game. Normally the villain is calm and collected but at the end, pressed against the wall, a second motivation becomes apparent. He loses his cool calling the protagonist this in a moment of rage. You see the villain, views the protagonist, his half brother as illegitimate and this brings an under tone of father issues to what we thought motivated him. It makes the story all the more personal and I've little way to get around it. In my opinion this is appropriate use of the word. Comparatively I could imagine a moment of gore having a relevant place but as I've said their is no reason to make a game about it or shock to shock.
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You are most certainly correct. I have no intention to write books for the sake of the world, simply for the glory of God. Specifics I was referring to... the problem I had with "competing" with the gore was that I had a villain from one story I intend to write based on Vlad, the impaler. That in mind, I tried thinking of similar things he would do that wouldn't make him a carbon copy of Vlad, but luckily (and unluckily), I have a hard time thinking up such things because its not natural for me. But as you can imagine, the game makes it seem as though what he does is nothing in comparison, though now that you say it, I shouldn't worry about that, and just try to make him as best as I can, so the sake of the story can be written. The story itself focuses on the fact that there's a king (already mentioned) whom has never grasped the concept of mercy, and thus has become a wrathful wicked ruler, and the main character (with a disturbing back story) is destined by his own decisions to be the one to put him to an end, but has to try to do so while traversing his lands and seeing his deeds, while meeting people who remind him too much of his own disturbing upbringing, and has to struggle not becoming the same as his enemy. Truly, this is one of the few disturbing things I write, pursing a holy message, and with a happy epilogue. One of my other "disturbing" characters is from an RPG I have taken up making through RPG maker vx ace, a privateer whom is righteous at heart, but has come to the decision that the only way to get people to act right, is to make them fear the punishment, and has thus made punishment and execution a horrifying theatric performance. Outside of that, the privateer spends his time trying to develop a multi-barreled firearm that doesn't misfire as much as others, and developing grenades that are more effective. Other than that I try to keep my stories and games less disturbing. I do have the intent of making the RPG get darker as it progresses, but not so much through gore (probably none at all) as through the loss of the players friends he makes throughout the game. But I intend for the game to have a great message (none decided yet, though just the vanquish of evil is enough I guess) and to start out very happy, cheerful, and "cutesy", and just have the villains ruin that as the game progresses. Not much work has been done on it other than concepts. I intend for the villains to range from outlaws, to slavers, and to witches and so forth.
 
Yup focus on character. Portraying sin is a must, glorifying it is what we must avoid. Keep on with your story ideas we desperately need good games with a Christian worldview.

Honestly I think too many writers focus too much on certain things in modern media. Compare graphic gore to sci-fi tech talk. I really don't care much about tachyon fields and making fiction sound "real". The scripts on many modern Star Trek series were literary written with insert "tech here" to be added later, that's how much it mattered. Though as a result the more an episode relied on a tech solution the more it felt awkward and methodic, like they didn't have the skill to make it character driven (or characters which I would care to see but I digress). The older the Star Trek series the more characters would come up with a relatable solution, like a bluff, the sci-fi was only there for background. I'd also say it wasn't "tech talk" that made Star Wars popular but character. That's one of the reasons the new movies don't hold up as well as the old. Likewise I wouldn't care if torture or gore all happened off screen. For context establish your character does it, that he is feared but I don't need to see the actual flaying every 60 seconds for me to get the drift.

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Thinking about your story ideas I actually approve of torture but like all acts at the proper time and for the proper reason lest it be a sin. People don't distinguish between beating up POWs for their gold fillings (or for fun) and forcing a confessed, guilty, terrorist to tell where a nuke is before it goes off. Like self defense and murder it's all context which determines the difference between just and unjust. To show Christian love we show mercy and kindness to those we capture but it is neither merciful or kind to let people continue to die because you were unwilling to harm the guilty. To clarify if you are absolutely certain a man is guilty and has knowledge that would prevent unjust deaths he is abetting in murder even while in captivity. It's a crime in progress not past. Under those circumstances I believe torture to be just to prevent it. Also in wars we refrain from torture for the safety of our own captured soldiers lives. When these gentleman's agreements can be honored I see their value, however, in many conflicts there is often no one on the other side who will keep them.

If a man sets a bomb it's taken as ok to strike him to get him to drop the detonator. Now if he sets a timer, hides the bomb and you capture him you can't strike him to get him to tell you it's location? Absurd.

...and Gerbil wanders all off topic again XD.
 
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I can't stand to play Mortal Kombat because of the gore. I can't say I'd be interested even if there was a sanitized version available because I've always preferred Street Fighter gameplay, but the gore makes it an instant "nope."

Side note: Puzzle Fighter forever.
 
I enjoy Mortal Kombat X. And it's not really that gorey to me. People who think so, are very easy to be queasy and stuff.. I smile and laugh at the gore. I've seen games way more gorey. Gears of War games were bloody and gorey.. I wouldn't just call out MKX for its gore while other games are out there that are the same..
 
I saw a video just now which talked about the video game "Hatred". While I did not agree with the video in entirety there was a point which I think appropriate to Mortal Kombat. "Hatred" isn't just about violence or gore it's about sadism. Violence is a means to an end used to accomplish a goal which should be a good one. Sadism is the end because the goal is to enjoy hurting people. Like I said in my earlier post I like competition, and the art of fighting, but I don't like hurting people pretend or real. I think the distinction embodies my feelings. Of course it poses a problem because the more content a game has other than sadism the more difficult it is to discern where that distinction occurs. MK does have game play but the Fatalities are complete separate from it, as if added to be sadistic. They are also a defining factor of the series. The video I watched would probably disagree about MK since it indirectly said MK was ok likening it to camp. Thing is when is camp no longer campy. The developers said that they where going for a darker MK clearly wanting to shock people and push limits. How far can you push it and say "it's all a joke". I also don't understand why people like the feeling of disgust and shock. For me the Fatalities barely phased me, but that's the internet's doing, and I still didn't enjoy them.

For GTA I've asked "If we are to have the character of Christ why are you enjoying pretending to sin?" With MK I ask "If we are to have the character of Christ why are you pretending to relish hurting people?". Perhaps players see it as a 3rd person tale not aligning themselves to a character. Though I don't see a difference between enjoying hurting people myself or enjoying seeing others hurt people.

Tek7 said:
I can't stand to play Mortal Kombat because of the gore. I can't say I'd be interested even if there was a sanitized version available because I've always preferred Street Fighter gameplay, but the gore makes it an instant "nope."

Side note: Puzzle Fighter forever.
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I think Street Fighter is a better fighting game too. More footsies, less dial a combos and the current MK borrows too much from Injustice. That's not saying MK doesn't take skill, it does, I just think Street Fighter takes more. Actually I think 3rd Strike looks better with it's 2D sprites than the new ones but then I never had the opportunity to play any of them. Dat Daigo parry o_O but no parry in the modern ones either :( .
 
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