Recent content by MaxwellDB

Yes, they have gone too far, but that doesn't matter. Consumers will titter about it for a bit, then get right back to consuming. This is because gamers are undisciplined children. Yay, future!

I think that it's important to recognize that even though you might *enjoy* games, someone who dares to say something critical about them isn't necessarily out to destroy your hobby. The experience of reading a book is totally different from that of playing a game, and there are things that the...

Do you think that influences how you or others might think about war, though?

Alright, we account for 43% of global military spending. Next comes China, at around 7%. Then, Russia at 3.6%. As a percentage of GDP, we're up there with countries that are heavily nationalistic or exist in difficult/unusual situations. It's still a lot, and it's just bizzare to suggest...

I disagree, as I've written a lot on already. Maybe skim the thesis I linked at the end of page 1? This is a lot of what I'm saying in its essence. A huge amount of militarist influence on games manifests itself as offering overly simplistic scenarios to the player.

But those things don't really have much to do with militarism. They're violent media. This militarism discussion isn't as much to do with the visceral experience of war as it is how the handling of military ideas and operations are presented in games. What effect does that have on people who...

But none of that addresses the influence of militarism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarism] on games, and the sort of feedback loop effect that has on society. Violence in media in general is a different concern.

We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined. There were moments in the most recent GOP debate where the idea of civilian control of the military was intimated to be either wrong or only a formality. The United States is currently involved in military actions in a number of...

This thread really isn't about the tired "video games cause kids to kill" stuff, though. It's about the issue of militarism in games, which I think isn't an oft-addressed thing. It's certainly present in other media, particularly (action) movies, but there's a big volume of releases that are...

I'm almost bummed that this is my last response for the day and it has to be short. :\ 1. I'm all for responsibility in the use of propaganda. 2. I don't think that games are inherently flawed as a medium; I do think that there are not the same sort of mechanisms for their critical...

I think that one could find all sorts of games where active manipulation is part of the presentation (remember America's Army?), but I also don't see anything particularly virtuous about "passive" versus "active manipulation." If a game shapes how you see the world subconsciously accidentally...

But can't a video game advance a particular point of view just as strongly as a book? Also, to a few of the latest posts, just because you're critical of certain things in games, it does not mean that you're against games in general. The chapter Sirota devotes in his book to militarism in...

Good point. I think that's really the crux of the issue-- it's not really that games can make you totally cool with killing people forever and ever, but that military-themed entertainment can, when not consumed critically, influence a population to use and accept war in situations where it...

An interview pertinent to the topic: http://www.charlielawing.com/huntemann.pdf I don't mean to intimate that playing a lot of games will cause you to disassociate from reality. What concerns me more is that modern warfare can be presented in a very sanitized manner; that, in turn, informs...

I saw an ad on a website a bit ago that prompted me to write a blog post. [http://www.maxwelldb.com/2011/06/the-reaper-is-watching/] It's not required reading for this thread at all, but it does describe where I'm coming from with lots of pictures, I guess. Alternately, here's a quote from Dave...