The role and importance of explicit violence in video games

Nowadays video games are omnipresent and played by people of any age. In some cases, sales may even be higher than those of the film industry. Moreover, almost everyone has at least heard of something called “Assassin’s Creed” or about the “Tomb Raider” (which some might associate with actress Angelina Jolie, as she portrayed the main character of the latter series in the motion pictures “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” of 2001 and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” of 2003). Since the aforementioned video games both contain violence (in a less or more explicit fashion, depending on the game and eventually on the technology available at the time of its development), we can state that – along with violent films, TV series, novels and other media – violent video games have become part of Western pop culture. However, do gamers really appreciate this feature? How do they perceive and judge it? Is it only about realism, or is there maybe another reason to like or dislike it? Is there a difference between genders and the player type? The present research work tries to answer these questions, but further research is needed in order to corroborate or contradict the author’s findings.