Why can't gaming grow up?

On E3 and the perpetual adolescence of gaming

Baby cries, holding video game controlling
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock/Oatharts, FamVeld)

It's the kind of thing that would have never happened even just a few years ago. At the annual E3 gaming conference this week, Sony kicked off its PlayStation showcase with a clip of a simple conversation that ended in a passionate kiss between two young, female characters. It was from flagship title The Last of Us II, the sequel to the acclaimed post-apocalyptic original, and it was a remarkable moment — tender and quite unlike the tenor of most of the blaring expo.

Right after the romance, however, the camera cut to footage of the gameplay itself, which saw protagonist Ellie plunge a knife into an unknown person's throat. The footage then continued to a gruesome disembowelment, and then saw Ellie brutally take out enemies with a knife, axe, or bow, all of it rendered in the most advanced graphics and replete with sound effects as vivid as they were lurid. The crowd at E3 clapped and hooted at each kill.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.