Warren Spector, the creator of the Deus Ex series of games, spoke out on Twitter against the developers who created those games that were shown at a recent meeting against violenceat the White House. The clip presented there showed footage from a wide variety of games, like Fallout, Call of Duty and even Wolfenstein!

Objection

“I don’t believe games cause violent behavior. Not for one second. However, the video game reel shown at the White House on Thursday is simply disgusting. Every shot is in colossally bad taste and everyone associated with those games should be ashamed of themselves. They hurt us,” says Spector on Twitter.

Rebuttal

Of course, you may see the irony here, as did many followers of Spector. They went to remind him that his own games, Deus Ex and System Shock, are not exactly peaceful, either. Of course, Spector defended himself graciously:

“True enough but the games I work on typically offer alternatives to violence; I try to show the consequences; there aren’t any decapitations, bloddy gibbing headshots or axe killings. I don’t mind violent games. I mind games that glorify it & present it in graphic, disgusting ways.”

Defense

After yet another user indicated that in Deus Ex, children can be murdered, Spector admitted shame that such an option exists in his game, and that hopefully players were disgusted by that.

He also restated that it’s not the actual violent games that are bad, it’s not the violent games that cause violence in real life, but it is the glorification of violence that should be put down.

Randy Pitchford, the executive of Gearbox Software, company that developed the game Borderlands, another arguably violent game, amongst others, is also one who defended developers:

“Your own games can be cut with such a mindset – pressed into the same service of highlighting depictions of violence to undermine art and expression. Such depictions are sometimes necessary if art is going to be useful to our species. Have you not read Shakespeare? The Bible?”

And this is where we pass the torch to you. What do you think of Spector’s talk? What is your opinion on violence in video games? Tell us in the comments!