I'm sure everyone knows about the Mortal Kombat series by now, the game that revoltutionized the fighting genre, and how violent it is. But, ask yourself, is it really that violent? I mean, sure, this is a game you turn off when a five or six year old walks into the room, but, it's not all that violent. And, before you bring up some of the fatalities, like Noob Saibot's spilts (Don't know what the actual name is), I'm talking about the classic games, like MK 1, 2, 3, Trilogy, and 4. I understand that as time has gone on, people have gotten a lot more accustomed to the violence and blood and gore, but still, was this really that bad of a game? Especially 3, that one was really tame comparitavely. What do you guys think, is the controversy over genuine violence or just over protective mothers crying because they're kids are ripping peoples heads off?

At the time any little think would set parents and and dirty little politicians who wanted the parents votes into a frenzy. Mortal Kombat had "real" people that you fought and killed. Games like lethal enforcers and night trap caught a lot of crap the same as mk. Yeah they are all tame by today's standards (a lot they are more playable than the games of this generation) but at the time they were scary to people that didn't understand video games.

Well the thing was that at the time this was all brand new.  This type of violence had just begun to gain the realism and quantities need to draw peoples attention to it.  B4 this violence in games even when done in a hardcore manner - the technical limitations just would not allow for violence on a level capable of getting a "gut reaction".  I was like 13 or so when MKII came to our local arcade and the violence was a huge draw to the game.  That combined with the fact that I loved fighters like SFII means I developed quite the bond with both MKI and MKII.  Other games at the time were beginning to show this same trend but something about the Mortal Kombat series drew the focus of parents concerns about this "gut reaction" violence beginning to show up in video games.  

One thing touched on by Super Mega Man is that nowadays the technology allows for violence way more realistic and able to give a first timer that "gut reaction" more easily and intensely.  The downside to this is also a numbing effect that is distributed among games.  It takes bigger thrills for us to get this "gut reaction" so when looking back at something like MKII or MKI it just tends to be tame due to our jades perspectives.  
So the attention your talking about wasn't even really concerned just so much with the Mortal Kombat series but the fact that violence could now appear graphically enough to maybe have a negative effect on their children.  I can see why they could get fearful but in reality I think the worst types of things to come from violence in video games is what happens in the paragraph before this one. 

fightorace : But culture wasn't new to violence. In fact, MK was released around the time violence was smiled upon, with movies like Jaws, Full Metal Jacket, and Saving Private Ryan only six years after. It seems like this game took a lot of heat, even though kids were well accustomed to intense violence from these movies. And a lot of other violent crimes and media was aired on TV at that time, so kids weren't new to blood and killing. Not to mention, games like UMKIII and Trilogy even had violence options, allowing the player to turn off blood and fatalities. I think it's the predisessor to the whole Call of Duty that's going on today. People automatically think that school shootings and murder cases come from a coincidence of someone playing a video game, even though most of these people has mental disorders. I think people are just trying to find a target to pin all of this on.

Super Mega Man 568 :  Well it is more than just pinning a game down.  The sad fact of the matter is a lot of the attention drawn to violent video games was simply money.  Not long b4 this parents were suing Rap artists saying the music had influenced their kids to violence.  Well some lawyers decided they could get rich by making another similar controversy using violence in video games, successfully I might add, on both counts.  

I've never disliked the Mortal Kombat series. It's awesome. The high amount of violent content is extremely over the top and commonly involves some sort of dark humor as well. Should kids play it? Probably not. But that doesn't make it a bad series. 

Mortal Combat has become the center of controversy, because it was one of the first brutal games. It was because of this that the ESRB rating came about. I wouldn't really like the fatality concept, but it is really no different than the execution moves in other games. But instead of ripping someone's spine out, you kill them in a way that isn't as bad. Therefore, I don't personally like them, but I wouldn't say that others shouldn't or can't play them.

fightorace : Also not long before this, Jaws was released to theaters, and we never heard complaints about that. If any thing, the movie was accepted with open arms! Then MK comes out, which is not nearly as violent, and people loose their minds. And I can see the same sort of thing happening with Call of Duty. We now have violent and inappropriate TV shows and movies coming out every day, and no one says a word. And then they release a game like MK or CoD, and everyone looses their minds. Why? Personally, I think the world just doesn't like video games. There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of over protective parents in the world, and they see video games as a threat. What happened when the internet came out? Same thing. But let's look at movies and television shows. The worst thing people said about it at the time was, "It won't work." Why all the hate for video games? Most of the school shooters, who just HAPPENED to like a good game of CoD or MK, usually had either a mental problem or a bone to pick before they had played the game. It's not the games fault, but I think people just see it as a new thing that they can pin it on. It really ticks me off, because video games never did anything to anyone. And for every violent video game Nintendo pushes out its doors, there are two or three kid friendly or even educational games walking hand in hand with it.