Mortal Kombat : The year everything changed.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I was thinking about something today. I was thinking about the Woosification of America and when it started. In my opinion it's roots can be traced to one single Event, Mortal Kombat. Everyone was in an up-rawer.

 

I want everyone to think of a time before Mortal Kombat. Back then parents and society didn't baby their children. There wasn't retarded warning labels warning about every little thing that might possibly hurt a child. Back then children were assumed smart enough not to stick obvious ###### in their mouth.

 

Back when Die Hard movies were rated R.

 

It was that point in time where people stood up and said we must protect the children!!! It's been down hill ever since.

[xendrome]

Don't forget DOOM, that was around the same time and might have contributed to it also.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Don't forget DOOM, that was around the same time and might have contributed to it also.

 

Good point, but Mortal Kombat came first

 

Mortal Kombat August 1992

Doom   December 10, 1993

[Nick H. Supervisor]

The "wussification" started long, long before that. Children were allowed to go and watch the gladiators get mauled. They were allowed to work from a very young age up until recently.

Society dictates what is and isn't good for children. This is why the drinking age is different from country to country. Don't think that it's a recent occurrence.

Personally (and to quote someone) I think we should just remove all the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[+Warwagon MVC]

The "wussification" started long, long before that. Children were allowed to go and watch the gladiators get mauled. They were allowed to work from a very young age up until recently.

Society dictates what is and isn't good for children. This is why the drinking age is different from country to country. Don't think that it's a recent occurrence.

Personally (and to quote someone) I think we should just remove all the warning labels and let nature take its course.

 

I'm just trying to imagine a life before Mortal Kombat, Obviously later 90's also weren't that bad, but they gradually got worse. I just don't remember a time before Mortal Kombat were people cared that much about protecting children.

[The Evil Overlord]

In the 1980's there was a drive to get horror movies banned also

Newer movies now just feel lame when compared to the original Nightmare on Elm Street or I spit on your grave (and the like)

Hell I even remember some crap about Christine, and that was no more horrific than some remakes of Knight Rider

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I'm just trying to imagine a life before Mortal Kombat, Obviously later 90's also weren't that bad, but they gradually got worse. I just don't remember a time before Mortal Kombat were people cared that much about protecting children.

Protecting children from media? That I can understand as a question, but I would also hazard a guess that the change happening in the 90's was due to a better level of realism. These days we could easily make Pacman an 18+ game if we wanted, whereas with the special effects and graphics before the 90's it was possible to have a game that portrayed violence without it being ultra-realistic.

(fun (almost irrelevant) fact: Jedi Academy (2003) allowed you to chop people in pieces, and while the code is still there it wasn't made available in the official game without some file tweaking because the developers realised it would make the realism a bit too graphic for gamers. Go and check the screenshots and tell me how that looks realistic...)

[TAZMINATOR]

In the 1980's there was a drive to get horror movies banned also

Newer movies now just feel lame when compared to the original Nightmare on Elm Street or I spit on your grave (and the like)

Hell I even remember some crap about Christine, and that was no more horrific than some remakes of Knight Rider

 

In those years, I heard that kids got PG tickets then they went in the screening room to watch R-rated movie which is why the parents dropped them off so they could be with friends.  

 

Then at night after the movie, they had nightmares and told the parents about it...  they got grounded for that.

 

80's movies are great.  Some today's movies are good and some are bad.

 

I was able to get in the Drive-in Theater before it was closed for good. I went there a few times...  I wish they stay open... I like it.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Protecting children from media? That I can understand as a question, but I would also hazard a guess that the change happening in the 90's was due to a better level of realism. These days we could easily make Pacman an 18+ game if we wanted, whereas with the special effects and graphics before the 90's it was possible to have a game that portrayed violence without it being ultra-realistic.

(fun (almost irrelevant) fact: Jedi Academy (2003) allowed you to chop people in pieces, and while the code is still there it wasn't made available in the official game without some file tweaking because the developers realised it would make the realism a bit too graphic for gamers. Go and check the screenshots and tell me how that looks realistic...)

 

But what graphics engine was that, which used that as a selling point. That you could shoot limbs off. I remember reading about that in the early 2000's

 

Ah yes, maybe it wasn't an engine but a game... Soldier of Fortune.

 

[The Evil Overlord]

Splatterhouse

[TAZMINATOR]

Not heard of Splatterhouse.

 

 

I have heard Doom, MK, Quake, etc.  which I have played in the past that had LAN parties..  heheh.

[The Evil Overlord]

Not heard of Splatterhouse.

I have heard Doom, MK, Quake, etc. which I have played in the past that had LAN parties.. heheh.

It was an arcade game origionally, it did make it to consoles I forget which, one of the memorable scenes was a guy with a (I think it was spiked) baseball bat, and he'd swat the monsters or zombies (again I forget) they'd go flying into the back wall and go splat, it was gore based

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

stop blaming MK. there were TONS of other games.!!!!!

 

 

yeah, i love mortal combat 1-3 and now 9 and X

 

 

still i think your are putting a blame on one of the game out of many.

are you a street fighter FANBOI by any chance???? 

 

 

 

ps. this is definately not the first time you bring it up?   do you have an agenda?

 

video game violence!  yeah, pin it on one game.  warwagon 0/10

[spaceelf]

But what graphics engine was that, which used that as a selling point. That you could shoot limbs off. I remember reading about that in the early 2000's

 

Ah yes, maybe it wasn't an engine but a game... Soldier of Fortune.

Which was M rated and couldn't be sold to kids, just like it would be now.

 

I barely even see what we're talking about here.  You can still find crazy games in arcades, if you can actually find an arcade.

[seta-san]

Mortal Kombat was the beginning of #GamerGate whether we knew it or not. It was the beginning of right-wing "moral" crusaders like Jack Thompson and left-wing "social justice warriors" like Anita Sarkeesian pushing their personal belief's on others entertainment. We slew one of the dragons but we had the media's help on that. The other is harder the media is being complicate.

[PGHammer]

The "wussification" started long, long before that. Children were allowed to go and watch the gladiators get mauled. They were allowed to work from a very young age up until recently.

Society dictates what is and isn't good for children. This is why the drinking age is different from country to country. Don't think that it's a recent occurrence.

Personally (and to quote someone) I think we should just remove all the warning labels and let nature take its course.

Very Heinleinian.  (That opinion of his shows up in most, if not all, of his fiction - AND in his non-fiction (including his autobiography, "Grumbles from the Grave")).  What scares the intelligentsia is that his rather old-fashioned theories are proving out.  However, they keep forgetting that he himself was no dummy - author of science-fiction was what he did to put food on the table later in life; he was already an inventor (specifically, that creature of the 1970s and of hospital wards before that - the waterbed (he invented that while stationed in Panama during a yellow-fever outbreak there during the construction of the Panama Canal - while a Lieutenant in the US Navy; unfortunately, he became a victim of the disease himself, which would lead to his being medically retired from the Navy); and no service-academy (the US Naval Academy, to be precise) graduate has ever lacked of brain, despite lackings of some in other areas.)

[Aergan]

I was thinking about something today. I was thinking about the Woosification of America and when it started. In my opinion it's roots can be traced to one single Event, Mortal Kombat. Everyone was in an up-rawer.

 

I want everyone to think of a time before Mortal Kombat. Back then parents and society didn't baby their children. There wasn't retarded warning labels warning about every little thing that might possibly hurt a child. Back then children were assumed smart enough not to stick obvious ###### in their mouth.

 

Back when Die Hard movies were rated R.

 

It was that point in time where people stood up and said we must protect the children!!! It's been down hill ever since.

 

I think it was the Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast & Gamecube era that it really kicked off with game ratings, blood/violence censorship, woosification etc.

[The Evil Overlord]

I think it was the Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast & Gamecube era that it really kicked off with game ratings, blood/violence censorship, woosification etc.

If in context of Mortal Kombat, I recall it being available on the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis)

[Praetor]

If in context of Mortal Kombat, I recall it being available on the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis)

 

It was available everywhere! I had it on my GameGear, Megadrive and later i played on SNES as well.

 

MK was the start of the ratings on videogames and i do recall some kids emulating some fatalities, resulting in deaths: because of those the game was heavily criticised.

[zeke009]

Soldier of Fortune.

I hadn't heard of that game until a story aired on the local news about how evil this upcoming game was, pre-ordered the next day. Marilyn Manson, wasn't aware of him until the church groups got national attention protesting him, bought the CD shortly after.

 

Thanks to the news and people thinking of the children, I found some great material in my youth!

[SteveCac]

The first game I remember buying with a rating was Dracula for the c64 in 1986, it had a 15 rating in the UK. But there had been talk of rating games before that, so its not fair to blame MK or doom.

 

And there has always been 'parent' talk of how bad computer or video games could be for children, since you first started 'killing' the enemy, although with Space Invades it seemed more ethical.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I think it was the Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast & Gamecube era that it really kicked off with game ratings, blood/violence censorship, woosification etc.

 

Because that was within your timescale for becoming aware of such things.

[Skiver Veteran]

Whilst I won't disagree with the fact "health and safety" can go a little crazy at times, are we seriously entertaining the fact that the cause to this, is a computer game? Like, actually seriously considering that?

 

If you think warning labels are about protecting children them I'm sorry but you are horribly miss-informed. It's about protection of the company behind said product, because too many idiots decide that because no-one told them to eat that harmful chemical then someone is to blame.

 

This is about a generation that love to blame someone else for there crap, nothing more nothing less.

[DuckTale]

Mortal Kombat 2... such fond memories of that time period and people losing their wigs haha.

[compl3x]

Wussification was when they brought in child-labor laws. Who cares if a few kids died in chimneys or mining collapses?

 

 

Seriously, though, this stuff goes in cycles. Swing and jazz music was considered dangerous for kids. Mostly because racist parents hated the idea of their white kids interacting with black culture and maybe, just maybe, realising that they were humans like everyone else.

 

Then rock and roll came along and there was a concern about kids having sex.

 

Then heavy metal was blamed for suicide

 

Rap was blamed for homicide

 

Video games blamed for massacres (think Columbine)

 

Social media for bully

 

I hesitate to think of what will next find itself blamed for societal ills.