You kids are too easy on old people. Allow me to shake my fist in a crotchety manner.

[GonzoGamer]

In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I am an affluent white guy approaching 40. I just believe in fair treatment.

In the game discussion someone asked how long games will be a scapegoat.
And I was wondering, why don't the youth start blaming the brutalities and swindling old people inflict on the world on their entertainment.
I mean, it seems to me that if you like to play golf, you're likely to trick people out of their money by promising goods & services that are most likely overvalued and crappy. If you like Fauxnews, you probably want to join a cult. If you like to shoot lame birds you probably want to shoot a person. Sure, I'm reaching but not as far as these bozos who blame video games for the occasional psychotic episode anyone under 20 suffers.
So my question is, why don't we start picking apart the entertainment of this country's older psychos. People like that sick fuck who kept those women chained up in the basement, that cop who wanted to kill & eat his wife's friends, or that guy in the white house who orders drone assassinations on his own citizens.

 

[Lilani]

Hm, never thought of it that way. I think the idea that hyper-conservative media like Fox News can manipulate people into doing and thinking stupid things is very pervasive and accepted. However, I don't think I've ever seen anybody try to weaponize this idea of Fox news causing stupidity like the way conservative camps have tried to weaponize the idea of games causing violence. I know there was once a poll that showed that people who watched Fox News instead of other news programs statistically knew less about what was going on in the world as a whole, and the things they knew about local happenings were more likely to be factually incorrect.

I guess the difference is most people feel the fact that hyper-conservative media causes stupidity is pretty self-evident, whereas proving that video games cause violence requires a bit more...well, proof. Plus, there's not really any way to convince the die-hards they're wrong at this point. If somebody can look at Glenn Beck and what he does and have any ounce of respect for him, then I don't think anything is going to convince them otherwise.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I know too many die hard conservatives, I know better than to try and change their perspective. I am however able to make them feel ashamed of some of the things they say sometimes.
I guess that's what I'm going for here. I think the youth should draw the focus of shame from themselves and focus it on the older people who more widely cause real suffering.

 

[Daft Time]

So my question is, why don't we start picking apart the entertainment of this country's older psychos. People like that sick fuck who kept those women chained up in the basement, that cop who wanted to kill & eat his wife's friends, or that guy in the white house who orders drone assassinations on his own citizens.

I don't know about the rest of my generation, but I'm already biased enough when it comes to old people as is. The older you are, the more likely I think you're a tool. Particularly if you're male, white and wealthy. Your generation has raped the world of it's natural resources, gone to war countless times and continue to influence politics with your bigoted, outdated views.

So maybe I don't need to start hating on their forms of entertainment as well.

 

[Waffle_Man]

Because it would just be spreading the anger around.

I believe that football (of any variety) is objectively more detrimental to society than even the worst video games, from the way the fans act to the way that money associated with it is circulated. Would I ever think about actually asking for it to be banned or censored?

No. It's an important fixture of culture and I'm not the kind of barbarian who would want to destroy culture.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Hell no. Let me be clear that I'm not condoning the banning or censoring of anything. I just think that if paranoid old farts are going to pick apart the entertainment of the miniscule segment of young people who go 'zerk, young people should pick apart the entertainment of the segment of old farts who make people miserable.
Also, I wouldn't expect anyone to get genuinely angry about any of it (shit, as Daft pointed out, there's enough real issues to actually get angry about) but I think it would be a poignant way to ridicule the whole concept.

 

[EvilRoy]

I kind of look as it as an 'all or nothing' situation. If videogames can train killers, then 80's slasher flicks can train psycho slashers with the strength of ten men, and if videogames can teach a young generation to objectify/marginalize women, then a whole cross section of movies from the 90's can teach a young generation that irresponsibility and excess are the right way to live.

I really feel that if I argue 'Dexter' is teaching people that (the tv version of) sociopaths are cool dudes, then I'm arguing that CoD is basically a training simulator. At the same time though, I can sort of see the other perspective. An old man says 'videogames aren't like movies, because videogames let the player control the violence rather than just watching', or 'comic books aren't like movies because comic books are static and often depict (at the time) no more than mild violence' and I wonder to myself, what would I say when faced with holograms?

I'm assuming holograms is the next big form of entertainment here, of course, but the question is will I want to say 'videogames aren't like holograms, because in videogames you don't kill a person with your own two hands'? I know we will never have Star Trek holograms with real physical hologram people, but I can imagine a looking a fake person in the eyes while he dies from fake bullet wounds inflicted by a fake gun I'm holding.

So I don't know I guess. Right now, standing where I do in the timeline, I could never argue violent movies lead to violence because I feel that by extension I would be arguing videogames can do the same, but I have no idea if I can maintain this belief with the advent of future technology.

Eh, my thoughts are incomplete on this. Quote me and refute my points or offer other points of view, it will help me develope my thoughts on this matter.

 

[Abomination]

Rather than attack their entertainment I just remind them that their ideals are clearly on the way out, that they will need to deal with the fact they will die and their morally bankrupt and intellectually stunted reasoning will go with them... with a rasping final cough in the bed they just shat.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

It's not intellectually honest to attack someone else's entertainment for turning people into psychos while claiming that your own ultraviolent entertainment doesn't turn people into psychos. It may work, but that's probably lost on the youth. They're largely starry-eyed and idealistic, meaning they don't want to stoop to NRA tactics. Good luck with all that, I say, but to each their own.

The media, news or entertainment or otherwise, might give people ideas they wouldn't have come up with on their own, but it's not making them the way they are. Dexter doesn't make psychopaths, environmental risk factors and brain "abnormalities" do. I say abnormalities because, speaking as someone with blunted affect and ASPD, psycho/sociopaths(which isn't, afaik, a formal 'thing;' just the result of some silly man's sillier checklist) aren't really crazy, and it's hard to imagine what's so special about normal people that makes them normal. Don't we call that bandwagon fallacy and appeal to nature? Seven billion turnips that just happened to grow that way can't be wrong, and all that. Anyways. It's not insanity, that's psychosis. It only sounds similar. People whose emotions don't rule them on the individual level possess a clarity that most "reasonable, intelligent" progressives could only ever hope to achieve. That is, if they could ever get over their goddamn fear of not being afraid of everything.

I believe there were also studies done on the way people process fictional violence versus real violence that clearly showed that the vast majority of them react differently because they know it isn't real anyway. Suspension of disbelief is apparently a conscious act and we're largely ruled by our subconsciousness, which can't be fooled as easily as some of us would like to believe. Don't quote me on this though, I don't feel like digging up articles right now.

 

[Aramis Night]

I'm in the same age group as the OP and i have to agree with where this is going. I've given this a lot of thought. It seems like it used to be that when an up and coming generation was ready to take the reigns of power and control of a culture the older generation would give that to the younger generation when they were ready. Unfortunately this didn't happen with my generation. The generation before mine has never been willing to give the younger generations the same chances that they were given to influence things. Instead it seems that they plan to hold tightly to it until they are themselves dead.

A great mind who explains it better than i can: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Sal6N5OiE

This leads us to an interesting problem for my generation. By the time we get our turn we will be old as well and our values may not reflect the values of those who should be at the age where they would be well suited to have control and influence. Should my generation follow the footsteps of our parents/grandparents and take our turn till we die? Or should we do what our elders were unwilling to do and pass control on unselfishly to the younger generation and just accept that our elders screwed us. It isn't fair to us, but i believe that the best way we can prove to be a better generation then the ones that preceded us, would be to set things right by allowing for a younger but still mature generation to make society according to their wishes.

I admit that sometimes i have misgivings about the judgement of those younger than me given their terrible tastes in various things and the damage done to them thanks to horrible parenting/schooling. But i rarely see the same level of straight up evil in them as i do in the selfishness and unaccountability of the older generations. If we can't trust the younger generations to do the right thing, we will be screwed eventually anyway.

 

[lacktheknack]

Because if your curtains are on fire, setting the bed on fire will help, right?

They had to endure "Those moving pictures are affecting your mind" and "how are those TV programmes going to put anything good in your head?" already... just take the lumps and look forward to when you can do the same for your kids.

 

[bananafishtoday]

So my question is, why don't we start picking apart the entertainment of this country's older psychos. People like that sick fuck who kept those women chained up in the basement, that cop who wanted to kill & eat his wife's friends, or that guy in the white house who orders drone assassinations on his own citizens.

I don't know about the rest of my generation, but I'm already biased enough when it comes to old people as is. The older you are, the more likely I think you're a tool. Particularly if you're male, white and wealthy. Your generation has raped the world of it's natural resources, gone to war countless times and continue to influence politics with your bigoted, outdated views.

So maybe I don't need to start hating on their forms of entertainment as well.

^P much this.

I mean, I get where you're coming from. ("Hahaha how funny would it be to flip their argument back against them and make them feel silly!") But that's not really important, and what's going on in the real world is a lot bigger than that. Granted, among my generation, whether we really care about it and whether we're willing to fight it varies from person to person. But I think the vast majority of us understand perfectly well how royally the Boomers and the Gen-Xers have fucked everything up.

We know that their greed is what destroyed the economy and ruined the social safety net, we understand that their avarice is the cause of the greatest wealth disparity since the "Roaring" 20s, and we see perfectly well that this state of affairs will likely make things even worse than 2008 very soon. The reaction among everyone I know to Time Mag's (lol like they even matter anymore) millennial piece told me all I need to know: the older gens' worries about our culture or our values, pff. They're fretting over the deck chairs on the Titanic while we're pissed at them for sinking the fucking thing.

Basically I really don't care what old people think about fucking video games lol. Who gives a shit? They have way more serious sins to answer for.

 

[LetalisK]

Rather than attack their entertainment I just remind them that...

...they're going to die soon and if they want a decent retirement home and a consistent social security check they better shut the hell up.

 

[Varrdy]

Rather than attack their entertainment I just remind them that their ideals are clearly on the way out, that they will need to deal with the fact they will die and their morally bankrupt and intellectually stunted reasoning will go with them... with a rasping final cough in the bed they just shat.

How beautifully poetic!

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

1. So far the bandwagon of anti-videogame violence is led by Democrats, not Republicans. See Senator Leland Yee, see also Diane Feinstein, Joe Biden, etc. All Democrats/Liberals.
2. Fox News is just as stupid and anti-videogame as every other news station out there. Last I checked Katie Couric does not work for FOX.
3. I am not defending anyone, just saying that a lot of views here are skewed against conservatives which smacks of listening to liberal propaganda and willfully ignoring the suppression of free speech BY liberals. See the race card being played whenever someone attempts to argue with a liberal.

I feel that most politicians are out of touch with society, but in a way that they see any crisis as a way of garnering political capital, and video games are just the latests craze along with gun rights.
More government is NOT a good thing.

 

[Angie7F]

Well, I am relieved to see some of the posts on this thread.
I also felt that the older generation seems to paraoid and judgemental about a lot of things, especially in the U.S.

On the other hand, I think Japan is trying to do a good job bringing young culture into the mainstream.
I just saw the Japanese prime minister on a truck with a guy dressed up as Hatsune Miku in order to promote their political campaign and voting online.

 

[Strazdas]

We already do. i think noone should ever be allowed to shoot weapons for sport or entertainment. guns are made to kill. use them for that, protection - sure. sport and fun - no.
Golf - as fari as gaming, your choice.
I think i dont need to talk about foxnews for this site users seem to universaly hate it already.

and now, to jump into a fight.

Resources? So what shall we do, not dig up the gold, and the copper used to make your precious ipod that you CANT live without? The ipod built in sweat shops in China, by people barely paid enough to keep themselves from COMPLETELY starving to death?

I never did or will own an ipod. i can definatelly live without it, and i chose to listen to music on other devices. neither of them are made in china or by starving people. We can dig up gold, gold is not a rare resource. there are plenty or resources that we are running of, like titanium. Not even going to mention oil.

And wars? Wars will always be a factor. The newer generations are always the same violent humans as before.

Yes, because all those hippies and pacifists wanted war right? you know vietnam basically failed due to citizen lack of support. thats why next time they made sure to create "its da terrorist" thingy. Wars have moved to computers now, unmanned dropnes, soon unmanned tanks, autmated defences.

And politics? That's all bullshit. Done for show, they don't actually mean anything. They work to fix problems behidn the scenes and put on shows for the public. Politicians are smarter than you give them credit for, they are meant to pander to the plebs of the society using catch phrases, and celebrity endorsements. Its only when they believe their own lies does it become a problem, which is now a problem for both sides.

what happens behind the scene is also called politics. just so you know.

Older? Younger? Middle Aged? Doesn't matter. Its all the same thing. Been the same thing since the dawn of man. Trying to distance yourself from the rest is futile.

nah, just look at those born after 2000, they are going to destroy the world with their stupidity.

In short, this generation isn't special. Nor any generation.

of course, and thuse we shoudl be no different - create generation conflicts.

The arguments over "who shit the bed" in this thread is no better than the old people complaining about young people.

hey, i thought we were complaining... oh wait....

1. So far the bandwagon of anti-videogame violence is led by Democrats, not Republicans. See Senator Leland Yee, see also Diane Feinstein, Joe Biden, etc. All Democrats/Liberals.

im sory, there are no democrats in America.

 

[Charli]

I do, I feel like the janitor arriving to an obnoxious party that got out of hand and that generation flails a drunken arm at me slurring out 'hey clean this up and I'll give ya a nickel'. It's very discouraging.