PEGI Case Study 3: Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II has had some controversy, primarily from the press about it’s levels of violence. Firstly, it should be pointed out that Dark Souls II has quite a large player base, of over a million alone in the UK, not including the many thousands estimated of pirated copies. This should be kept in mind, as otherwise the following will seem far worse than the reality.

In April 2014, a 16-year-old boy, William Cornick repeatedly stabbed his teacher, Mrs Maguire, 61. It was later found that William Cornick had a keen interest in “ultra-violent video games” including Dark Souls II. Dark Souls II was voted one of the ten Most Violent Video Games of 2014.

However, in a certain article by the Daily Mail, the fact that Cornick had Dark Souls II was tactically placed, sandwiched between Cornick having numerous images of knives on his mobile phone and also his psychological differences described by another pupil. It would therefore appear that the press use Dark Souls II to blame for Cornicks actions.

Dark Souls II is rated 16 and many people, including parents, argue that the video-game is rated very strictly as it is. The main reason that the game received a 16 certificate was due to the high level of violence. However, other than the strong levels of violence, the game does not have a lot of content which concerns users.

Since Dark Souls II is a popular video game for teenagers to own, it is not really a huge surprise to see that Cornick had an interest in the game. It is more likely a coincidence that Cornick had Dark Souls II; and even if the game inspired the killing, it could have been the same for many other violent video-games, some of which could easily have been more harmful at a 16 certificate.

Dark Souls, the predecessor of Dark Souls II, was rated more harshly with an 18 certificate and another article reads “Fox News Confident Dark Souls is the Cause of Most School Shootings and Racism in America”. Whilst this article is American, it still highlights how the media sometimes take things out of proportion and significantly exaggerate a situation in order to get a reaction.