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Are games more violent today?

See history's most brutal pastimes from gladiatorial games to medieval massacres for the answer

Words: Tyler Nagata, GamesRadar US

The Game: Bullfighting
Developer: The Spanish
Release date:
18th century
Genre:
Action
Number of players:
1
Rating:
Rated M for gory deaths, animal cruelty, and the excessive use of capes.

Nothing says 'I love you' like the bloody carcass of a bull. Royal weddings and military victories were often celebrated with the public slaying of bulls during the Middle Ages before the Spanish evolved bullfighting into the sport that made Ernest Hemmingway feel like a real man.

Not much has changed since the early 18th century, when the spectacle of horsemen spearing a bull to death was restructured to focus more on the drawn out battle between the matador, a well-dressed swordsman, and the bull. Today, the bull doesn't stand much more of a chance against its human opponent. Despite modern regulations that prohibit drugging the bull and shaving its horns (to throw off its sense of balance), the matador's troupe of picadors still trot about on horses and drive lances into the bull's back, twisting them to drain its blood prior to the fight. This weakens the bull and reduces its mobility, making it easier for the matador to land a final killing blow between the bull's shoulder blades.

Above: Achievement Unlocked: If the crowd is pleased by the matador's victory, he will remove the bull's ear and tail, tossing them to the crowd


 
33 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
barrage7667  - 1 year 27 days ago 
- Comment removed by Community
Reported
Valandil  - 1 year 27 days ago 
2nd! Yay!
Ravenbom  - 1 year 27 days ago 
I find it surprising that a game where 11 steroid pumped beef-castles are facing off against another 11 raging shrunken testicle/bacne (back acne) meat mountains who all want to kill each other and only wear flimsy vinyl tunics and plastic plates on their shoulders isn't seen as violent, even after 20 years of Madden.
Yet you kill one little hooker to get back your money, and GTA3 stirs up controversy.
oryandymackie  - 1 year 27 days ago 
I'm sick of government and co. saying that, oh, we ca't play this. It's fiction. Definition of fiction. Imaginary. Unrealistic. I play horrors but I don't want to carve up people like Christmas dinner with a chainsaw.
Scott1121  - 1 year 26 days ago 
5th woohoo
nadrewod999  - 10 months 22 days ago 
Ravenbom and oryandymackie, I totally agree. I bet that if thos IDIOTS who say video gams ar mor dangrous than guns and narcotics (plus are even spending $90 million dollars in a financial crisis to prove it, even though there has never EVER been a case where someone is killed directly by a videogame's influence since most killers wre crazy to begin with and anything could have set him off) don't even realize that they are both the cause of millions of dollars of debt and that, if they jst let the nsdtrythrve, we wil haveagreat stock market, whch couldeaslyhel stmlate thsecny and actually et thes guysget a real jobtat tey can actally do (coughBurgerKingburgerflippercough) instead of taking away both our freedom as gamers to buy whatever we want with just cash (because, after all, most great games have a high rating, am I right?) and our money as a country to keep us from going in "The Great Depression 2: This Time It's Personal" (ok, I will admit that games have some ifluence on my life, BUT I WILL NOT LET A FEW HILLBILLIES WITH FAKE DEGREES SAY THAT THEY HAVE FOUND STUDIES THAT SHOW THAT ALL GAMES ARE BAD, EVEN THOUGH THEY OVIOUSLY AVOID EDUCATIONAL CHILDREN GAMES, jut like us).
Cwf2008  - 10 months 21 days ago 
I dunno but i have more than once thought of one of those damn idiot politicians who never played a game in their life and think games are evil...what was i saying? Oh ya i have several times imagined them getting eating my alligators or dying in horrific ways...but video games didnt do that it was just hatred of them
CoD_22  - 10 months 21 days ago 
you would have to be pretty insane in the first place to kill someone because of playing gta. you play games because you can do things you wouldnt normally do in real life.
El_Hombre11  - 10 months 20 days ago 
the Gov. just needs to get it in their minds that Video Games are simplistic in the same way as movies, people watch/play them to ESCAPE REALITY. You watch Wanted, Lord of the Rings, the Matrix, Batman, or SisterHood of the Traveling pants kauz you want to know WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE if it were real. Some people play Madden kauz they love football and maybe, huh, would actually want to have the unnatural ability to control some of their favorite players. Imagine that!!!
Games weren't made to duplicate reality and breed a bunch of cyberkillers, thats what the internet is for
Games were made to replace reality with anything we want at the time
Corsair89  - 10 months 19 days ago 
Yeesh, some of the Manhunt 2 kills made me cringe. Brutal.
Corsair89  - 10 months 19 days ago 
Yeesh, some of the Manhunt 2 kills made me cringe. Brutal.
Corsair89  - 10 months 19 days ago 
damn, double post
TrigunGunner  - 10 months 14 days ago 
I hate how the politicians and all these government big shots go yacking about how bad games are how violent and mature they are, yet other forms of media like movies and books get none of that criticism
Smiffy99  - 10 months 11 days ago 
Okay um...one, two,...uh, 14th! Woo! I'm really on top of it!
Smiffy99  - 10 months 11 days ago 
Okay um...one, two,...uh, 14th! Woo! I'm really on top of it!
adrenaguy  - 10 months 5 days ago 
yeah I'm sorry but it's like how they said that mass effect was a "sex simulator" well i have found plenty of them on the we doing that and ONLY that, and , as you said, el_hombre 11 the government should see films like that and realise, hey, this is just as bad! in fact, it'snot bad at all, neither are. because it's FICTION. as in the "it's not real but we like it because it's something we couldn't do" it's like when i go on rollercoaster sims, i build totally insane roller coasters and ride them just to see what it would be like to ride it, doesnt mean i'm gonna go build a coaster that creates Gs up to 45 now am I? no. that's just plain stupid. and impossible. so stop bugging us government and tbh, take it like a man and realise that it's not the gamers who kill people, it's the kids with bad parenting etc. they are the criminals, the robbers, the murderers, you get the Gist, get all the money put into "proving"(getting a load of criminals and asking if they play video games) that games are at fault and put it into helping those who are having trouble with their lives, help parents, help schools, and most importantl, help the criminals. b***h.
Darkdraak21  - 10 months 1 day ago 
The govt. just wants to find something to blame thats simple like video games or movies or music. I'm sorry but if kids are so screwed up these days that they do stuff thats in video games then its the parents fault. Also if a kid kills somebody or if someone kills somebody and they have a past as a gamer that person says that it was the video games just to get there arse out of trouble and sue some big game companies for a million bucks.
StevenHawking  - 9 months 30 days ago 
Okay, I want to play manhunt 2 now. That, and I want to see some good gladiator games now.... Someone should call Rockstar and say, "Make me a brutally horrific gladiator fighting game, and we'll call it historical license."
cdell  - 9 months 16 days ago 
this article is completely true. i hope Tyler that you dont mind me quoteing it (with citations)in a paper im writing for L.A. class.
doomdoomdoom  - 9 months 14 days ago 
All that money to prove games are evil could have gone to stopping real criminals or creating more or bigger prisons.

I AM HUNGRY FOR MY RIGHTS TO PLAY VIDEO GAME!!!
ARE YOU WITH ME?
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