Violent Video Games - Why?

[Gooble]

Because humans to some extent have a degree of blood lust. Completely naturally, it would come out in killing animals for food, but because the vast majority of us don't do that any more, we need some way of letting it out, otherwise it would build up and we'd lash out at others.

Therefore, what I am in fact, possibly crazily, saying is that everyone should play violent games, and they're good for you

 

[Gooble]

Edit: Oops. Double post.

 

[PurpleRain]

The human race is a violent one. Let us enjoy ourselves in a fake world rather then we wage wars out of bordom.

 

[shatnershaman]

http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/Achievement.aspx?text=You%20had%20fun%20killing%20a%20virtual%20person

(Heres the link so you can make your own)
http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/

 

[PurpleRain]

http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/Achievement.aspx?text=You%20had%20fun%20killing%20a%20virtual%20person

(Heres the link so you can make your own)
http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/

Thanks. I kinda stole mine off Anarchemist(?) and made the background the same colour as the Escapist, and then fixed the spelling error. Behind the scenes here, people.

 

[shatnershaman]

Thanks. I kinda stole mine off Anarchemist(?) and made the background the same colour as the Escapist, and then fixed the spelling error. Behind the scenes here, people.

Hey people were wondering where they're from.

 

[PurpleRain]

Thanks. I kinda stole mine off Anarchemist(?) and made the background the same colour as the Escapist, and then fixed the spelling error. Behind the scenes here, people.

Hey people were wondering where they're from.

No worries. Feel free to copy and paste them. Since I stole them myself I think I wouldn't mind too much.

Of fear of getting a banning, back on subject:

I can't see any negative effect of playing violent games. Unless of course you're a diranged sociopath, the impact of the attitude of the main character (whoever that may be) shouldn't be as large as making somebody want to kill. Of cause then you get a pychopath swinging an axe in a game, chances are he'll do that in life regardless.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Art, entertainment, storytelling, everything humans create, are mirrored/based upon real life experience. Violence is a fundamental part of that in history. So everything that tries to be realistic, be it film, drama, computer games, prose, even certain musical pieces, will have violence in it. So that 'justifies' it.

As for why it's fun to do, that's more difficult. I think the pleasure derives more from putting yourself into that character. In every good story, the reader/viewer always empathises (with some notable exceptions) fist and foremost with the hero, lead character, whatever. Every guy listening to Homer several thousand years ago would have thought 'I want to be Achilles'. There is inherent fun to being a hero, and a hero faces conflict. It's even better when that hero is a tragic one - melodrama is even more fun! The increase of violence, and the 'cool' kinds especially, in entertainment are simply natural progressions and explorations of what was always cool and fun.

Didn't really answer why there though.

 

[Silver]

Thanks. I kinda stole mine off Anarchemist(?) and made the background the same colour as the Escapist, and then fixed the spelling error. Behind the scenes here, people.

Hey people were wondering where they're from.

No worries. Feel free to copy and paste them. Since I stole them myself I think I wouldn't mind too much.

Of fear of getting a banning, back on subject:

I can't see any negative effect of playing violent games. Unless of course you're a diranged sociopath, the impact of the attitude of the main character (whoever that may be) shouldn't be as large as making somebody want to kill. Of cause then you get a pychopath swinging an axe in a game, chances are he'll do that in life regardless.

A deranged sociopath is as likely to benefit from a computer game and take out their frustration on that instead of other humans as you or me. It wouldn't be dangerous until you took a hysterical person, someone with inferiority complex or a person with halfway mild symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. Those are much more likely to be affected by a violent game and interpret it as something you're allowed to do, but now I'm nitpicking.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

A deranged sociopath is as likely to benefit from a computer game and take out their frustration on that instead of other humans as you or me. It wouldn't be dangerous until you took a hysterical person, someone with inferiority complex or a person with halfway mild symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. Those are much more likely to be affected by a violent game and interpret it as something you're allowed to do, but now I'm nitpicking.

Little problem here. A sociopath wouldn't actually enjoy games at all as the main crux of their 'insanity' is the inability to imagine beyond themselves; which is why psycho/sociopaths find it almost impossible to dream or imagine; because anything that they imagine instantly becomes real to them.

I.E. They can't 'project' onto the protagonist or the antagonist, so it's just all sprites to them.

Also Asperger's syndrome is nothing like that, you'd be more likely to set them into a rage by giving them a present. (As it relies on inability to cope with emotional states and lac of set order)

I.E. Christmas to them is like you playing Rainbow Road on MarioKart with full contrast and volume.

Inferiority complex would probably just smash the console, and hystericals would tend to go foetal but lash out at anyone approaching.

Trust me, I've done a lot of research on this.

The only people I can imagine that would have a problem with that are normal children that have a devolved state of right/wrong, possibly abuse victims, but they're just looking for a parental image to shadow; so ANY form of media would shape them. That's Imprinting and a main feature of the Stockholm syndrome; so it's a reaction to try and become sane.

 

[corporate_gamer]

i think violent games are popular partly because they let you do somethings that you yourself would never do in real life, a trait they share with a lot of films/tv where the characters often respond unusually to situations, which often form the basis of the plot. also on a personal note i would say that a certain element of stress relief comes into it, nothing beats sneaking up on some fuck-wit Mafiosa and stabbing them up in Hitman for relaxing after a long day of taking shit.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Catharsis*

Isn't that one of the guys from KOTOR?

Nope, that's Carth.

... why do I even remember all of this...

 

[HuCast]

justify violent games? Do I have to? Im not the producer of these games, I play them because they exist and I have fun with them. We are talking about aiming at pixels and klicking buttons-to me that is no violence at all! Each single ant that I stepped on during my life gives me far more reason to "search my conscience" than all the armies Ive "killed" in games combined! I see no reason to question ones responsibility or turn gaming into a philosophical question just because a lot of gamers like mature games with pictures of guns in it.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Catharsis*

Isn't that one of the guys from KOTOR?

Nope, that's Carth.

... why do I even remember all of this...

Are you sure hes not talking about Canderous?

 

[Vnonymous]

Why do we need to justify them at all?

Violence can be a useful tool when it comes to storytelling or making something entertaining.

The same could be asked of any media. Nobody questions why novels or sports or movies or music has to have violence - its' a storytelling tool, and games have it because they are a medium as well. You may as well ask "Why do games have characters?".

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Define violence in games?

I am very fond of "action" and "adventure" and I wouldn't want to give those up.

If by violence you mean
a) Gore
b) Cruelty
c) The Ability to Kill Random Civilians

I could live without those in games, though I would be sad to see the loss of gore in horror games where it is meant to serve a purpose.

But in terms of justification I say the following. Humans are inherently violent creatures, it is deeply ingraned within us, and having a nice, harmless release for that violence like videogames isn't only desirable, it is necessary. When I don't get to play my "violent" videogames, I start to get some excess agression, no violence, but I get snappier, more short tempered and meaner. It's worse if I'm going through a dry spell at the moment

 

[Silver]

A deranged sociopath is as likely to benefit from a computer game and take out their frustration on that instead of other humans as you or me. It wouldn't be dangerous until you took a hysterical person, someone with inferiority complex or a person with halfway mild symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. Those are much more likely to be affected by a violent game and interpret it as something you're allowed to do, but now I'm nitpicking.

Little problem here. A sociopath wouldn't actually enjoy games at all as the main crux of their 'insanity' is the inability to imagine beyond themselves; which is why psycho/sociopaths find it almost impossible to dream or imagine; because anything that they imagine instantly becomes real to them.

I.E. They can't 'project' onto the protagonist or the antagonist, so it's just all sprites to them.

Also Asperger's syndrome is nothing like that, you'd be more likely to set them into a rage by giving them a present. (As it relies on inability to cope with emotional states and lac of set order)

I.E. Christmas to them is like you playing Rainbow Road on MarioKart with full contrast and volume.

Inferiority complex would probably just smash the console, and hystericals would tend to go foetal but lash out at anyone approaching.

Trust me, I've done a lot of research on this.

The only people I can imagine that would have a problem with that are normal children that have a devolved state of right/wrong, possibly abuse victims, but they're just looking for a parental image to shadow; so ANY form of media would shape them. That's Imprinting and a main feature of the Stockholm syndrome; so it's a reaction to try and become sane.

Well, Aspergers is a really broad diagnosis. Some people suffering from it could be very affected by a video game (it's simpler than the real world, devoid of emotions, even if you kill people you get rewarded, etc). They understand that better than the real world, and try to apply it on the real world instead.

A sociopath probably wouldn't enjoy playing games with an avatar no, killing people in different ways (preferably realistic) might be a vent for frustration anyway (or just good practice, depending on the person).

Hysterical people and people with inferioriy complex are often very easily affected. If they're shown constantly in medias that murder is a viable solution to problems, they may lash out with that intent towards what is causing them their problems, bullies, abusive parents, the neighbours kid who always laughs at them, or whoever else it is.

I'm not saying it's a danger in all cases, but they're likely candidates. Abuse victims are of course also a risk group, but a greater risk there, I think, is a person influencing them in the wrong way for their own gain. I have a friend that's gotten influenced that way, out of concern for his privacy I won't say in what way, but it isn't pretty. He'd make a fine suicide bomber or frontline trooper though.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well, Aspergers is a really broad diagnosis. Some people suffering from it could be very affected by a video game (it's simpler than the real world, devoid of emotions, even if you kill people you get rewarded, etc). They understand that better than the real world, and try to apply it on the real world instead.

A sociopath probably wouldn't enjoy playing games with an avatar no, killing people in different ways (preferably realistic) might be a vent for frustration anyway (or just good practice, depending on the person).

Hysterical people and people with inferioriy complex are often very easily affected. If they're shown constantly in medias that murder is a viable solution to problems, they may lash out with that intent towards what is causing them their problems, bullies, abusive parents, the neighbours kid who always laughs at them, or whoever else it is.

I'm not saying it's a danger in all cases, but they're likely candidates. Abuse victims are of course also a risk group, but a greater risk there, I think, is a person influencing them in the wrong way for their own gain. I have a friend that's gotten influenced that way, out of concern for his privacy I won't say in what way, but it isn't pretty. He'd make a fine suicide bomber or frontline trooper though.

Sorry, I can't agree with that.

Asperger's have difficult enough time with reality as is. Transferral from one medium to RL would be impossible because of the emotional void they suffer.

Sociopath's don't enjoy anything. They lack the basic understanding of enjoyment. They just 'do' things. Games wouldn't mean anything to them.

Hysterical/Inferiority Complex don't have the control they'd need to perform anything like that. You need a very strong ego to actually plan to do something; they'd perhaps do it by accident, but there couldn't be a transferral either.

Next time you do something new, look at how much you're thinking about doing it 'right'. All four groups above simply can't do that when in the throes of their particular mindset.

To put it simply, if you gave any of them a knife, they could kill; but all but the sociopath wouldn't equate the need to attack with the knife. The Sociopath would need a reason, however
convuluted. So, none of them can realistically be influenced.

Abuse victims are the only ones I can see (Whether real or imagined) because they still have the twisted logic to make it 'right' and the necessary displacement, because it's been burnt out of them, to project it onto others.

Your friend sounds like someone who's been abused by Imprinting. It may not have been physical, but if you can tap someone's trust, you've got a weapon.

 

[Silver]

Okay, I'm just going to say that I think it still has to do with the severity of the conditions. I know a sadistic girl suffering from Asperger that plays a lot of games and watch a lot of violent movies and apply that sort of logic to the real world, granted, it's not only because of the games but rather the kind of company she keeps, and her background. But the media has affected a lot of how she sees the world. Even if she's not overly violent she applies "game logic" to a lot of things. Still it's not really relevant to the subject. We both agree that people can suffer a distorted view of reality because of games, and that's about as much as we need to conclude in this thread.