btw something that really hit me regarding video game violence and how we barely register it was during my playthroughs of disco elysium.

so the first time I played, for various reasons I didn’t have any weapons, because all of them are optional. so when a shootout happened, the only thing I could do was try to talk the enemies down, which didn’t go over great, and a bunch of people died. when afterwards I commented on how badly it went, my companion agreed, saying that regrettably a such and such number of people died - I don’t remember how many it was rn, but a specific number was given.

because of that, on a replay, I was determined to do better, and got myself a weapon. the confrontation still happened and there were still casualties, but I was able to save a few characters by killing or distracting their attackers. however, when I got to that follow-up conversation with the tallying up of the dead, the number I was given was almost as high, and that gave me a pause. I was like, wait! but this and this and this person is still alive, why is that number so high?! and it actually took me a few seconds to realise that the number is so high because of the enemies we killed to protect our allies, but the game made no distinction; it was still “regrettably, eight people died”. and the thing is, I didn’t even for a second consider that; in fact, a video game treating the (arguably justified) death of an “enemy” npc as a tragic loss equal to the death of a “friendly” npc was so unheard of and surprising to me that I had to take a considerable amount of time to process it and realise what was actually happening with that dialogue. and I still think about it sometimes.