[arrrg]

That doesn’t mean you can say nothing about it or that any opinion about it is equally valid. Your blanket dismissal of this criticism makes little sense.

I’m also not sure what your point regarding intent is. If something has a certain unintended effect the authors’ statement that they never intended that effect may be interesting (especially when looking at the creation process and when looking into why certain things turn out the way they do) but it’s not exactly a valid defence. The effect is very real, intended or not.

Is the stated effect a reasonable interpretation and is it likely to be at least no completely rare? That’s the question you should ask and discuss. I don’t think intent is even a tiny bit relevant here.

However, this whole topic is still a vast wasteland. All the discussion always seems to focus on violence and whether or not video games cause it (for which there is very little evidence and if there is an effect it is likely to be quite small) – but completely ignore the importance of talking about art and entertainment and the messages it has. This isn’t about censorship, this is about serious criticism.

I’m too tired for a nuanced discussion on this today, so I will allow myself to be a bit harsh: When I look at popular games I see the most brutal violence being celebrated everywhere. And it sickens me. I want more better games with less violence for this awesome medium. And I want game creators to ask themselves why they feel the need for violence to always be so, so central.