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Comment by qwerty456127 | Hacker News Reader

I had an idea games should be made as hyper-realistic, brutal and bloody as technically possible so every gamer would know actual war is nightmare, not fun and they really want to avoid it at all damn cost - the way those who has actually witnessed war feel.

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That’s the thing with media portraying violence (and I’m saying this without judgement) it is always glorifying violence (“gewaltverherrlichend” in German) since one doesn’t experience the violence itself.

Even if (war) video games were to be made “gorier”, bloodier, more brutal one still doesn’t experience losing someone, re-building a life in a country that has been bombed to ruins, or dealing with the aftermath such as physical wounds or mental trauma.

There's a part of a mission in Medal of Honor (recent VR version) where you're trying to make your way up Omaha Beach in WWII. The way it's done is very good, and really seems to drive home to the player just how utterly harrowing the whole experience must have been.

The primary difference is point of view - whether you make audience to imagine themselves as perpetrators and emphatize with them. Or whether you show the point of view of victim, civilian and make audience emphasize with them. Super realistic blood is not necessary, treating victims as primary fully developed characters would be.

The entertainment is designed to make you feel good and make you feel like soldiers are overall good heroes.

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