Video games & violence

(Or a reflexion about Fallout)
In the evening, I often watch my roomate play video games.

We bought recently "Fallout 3". Sometimes, while the game is loading, some hints and tips about the game appears. There was one about the possibility to put a grenade (or a mine) in a pocket with the pickpocket skill to make the pocket's owner explode.

My roomate happily tried, a moment after, to follow the tip. He put a mine and a grenade in the pocket of a sleeping child (I), while he robbed his house (II) before nuking his city (III). He waited, and the child didn't explode.

It made me wonder :
Is there limits of the kind of violence the video game can show. Is there a point, (I, II or III) where the game designers have to stop? Was my roomate too much of a sadist even for the ones that designed that game, or was it simply a bug? If this child didn't explode, was it on purpose?

How far can the game designers go? How much violence can they show?

First, that is about rating. The games are rated by ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) with precise standarts.
We are now interested by the games rated Mature, or Adults Only.

-Mature : Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
-Adults only : Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

Fallout 3 is rated Mature. But where is the line between "intense violence, blood and gore" and "prolonged scenes of intense violence"?

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If we compare Fallout 3 with Fallout 2 (that wasn't on any console), there was much more cynism, sarcasm, social critic, in Fallout 2 than in fallout 3. Fallout 3 looks graphically nicer than Fallout 2, I shows more of the blood, the gore, the free and dumb violence. But there is less reflection, less to understand, less of the black humor of Fallout 1 & 2.

A friend in desing explained to me that, on console, they usually do to be understood of a younger and larger public. The plain violence offer better responses than a bit of reflection that bring sarcasm and social critic? Is the evolution of the game Fallout a portrait of the evolution of our mentality, of the nature of the games? To prefer plain gore and harcore scenes to black humor and critic? A rain of red bits of flesh to a bit of reflexion?

There's many to blame the media about what they show. But few to admit they make the market of the trash media. The medias show violence because that's the selling thing. I suppose the "blood, sex and violence" desire, that sells so well, also apply to the video game market.

As media, some games like fallout started to turn back from their content to focus on the container. A beautiful wrapping, his sparkles makes the player forget the package is merely, or plainly, empty.

Games seems to become more and more violent, now the graphics are good enough to show us in the most realistic way a skull explode and it's content spray the wall beside. I take Fallout as an exemple, maybe I'm totally wrong, but I use this post to reflet about all this, and bring questions about a phenomenon that occurs in the two worlds of media and video games.




Sources :
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp
http://www.20minutes.fr/article/243096/Jeux-Video-Fallout-3-En-direct-du-Pershing-Hall-a-Paris-impressions-a-chaud-sur-le-titre-phare-des-createurs-d-Oblivion.php