BENGALURU : When people ask me about the mainstream, infamous debate on video games encouraging violence and then proceed to list individual cases, I find it easiest to divert to less torrid waters. I normally carefully phrase out different variations of this statement — “The video game universe consists of ever-changing galaxies, the webs of games are interlinked through a virtual medium (like space), but the difference between an indie game on harvesting a farm and a mainstream game on a non-existent alien war is (much like how a star is nice and a black-hole is not) too far-flung for me to envelope all videogames into the same infinite.” Mostly this confuses people enough to change the discussion, but sometimes I get asked to explain myself. Consider the following updates on games this week as an explanation that talks about the unexpectedness of video games.
There are games that focus on the atmosphere: After 8 years of being in the making, ‘Below’ by Capybara games is finally releasing. It’s supposed to have high levels of complexity, in an exploratory cave-like environment. The graphics look enchanting, and the game progresses entirely based on your choices.
Strategy battle games can look harmless too: It appears as if it’s just another cute JRPG with a HD-2D aesthetic — but it became so popular that Square Enix had to apologise for underestimating the potential sales. You choose from one of eight different “adventurers” in the game to experience individual tales, with the concept of the journey itself holding a central aspect of the game.
How can you compare warfare to Community Farming?: Stardew Valley is a famous farming simulator for how relaxing the game is. And now, there’s a mod version, which no longer restricts number of co-op players to three. This is the opposite of a violent battle royale — you’re making plants grow, the field only expands with the new custom-made feature.
But it’s still impossible to complete a game update without mentioning atleast one of the few games which are highly discussed this week — Season 5 of Fortnite is out, and there’s much hype on release of Earthfall (a co-op shooter). I lose the debate on ‘too many violent videogames’, but let’s hope that someday the scales shift to the side of the list on this column.