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

Video games?

[sparkie]

I highly doubt the video game is the problem. It's the lack of parenting skills involved in the child's upbringing that is the root of the problem. If the parents used the GAME system as a GAME every now and again instead of using the GAME system as a BABYSITTER and actually paid attention to their children, I doubt that the children would become as violent in their teenage years as they are becoming. When I was a kid, my mother paid attention to me. As a matter of fact, she was knee deep in my shit constantly. I didn't have 5 free seconds to masturbate, let alone sit in my bedroom building bombs and amassing guns to go reap some sort of vengence on my classmates.

Re:Video games?

[coryboehne]

An interesting point here is that whenever I play online games(Delta Force, Task Force Dagger for those interested..) it's often amusing to me how such a violent game can be so full of really polite people, as a rule cussing is out of bounds, and whenever somebody shoots me in the head from 1000 meters I tend to compliment their shooting rather than flame them for killing me.. I mean all you have to do is press the space bar to respawn after all... :)

I find it hard to understand that these people who are so anxious to remove games like this from the market don't ever tend to look at facts like these. I feel the freindly atmosphere evolves because you're already releasing all of your anger and stress while playing the game, so you feel much more freindly and relaxed. Just my 00000010 cents.

Ah, community...

[ChopSocky]

There's nothing better in life than getting together with some of your closest friends and blowing the crap out of each other.

People are violent. If TV, movies and games cause people to be violent, wouldn't the Romans have been (more) peaceful? Violence is simply systemic throughout human history, it's at our core; it's not caused by or fueled through Man's creations, but by Man himself. Why don't we take a little responsibility for our own actions and stop trying to place the blame on everything else? People have no accountability, they accept no responsibility.

So I'm just going to blame YOU for all my problems now and personally, Slashdot causes me to be violent.

It's always "Guy Things"

[oni]

It almost seems like anything associated with men eventually comes under some form of attack. Yes, I know there are plenty of female gamers out there, but by and large gaming is a guy thing - and I can't help but wonder if this is a motivating factor in the drive to restrict games.

The activities that society values are usually not activities that guys instinctively enjoy. Society wants us to be nice, submissive, drones - to earn our paycheck and keep quiet. But we want to be hunters and warriors. Sometimes I wonder if someone is offended by that desire.

It's not what you do, it's where you do it

[carndearg]

Top marks to the writer of this article for emphasising the community aspect of multiplayer gaming.

I find myself in a dificult position wrt this issue though because I have experienced negative effects from gaming myself. I used to play motor racing games. A lot. But then I stopped playing motor racing games because I found that my driving was becoming more agressive.

I drove faster, I braked later and took more risks. Quite simply, playing TOCA 2 in glorious high resolution with force feedback wheel and pedals was too close to the real sensation of driving my car on twisty British roads for comfort. I was driving like an idiot and if I'd kept at it I'd have killed someone. When I stopped playing racing games and hung up my force feedback wheel my driving improved.

I've played first person shooters both alone and on LANs since Doom came out back in the early '90s. By the same logic as above I should be a crazed killer by now. But I'm not. Unlike driving a car which I do every day, I've never had to clear out a Martian ore plant of aliens armed only with a chainsaw.

I sometimes wish that the critics could recognise that games are just another recreational activity with all the pros and cons that brings. After all, I dont hear them wanting to ban fencing and they use SWORDS ferchrissakes!!