Violent Video Games - Why?

[Arachon]

*DISCLAIMER: Before dismissing me as a daemon-spawn of Jack Thompson, be aware that I personally gladly play violent video games, and have nothing against them*

As mos of us are aware, violent video games is an issue that attracts lot of attention from the media (especially with new releases of GTA).

After debating this issue with a bunch of mates, I asked myself a question, WHY do we play Violent Games? Where is the satisfaction of gunning down pedestrians in GTA, why can we laugh at splitting someone in two, watching the blood gush out from the remains, whilst playing No More Heroes?

And most importantly, how do we describe this satisfaction, for non-gamers, without sounding like a complete maniac/12-year old kid who just played manhunt?

What do you people think? How would you "justify" violent video games?

 

[Xhumed]

Its catharsis really. Its doing something you can't do in real life (no matter how tempting it is) which helps relieve stress. Thats why my Dad used to play SF2. He couldn't blow the face off his fuckwit staff with a sniper rifle in real life, so he did it to some hapless Yakuza guy.

 

[unoleian]

Look at how someone invariably laughs when someone simply takes a spill while walking.
Humans are inextricably drawn to pain and violence. Videogames are just the latest exploration of this. But it goes far beyond that. Gladiators? Jousting? Action Movies? A good book?

I don't know why we're so drawn to it. But we are. It's not just the videogames that bring this perverse satisfaction. Maybe it's all the more poignant because its one of the few outlets where we are able to actually participate (for lack of a better term) fully in the violence being perpetrated?

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

if violence exists in reality then shouldn't the real question be... "Why do some videogames not have violence?"

i'd imagine that reality would be the baseline, not Sesame Street

 

[Russian_Assassin]

Well, I believe that video game violence is a way to blow off steam. Surely you have had a bad day and was pissed off constantly by someone. Now you have 2 choises: a) You kill the prick in a gruesome way (chainsaaaw) and get thrown into a prison, or worst or b) you go home and disembowel a whole army in God of War, decapitate the retarded ai of Manhunt or run over every pedestrian you see in GTA and do the chainsaw thingy to cops, sorry, officers of the law. I preffer the second option, yet I sometimes think about the first XD

 

[LionheartDJH]

It's simple, violence is entertainment. Fake violence that is. It's the same with movies and music there is something that a lot of people find compelling about simulated violence. Violence is a part of human nature and people who condemn violent games should really think about whether they support wars and police tactics and the like. I agree with the people talking about catharsis in here. Simulated violence can be a good safety valve for letting off steam but even if you don't have any built up rage to take out violence is satisfying in most games because 85% of the time you are doing what is thought to be the right thing. That is you are the hero, the good guy, and your job is to kill the bad guys and use violence against those that use it against innocents. Okay obviously GTA and games like that allow you to kill innocents etc. but for the most part in games you are using violence to stop evil and there is generally a lot of satisfaction in that. I for one know that I was very pleased that I saved the world in Uncharted by way of killing the bad guys and ending their evil plans!

 

[Lazzi]

Its very simple every animal has i drive for surival, Part of surviviing is the fight or flight reflex. Yet in modern socity were not aloud to fight becuase soem peopel tend ot go a bti over bored, but its also socilay in ecceptabel to jsut run or walk away form the problem if its a physical person ( i disagree, i belive that we shoudl be able to walk away from peopel on a whim if there agrivating us). Be cuase were nto actully alowwed to do any thign with out primortial impulses we (as a specis) are forced to bottle it up a relases with volital pent up agression in soem form. Be is writing angsty poetry, workign out to a poitn were you risk hurting you self, or the most effective form yet. Playing a violent video game, wat better way to relase agression the acutlly killing people , while the coutious mind knwo that wre only taking out ones and zeros the subcontious only recodnies the act of realeased agression.

The same thing work for the creation of this except that the subcontious and the activly countious mind work together. The creation of such "gore" is by far much more effective than simply killing, the ability to create "people" simply only to have be killed is highly soothing (to a certain extent). that and knowing that working on your base emotion can actully net you an income serves as a drive to do this.

Also for the finaly fact to prove me right i woudl like you to stick your finger in your mouth and feel around. Youe should notice 4 point teeth, teeth that wre disigen by nature to puncture flesh.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

It cartharsis really. Its doing something you can't do in real life (no matter how tempting it is) which helps relieve stress. Thats why my Dad used to play SF2. He couldn't blow the face off his fuckwit staff with a sniper rifle in real life, so he did it to some hapless Yakuza guy.

Catharsis*

Everybody wants to relieve frustrations, or just do dumb stuff. We all know it's fake when we drive over 20 people on the streets in a game. In real life, however, there are consequences, and we are all aware of this. Of course, there are exceptions, who base their deeds on what they have done/seen in a video game. But then there's something wrong in their heads in the first place, and gaming is not to blame directly.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

you can't have drama without conflict

violence is always a potential outcome of conflict... hence, violence is represented in every single medium since the beginning of time.

 

[Shadow Tyrant]

I use them as therapy. Nothing soothes my nerves better than beating the shit out of something, and what better way to do that than by virtual reality? No one gets hurt, nothing gets broken, and I feel a hell of a lot better.

It's also fun just dicking around sometimes.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Catharsis*

Isn't that one of the guys from KOTOR?

Anyways, killing folk in horrible, violent ways I often imagine when I'm dealing with customers at work, or sitting in class, or browsing The Escapists' forums. Since I don't want to deal with all the rabble that goes with glorious murder, I just do it in video games.

 

[Sensei Le Roof]

GTA, CoD, GoW, etc.

Come on... surely I can't be the only one who's thrown a lot of stress at those hapless lemmings (Practice mode on Lemmings 2)? Or the goofy violence in Worms Armageddon?

 

[666thHeretic]

Why do people continue to watch "Saw"? Or the less creative slasher films? Natural selection killed off the pacifists back when we lived in caves. We're changing, but the instinct that tells us a bleeding enemy is a job well done is still there. Video games provide enemies to extract blood from, so that instinct wakes up and takes in the sights.

 

[Evil Lawyer]

Its very simple every animal has i drive for surival, Part of surviviing is the fight or flight reflex. Yet in modern socity were not aloud to fight becuase soem peopel tend ot go a bti over bored, but its also socilay in ecceptabel to jsut run or walk away form the problem if its a physical person ( i disagree, i belive that we shoudl be able to walk away from peopel on a whim if there agrivating us). Be cuase were nto actully alowwed to do any thign with out primortial impulses we (as a specis) are forced to bottle it up a relases with volital pent up agression in soem form. Be is writing angsty poetry, workign out to a poitn were you risk hurting you self, or the most effective form yet. Playing a violent video game, wat better way to relase agression the acutlly killing people , while the coutious mind knwo that wre only taking out ones and zeros the subcontious only recodnies the act of realeased agression.

The same thing work for the creation of this except that the subcontious and the activly countious mind work together. The creation of such "gore" is by far much more effective than simply killing, the ability to create "people" simply only to have be killed is highly soothing (to a certain extent). that and knowing that working on your base emotion can actully net you an income serves as a drive to do this.

Also for the finaly fact to prove me right i woudl like you to stick your finger in your mouth and feel around. Youe should notice 4 point teeth, teeth that wre disigen by nature to puncture flesh.

Perfect example of why spell checkers should be required for everything that allows you input type.

But poor grammar and typing ability aside, the point is quite vaild and I am inclined to agree. I guess it's the whole 'we want to see the car crash' syndrome: we like to see violence as long as it is not directed at the individual watching. A mate of mine once saw a flaming wreck as we drove along and he said, "Wow, that's freaking awesome. Glad I'm not in the car, but it's still awesome." I think that about sums up why we love violent games; fantasy come true with no consequences.

 

[zoozilla]

Look at how someone invariably laughs when someone simply takes a spill while walking.
Humans are inextricably drawn to pain and violence. Videogames are just the latest exploration of this. But it goes far beyond that. Gladiators? Jousting? Action Movies? A good book?

And here is the reason that "Drawn by Pain" is as popular as it is. People just misread the title.

 

[Silver]

You could argue that it can be a learning experience (in some games, very rare ones, and the ones I like the most). You realise what violence can actually do, what happens when you put a gun in someones face.

Apart from the obvious other things like that it isn't real, and that it's a good way to deal with frustration, the biggest reason, I think, is that we play to feel other things. Just like we watch movies, read books, and do much of anything really is to experience emotions. Violence is powerful and can easily create emotions, both positive (a rush of energy, joy at victory) as well as negative emotions (fear, hate, anger, sadness and pain). This is easy to translate into games, much easier than many other mediums. Try to make a game where the goal is to date and fall in love. It works great in real life but translates poorly to computer games.


Then perhaps it's also partially instincts. I can't really explain why I start laughing maniacally when I blow people up in generals. I can't explain why I play the same level in Lugaru over and over just to knock those rabbits off the edge of a floating piece of rock, and feel a rush through my whole body when I hear the crack as they hit the ground. I can't explain why I find it so relaxing to sit in Battlefront 2 and pick people off as a sniper, one by one. But I do. In real life I'm the least violent person I know. I don't even hurt insects (not out of fear, but because of respect for their lives). Sure, I enjoy pain IRL as well, more others than my own, but for my own sake, and for the sake of my friends I can take that out on a computer instead. Only on a computer, I should say. You wouldn't have liked to be around me before I started to reason like that.

Okay, this got long and ranty and I quit two times where I feel I should have continued. But it's 09.50 in the morning, I still haven't gone to sleep yesterday, and I've only eaten breakfast. Yesterday. I need to fix those problems. Please, ask if I'm unclear about something or you want something clarified or expanded upon. I'll be happy to oblige tomorrow.

 

[Kovash86]

Predatory instincts...and killing hundreds upon thousands upon millions of digital people sates those instincts, that or in some cases, general misanthropy.

 

[Xhumed]

It cartharsis really. Its doing something you can't do in real life (no matter how tempting it is) which helps relieve stress. Thats why my Dad used to play SF2. He couldn't blow the face off his fuckwit staff with a sniper rifle in real life, so he did it to some hapless Yakuza guy.

Catharsis*

Everybody wants to relieve frustrations, or just do dumb stuff. We all know it's fake when we drive over 20 people on the streets in a game. In real life, however, there are consequences, and we are all aware of this. Of course, there are exceptions, who base their deeds on what they have done/seen in a video game. But then there's something wrong in their heads in the first place, and gaming is not to blame directly.

Oops, thanks, fixed it now. didn't notice that extra R...
But yeah, i agree with your point, if someone isn't quite right, chances are they'd go wrong with or without computer games. Most people can separate reality and fiction.