The State of Play - Violence and Videogames

mozen writes "The BBC has an article up discussing the effects of videogames on the mind and how the media are reluctant to talk more openly about violent games. From the article: 'People who've grown up with Mario see him keeping pace, running and jumping along the building tops that streak by on a train journey. At best, it's a pleasant daydream — a happy reminder of a pastime you enjoy, and at worst, it's a mild distraction. Until, that is, you swap the games around. What if my screen dreams aren't of something so patently harmless as Puzzle Quest? What if they're of the stealth kills in Manhunt?'"

Comments

Real life has no reset button or savegames

[El_Muerte_TDS]

I'm not going to each pills, while running from ghosts, and listening to repetitive music.
I'm not planning to perform a stealth kill in real life. I can't reset the real world or restore a save game.

Of course, that is what a rational person would do. But irrational people are... well, irrational.

Fucking hell.

[Pojut]

What if my screen dreams aren't of something so patently harmless as Puzzle Quest? What if they're of the stealth kills in Manhunt?'"

Then that means you daydream about that time you actually got the red kill. Big deal. You aren't daydreaming about murdering someone and then attempting to cover your tracks, worried if you will be found out, living with the guilt.

You are daydreaming about pressing fucking buttons. If you get those two confused, you belong in a VERY padded cell.

Media's reluctance

[aztektum]

Hopefully because they realize it's bullshit to blame videogames for idiots who act badly. I watched Zappa on Crossfire (via YouTube) yesterday and it was the same argument ~20 years ago, except about rock music.

If you don't like the content DON'T FUCKING BUY IT.

Re:Media's reluctance

[Control Group]

Absolutely we'd like to know about it. But what do you do? Give your child a list of words never to say? Not let him play with other kids whose families have different policies on games and movies their kids can play and watch?

Frankly, yes, that's exactly what you do. While I'd be - to some extent - offended if some parents down the street stopped letting their son play with mine because they know I take my son shooting, I can't help but respect their commitment to raising their child the way they believe to be right.

Look at it this way: over the course of a normal life, every person is going to have to make decisions about the sorts of people he or she is going to associate with; that's one of the responsibilities of being an adult. When you have a young child, you have to assume those responsibilities for your child until he's old enough to shoulder them himself. No, of course it's neither pleasant nor ideal; neither is the rest of life.

And in the particular instance of swearing, a list of things he's not allowed to say isn't such a bad idea. After all, there's nothing inherently immoral about swearing, it's the use of obscenity in an inappropriate context that's the problem. There's a difference between me saying typing "fuck" on slashdot and me saying "fuck" in a job interview. Regardless of whether your son does swear, as long as he knows you won't tolerate it, and he'll get in trouble if you find out about it, I think you're doing your job well. That's the lesson he needs to learn, after all.

The standard denial

[p4rri11iz3r]

Just as the article says, everyone here will give the standard denial out of fear of giving the opposition new ammo.

But they do make a point. I've experienced a similar phenomenom. After playing hours of Tetris, I've found myself almost unwillingly thinking about moves, combos etc... even after I'd moved on. There was a pop-cap game where you shoot off fireworks that did the same thing, making me constantly think of new combos and such. We can deny the affects all we like, but anything that is repetitive will eventually get under your skin when over-exposed. The moment of truth comes in how we allow this to affect our behaviour. Most people are able to shake these affects and move on with their life, but a few can become consumed by it. These are the people who become your psychopaths and mass-murderers. Every person feels that urge every now and again to just go off. Whether you're sitting in traffic, in line at the bank, or doing some other tedious and/or annoying task, the urges exist. Those of us who are civilized and possess the ability to think rationally can get past these moments without incident, but again, there are always the few who can't.

This is why violent videogames are important. They help us to see what lies within us, and what the consequences of giving into can lead to. Games like Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto are great not because of their gameplay, but because they allow us to do that which we suppress in ourselves. It allows us to act out our most deviant and perverse fantasies without fear of repercussions. Nobody in their right mind will admit to it (which begs the question if I'm in my right mind), but we all have these fantasies at one point or another.

In a way, video games do affect me, just not in the way the "analysts" think. I'd say I'm far less likely to go on a killing spree or whatever after playing GTA. Why? Because I realize that driving my car into a "Pay n' Spray" will not help me one iota in a full on man-hunt involving the FBI and the National Guard. It reinforces that there is nothing great or glorious about killing someone in whatever gruesome manner the developer has cooked up. But most importantly, it helps me realize just how dark and terrible these urges are, and reinforces in me the need to suppress them.

So mod me into oblivion for speaking the truth if you must (It's the slashdot way, afterall), afterall, we wouldn't want our opponents to know this.

Re:Who buys the games?

[malsdavis]

It's not good to blame the audience for problems. Much better to blame someone else, in this case Video Games, but it could just as well be anything from usual list of bogeymen: Drugs, Rap Music, Paedophiles, Terrorists, Communists, etc.

The items on the list have one thing in common: mass-media's main audience (middle-aged, middle-income parents of middle-sized families) don't tend to like or identify with any of these so they act as good objects of blame as there is minimal likelihood of alienating viewers. We live in a "Someone must be to blame for everything" culture but nobody wants to hear that it's them who are to blame for anything.