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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Game Violence Critics Ignore Community? 30

Posted by simoniker from the sunny-delight-also-violence-danger dept.
Thanks to CNET News for their opinion piece discussing why critics of videogame violence miss the bigger picture. They suggest: "What critics consistently miss is that gaming is very much a social and community activity. This is true every time two fifth-graders rush home from school to play "Zelda" together. But on a broader scale, gaming's socializing effects are even more evident at an event like QuakeCon..." The violent games angle is also discussed intriguingly: "Some research says violent games make kids act more aggressively... But that's what adrenaline does, regardless of the medium.... How that short-term spike translates into the rest of a person's life depends on the socializing effects of everyday influences such as parents and peer groups - including other gamers."
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Game Violence Critics Ignore Community? More

Game Violence Critics Ignore Community?

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  • Someone finally gets it right. This is absolutely fucking beautiful. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE needs to forward this to Lieberman and every other anti-violent-game advocate out there.

    • Re:BEAUTIFUL! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Alkaiser ( 114022 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @02:04PM (#6746439) Homepage
      I hate to break this to you...but this has been said before. It's exactly the same thing Ben Stein said while presenting at the IDSA awards at E3 back in 2000.

      He was talking about his kid and how he couldn't fathom how people could rail out at these games as anti-social when day after day, his son would be playing these games, and talking about his friends from school who had found this new way to hang out.

      Shigeru Miyamoto has already given us the best ammunition to fight back against all this. If you read the book, "Game Over" (which is a decent read, if you can cut through the rampant Nintendo bias.) Miyamoto rsponds to the video games are back for you question by saying, simply:

      "Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll."

      If that doesn't make anyone talking about the violent effects of games on kids pause and think about that for a second...there's no reason to listen to anything they have to say anymore...reason has departed from their body.

  • Video games? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sparkie ( 60749 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:01PM (#6744907) Homepage
    I highly doubt the video game is the problem. It's the lack of parenting skills involved in the child's upbringing that is the root of the problem. If the parents used the GAME system as a GAME every now and again instead of using the GAME system as a BABYSITTER and actually paid attention to their children, I doubt that the children would become as violent in their teenage years as they are becoming. When I was a kid, my mother paid attention to me. As a matter of fact, she was knee deep in my shit constantly. I didn't have 5 free seconds to masturbate, let alone sit in my bedroom building bombs and amassing guns to go reap some sort of vengence on my classmates.

    • Re:Video games? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by coryboehne ( 244614 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:31PM (#6745246)
      An interesting point here is that whenever I play online games(Delta Force, Task Force Dagger for those interested..) it's often amusing to me how such a violent game can be so full of really polite people, as a rule cussing is out of bounds, and whenever somebody shoots me in the head from 1000 meters I tend to compliment their shooting rather than flame them for killing me.. I mean all you have to do is press the space bar to respawn after all... :)

      I find it hard to understand that these people who are so anxious to remove games like this from the market don't ever tend to look at facts like these. I feel the freindly atmosphere evolves because you're already releasing all of your anger and stress while playing the game, so you feel much more freindly and relaxed. Just my 00000010 cents.
      • I noticed this in playing Gunbound last night. Whenever one of us was in a horrible position relative to the other, we'd say a quick "Friends?" "Friends." Or when an incredible shot went off, we'd all cheer on the guy doing it.

        I suppose the kind of gaming ideal that a particular game is built upon affects it. I see a lot more anger to other games in CounterStrike and MOHAA, for example, and I wonder if that's because dying in those games is a punishment, rather than negative reinforcement.

        On the other

    • Re:Video games? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Dot.Com.CEO ( 624226 ) *
      And you are the proud parent of how many children?

      Fact is that violence affect children not because of games or TV shows or movies but rather because it has become acceptable as a means of resolving problems. I don't think that slashing monsters or stealing cars in a computer games makes me a more violent person. I think that the fact that all media glorifying such behaviour makes violence the problem that it is.

      I am a proud parent of one and I can tell you that TV has its uses, as well as video games do.

      • Re:Video games? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by sparkie ( 60749 )
        I am the proud parent of one very stable child. Who doesn't sit around and play video games for hours on end. Whom I pay attention to. Yes, TV and Video Games have their uses. Children like them, they are 'rewards' so to speak. Not baby sitters. Parents who allow their children to play video games 8 9 and 10 hours a day are not parents. They are sacks of water that have no business being responsible for another person's life. They aren't 'parents' at all.

  • but it's not about the games.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:01PM (#6744909) Homepage Journal
    it's about doing the right thing either, it's about doing 'something' for the community or at least appear like you do, and so called violent video games aren't exactly the only thing.

    'but, but, but think of the children!' is fairly commonly used phrase to attack anything you don't happen to like personally for whatever real reason. maybe you feel that your sunday reading circle is offended by games or something similar and get twisted in your mind to defend it..

    it's not like 'play' violence is exactly new either.. hmm. few thousand years perhaps? wide reading of books(and discussing them) is not that much older thing than vidoegames either, and you don't see that banned.

    rock was very 'bad' too few years ago, not to mention rap.
    • "'but, but, but think of the children!' is fairly commonly used phrase to attack anything you don't happen to like personally for whatever real reason. maybe you feel that your sunday reading circle is offended by games or something similar and get twisted in your mind to defend it.." True without a doubt. Someone should ask Socrates what he thinks about that phrase.

  • Ah, community... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ChopSocky ( 556987 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:24PM (#6745179)
    There's nothing better in life than getting together with some of your closest friends and blowing the crap out of each other.

    People are violent. If TV, movies and games cause people to be violent, wouldn't the Romans have been (more) peaceful? Violence is simply systemic throughout human history, it's at our core; it's not caused by or fueled through Man's creations, but by Man himself. Why don't we take a little responsibility for our own actions and stop trying to place the blame on everything else? People have no accountability, they accept no responsibility.

    So I'm just going to blame YOU for all my problems now and personally, Slashdot causes me to be violent.

  • It's always "Guy Things" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by oni ( 41625 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:24PM (#6745189) Homepage
    It almost seems like anything associated with men eventually comes under some form of attack. Yes, I know there are plenty of female gamers out there, but by and large gaming is a guy thing - and I can't help but wonder if this is a motivating factor in the drive to restrict games.

    The activities that society values are usually not activities that guys instinctively enjoy. Society wants us to be nice, submissive, drones - to earn our paycheck and keep quiet. But we want to be hunters and warriors. Sometimes I wonder if someone is offended by that desire.
    • Sometimes I wonder if someone is offended by that desire.

      Well of course someone is offended by your desire to hunt, fish, play games and otherwise be a man. It's long been understood that acting like a "real" man does not (nor ever will??) blend well with society's ideas as to what is acceptable..

      It's just a sad fact of life that my girlfreind will never accept that I NEED a .50 caliber handgun under my pillow at night. Nor will she understand that I also NEED a ~25mW green laser pointer that can pop b

    • Re:It's always "Guy Things" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bigbigbison ( 104532 ) * on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @07:15PM (#6749611) Homepage
      Actually it isn't really about it being a guy thing. It is really about youth. Ever since adolecence has come to be seen as a seperate time period from childhood and adulthood, people have been afraid of teenagers and anything associated with teenagers. Rock and Roll, the internet, video games, rap. Back in the olden days all of those mental hygine films that today companies like Somthing Weird video sells that show kids doing drugs and stealing and getting into gangs. It is a pretty well documented thing that every generation people become stressed out about youth cultures.

  • Gamers shouldn't have to justify their lives (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Live your lives with no regrets. Pursue your own happiness. We need to get political and remove the village raisers that give all these wanna-be nannies power over us. I'm sick of having to justify my activities to a bunch of losers who won't be satisfied until I'm on my knees praying to their false gods.

  • It's not what you do, it's where you do it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by carndearg ( 696084 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @01:05PM (#6745666) Homepage Journal
    Top marks to the writer of this article for emphasising the community aspect of multiplayer gaming.

    I find myself in a dificult position wrt this issue though because I have experienced negative effects from gaming myself. I used to play motor racing games. A lot. But then I stopped playing motor racing games because I found that my driving was becoming more agressive.

    I drove faster, I braked later and took more risks. Quite simply, playing TOCA 2 in glorious high resolution with force feedback wheel and pedals was too close to the real sensation of driving my car on twisty British roads for comfort. I was driving like an idiot and if I'd kept at it I'd have killed someone. When I stopped playing racing games and hung up my force feedback wheel my driving improved.

    I've played first person shooters both alone and on LANs since Doom came out back in the early '90s. By the same logic as above I should be a crazed killer by now. But I'm not. Unlike driving a car which I do every day, I've never had to clear out a Martian ore plant of aliens armed only with a chainsaw.

    I sometimes wish that the critics could recognise that games are just another recreational activity with all the pros and cons that brings. After all, I dont hear them wanting to ban fencing and they use SWORDS ferchrissakes!!

  • yes but... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by eamonman ( 567383 )
    One point that I think that isn't covered because it's potentially obvious is the potential effect of ultraviolent games on the fairly young. I don't mean your average teen who has watched enough TV and movies to know what a hollow point does to someone, but the young who are just beginning to learn things about the world.
    I worry about the kids who have violent video games (such as SoF 1 or 2) as their first major violent expereicnce. It's one thing for a child to see a bar fight or mafia war on TV
  • i am not a socialogist, but it seems fairly clear that the violence problem occurs earlier in a child's development than something induced by violent videogames. There's an interesting article about daycare centers in Melbourne and how they are banning superhero costumes [news.com.au]. Why? cause little kids dressed up as superheros have much more violent / aggressive / dangerous play behavior.

    Obviously this isn't a scientific study, just observations by daycare supervisors, but it illustrates that violent behavior i

  • Exactly (Score:3, Informative)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <mrpuffypants@gm a i l . c om> on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @02:42PM (#6746895)
    Games are the reason that when I moved to a new town I already had friends here. I recently moved away from my smallish town of 100,000 or so people to go to college in the big city of Arlington, smack in the middle of the DFW metroplex. Fortunately that first weekend I was already hanging out with my clan buddies at a local Cici's scarfing down pizza like mad.

    We still do lots of stuff together, from playing paintball to going to see Carlin on new years eve, and of course, playing Quake-based games against each other. Anybody who's never gone over to a friend's house and watched demos of quake 3 matches still isn't a true gaming geek.

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