SDtektiv's Halo 2

Monday, September 18, 2006

Is Halo 2 too Violent?

I used to not play Halo 2 because I thought it was really violent but then I went to a LAN partay about a year ago and saw how much fun it was! It wasn't just senseless violence. Needless to say, A few months later and I had gotten onto LIVE!

The worst you get in Halo 2 multiplayer is their body falls and leaves a red stain, I honestly think that Halo would get a "Teen" rating if weren't for the Flood. Plus you can just pretend they're robots with Red Motor Oil inside. I think that there are actually Teen games that are more violent than Halo 2's multiplayer, though I will not doubt the horrific violence of "the Flood" levels on the Campaign part of the game, in which case I just play the Flood levels once, and then the next time I play through Campaign I skip them. I know it might sound a little silly but I guess I have a queasy stomach or something.

In any case, in Halo 2 multiplayer, there's no organs, no dismemberment, no bones being crushed, no exploding bodies, no skin, just blood. Which is worth noting, but the real thing about Halo 2 that draws me in is how a team can work together to strategize and outwit their opponents. In fact in one of the Halo LAN partays I had, my mom sat down next to me while our team was playing, and I asked her what she thought of it, and she said, "It looks like fun!", and then jokingly added, "When's my turn!?"

I don't know why but for some reason I don't like First-Person Shooter style games, yet I like Halo. I guess there's something about it that makes it special. It's not about the violence, it's about the teamwork. Some great comraderies have come out of my Halo 2 experiences, and it's something special to experience with friends. I know there's a chance I could go overboard and play Halo 2 way too often, but I believe I've found a happy medium in which I can enjoy the game without becoming addicted to it, because I know that if I were to play too much of it, my ol' Xbox could get overworked, (which I plan to hang onto as long as I can until Halo 3), and because I know I could easily get bored of it or get utterly desensitized and jaded, which I don't want to happen. Halo 2 is a great game and I plan to get the most out of it, it's one of the few special things in this world I can enjoy.

The violence is bad, and I've probably been desensitized, so if I ever see a 10 foot tall robot-looking thing walking down the street get a purple beam through his "head" and golden rays and red motor oil falls out and he yells "doof!", I can know that I wouldn't have been as shocked as I would've been had I not played Halo 2, because of the desensitivization.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey man...

First off, I want to applaud you for taking a stance and having the strength to remove temptation. In addition, I think it's great the way you are unafraid to stand up for your Christian beliefs. Too many Christians today don't have the courage or will to do this, even in small things.

This gives me great hope for the youth of today and tomorrow. I may not know you personally, but you have truly been that "city on a hill" shining forth a light. For that, I thank you.

You may not know it, but you being this way has shown me where I am lacking in my "walk"; and in case you didn't know, I'm 30 with a wife and 3 kids and a Steward in my church. Ironic... I doubt seriously you would have known I was a Christian; unless you guessed it from my gamer tag.

It is so easy to grasp the bible... Read it, understand it, etc... So very hard to live it.

What keeps me in this community in spite of much of the environment, is the hope that I can use this place to spread God's love and the wonderful news of Jesus. I once left a church for similar reasons as you leaving Podtacular, plus a bit of heresy found within some of it's teaching. I have long since come to the understanding that God would have wished me to stay in that environment, and affect change.

Think on that before you leave... if you affect change in just one person, you have done a great thing.

Make sure you keep me on your friends list.

See you on-line.

God's peace.

II The Risen II

Wed Sep 27, 08:20:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Shawn Laramie said...

if you want strategy buy rainbow six vegas or ghost recon, or even gears of war. halo is about pwning nub face.

Sun Nov 05, 10:31:00 PM PST  

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