Game Violence Critics Ignore Community?

Thanks to CNET News for their opinion piece discussing why critics of videogame violence miss the bigger picture. They suggest: "What critics consistently miss is that gaming is very much a social and community activity. This is true every time two fifth-graders rush home from school to play "Zelda" together. But on a broader scale, gaming's socializing effects are even more evident at an event like QuakeCon..." The violent games angle is also discussed intriguingly: "Some research says violent games make kids act more aggressively... But that's what adrenaline does, regardless of the medium.... How that short-term spike translates into the rest of a person's life depends on the socializing effects of everyday influences such as parents and peer groups - including other gamers."

Comments

Re:It's always "Guy Things"

[coryboehne]

Sometimes I wonder if someone is offended by that desire.

Well of course someone is offended by your desire to hunt, fish, play games and otherwise be a man. It's long been understood that acting like a "real" man does not (nor ever will??) blend well with society's ideas as to what is acceptable..

It's just a sad fact of life that my girlfreind will never accept that I NEED a .50 caliber handgun under my pillow at night. Nor will she understand that I also NEED a ~25mW green laser pointer that can pop balloons. I also don't expect her to understand that I NEED 425HP to feel like a car isn't a hunk of junk... It's just what I like and what I want.. It's me, It's who I am, yes... I'm a man, deal with it.

Re:BEAUTIFUL!

[Alkaiser]

I hate to break this to you...but this has been said before. It's exactly the same thing Ben Stein said while presenting at the IDSA awards at E3 back in 2000.

He was talking about his kid and how he couldn't fathom how people could rail out at these games as anti-social when day after day, his son would be playing these games, and talking about his friends from school who had found this new way to hang out.

Shigeru Miyamoto has already given us the best ammunition to fight back against all this. If you read the book, "Game Over" (which is a decent read, if you can cut through the rampant Nintendo bias.) Miyamoto rsponds to the video games are back for you question by saying, simply:

"Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll."

If that doesn't make anyone talking about the violent effects of games on kids pause and think about that for a second...there's no reason to listen to anything they have to say anymore...reason has departed from their body.