Games ‘n’ Violence ‘n’ BG2

An advocate of thoughtful articles myself, here’s one you might enjoy. It’s all about how a game can portray violence, that evil notion in games which has senators and psychologists in a huff. Well, it takes a look at how a popular game like Baldur’s Gate II can realistically teach kids (or anyone) different ways of conflict resolution, including the peaceful type. For your screening pleasure:

A major portion of my game play thus far dealt with solving problems in the Umar Hills region in the game. My character was summoned there to deal with a string of recent murders. Three possible suspects existed. The townspeople claimed (separately) that a rabid wolf pack, a long-dead “witch” returned to the area, and a band of recently arrived ogres (reputedly evil and nasty creatures) were responsible for the horrid deaths. Concerning the ogre group I had several options: I could outright kill them because they were just north of the town, or I could talk to them. I spoke with them and learned that they too were falling prey to the same gruesome deaths in their group- they wanted help as well.

Sashay on over to Joystick101.org for the real McCoy.