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Op Ed

[Jan 16, 2013, 9:26 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Ars Technica - Did President Obama just order the government to study video game violence?
Sure, it's a bit galling that video games continue to be a political football that seems to be inextricably linked to violent rampages in our national discourse. And the thought of wasting any tax dollars on what is a thoroughly settled scientific question shows just how broken the political process can be. But let's keep things in perspective. Video game violence is an extremely small part of an extremely wide-ranging proposal by the White House to deal with gun violence on multiple fronts.

Cracked.com - The Truth About Guns and Video Games.
All right then, I guess we as gamers have only one recourse: We stop denying our role in the larger problem of gun violence altogether. Nobody's buying it anyway. You can spout studies and statistics all you want, and your debate partner will turn around and see a 10-year-old in his living room mowing down a village full of Arabs with a technically accurate machine gun, proudly rattling off the virtues of its fire rate and reload times. Gamers look ridiculous when we flail about, trying to deny that a fourth grader who understands the benefits of burst fire and knows to hold his breath while sniping is a bit disconcerting. Just like movie-goers look ridiculous if they say James Bond movies portray a pistol as anything other than an excellent solution to the problem of people who are in James Bond's fucking way. Just like music fans look ridiculous when they insist that all the gang violence glorified in giant, flashy colors in every other rap video has no effect on the children watching them.

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12.

Re: Op Ed

Jan 17, 2013, 11:11

Prez

Golwar wrote on Jan 17, 2013, 08:02:
It always baffles me when the kind of logic is mentioned that we are violent creatures, so why care about violence in our environment at all?

Good question. I think it has some to do with our ability to empathize. EDIT: That, and knowing there will be punitive consequences due to violence in a society that has laws against it in order to maintain some semblance of order.

It is true that games surely ain't the major factor or reason for gun violence. But does anyone really doubt that they have no impact on the youth at all? Not even the slightest?

I haven't seen any evidence of it myself, nor have I seen any evidence to support the causality people always infer. At best it seems to be a possible correlation. But a cause? The evidence is just not there.

I've always been opposed to hyper-realism in shooters or extra over the top brutality in games to add some spice. If that is all that makes a game special enough to appeal gamers, than there is something going wrong.

If you are correct that there is "something going wrong", I would say that the prevalence of ultra-realistic violence in games ( and movies, and TV shows, and books, and music) would only be a symptom of it, not a cause.

This comment was edited on Jan 17, 2013, 11:30.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

Subject

Comment [quote="Prez"Jan 17, 2013, 11:11][quote="Golwar"Jan 17, 2013, 08:02]It always baffles me when the kind of logic is mentioned that we are violent creatures, so why care about violence in our environment at all?]q Good question. I think it has some to do with our ability to empathize. EDIT: That, and knowing there will be punitive consequences due to violence in a society that has laws against it in order to maintain some semblance of order. q[It is true that games surely ain't the major factor or reason for gun violence. But does anyone really doubt that they have no impact on the youth at all? Not even the slightest?]q I haven't seen any evidence of it myself, nor have I seen any evidence to support the causality people always infer. At best it seems to be a possible correlation. But a cause? The evidence is just not there. q[I've always been opposed to hyper-realism in shooters or extra over the top brutality in games to add some spice. If that is all that makes a game special enough to appeal gamers, than there is something going wrong. [/quote] If you are correct that there is "something going wrong", I would say that the prevalence of ultra-realistic violence in games ( and movies, and TV shows, and books, and music) would only be a symptom of it, not a cause. [/quote]

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