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.

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!!