Does all the violence we see contribute to society

[Malchik]

Hey mister Necrowizzid, you can't blame everything on the parentals. The chances are they don't even know the games you are playing. And when you have reached, IIRC in another post, the age of fourteen you make most of your own decisions. You can't say 'I behave like this because of the way I woz brung up' because you can also add 'but that was all wrong and I'm going to change it!' Fourteen, time to take charge of the way you lead your own life!

[Breton Thief Oriana]

Hey, not to blame the parents, but my six year old nephew is a little warped. his dad lets him play games to the point or extreme gore, he watches underground cartoons (like Southpark, etc), and he says really disturbed things. im hoping he'll grow out of it, though. he has a more death centered mind than me! but, then again, im not really a death centered mind. regardless, that is slightly off topic. I really dont think death is something we should take lightly. my grandma died, and i didnt even cry, which is sad. i dont think it affected me, that i knew i was never going to see her again and i still dont feel emotional about it(makes me sound like a horrible person!). but, then, durring the september eleventh thing, i knew my brother (same one) worked at the pentagon, and i cried in the middle of english class, because i look up to him and really would miss him. maybe because i matured since my grandma died, or maybe because i know him better, since it was my seventh grade year that it happened. he is still alive, though, which is good.

[Mirilion]

IMO violent video games are GOOD for society. Its a healthy way to reduce tension and relieve violent urges. All of us have negative urges sometimes, and video games are a way to express them without hurting others.

 

As someone who actually held and fired an M16, i can tell you that shooting a rifle IRL is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than in video games. especially the part where burning hot shells (im not sure whats the english word - whats pops out of the rifle after you shoot) from the guy next to you on the shooting range hit you on the back of the neck... X_x ouchies. That was meant as an example of how complicated guns are (and all other kinds of violence, too) , while in games its just point and click.

 

Video games give us ways to express our violence - they teach us NOTHING !!!!

To actually get a rifle or shotgun and shoot people you have to be a real psycopath, and THERE IS NO CONNECTION to games.

Any who say otherwise are just trying to gain popularity by finding a cause people can unite against, or brainwashed people that were taken over by those politician types. I hate those kind of people, mostly they have ties to religious groups. Instead of dealing with real problems like poverty and education, they pick on others like bullies to gain voters or money or whatever.

 

Same happened to me years ago when some crappy old guy heard I was playing AD&D. He said that it will ruin my life because its evil..... His stupidy was so stunning I couldnt answer.

[Peregrine]

Well, just to be an honest debater.... the objection most (well, the more rational ones) people have is not that they literally teach you to kill people. I mean, playing QuakeIII won't do that until we invent portable rocket launchers and rewrite the laws of physics. But they still object to it. The problem they see is that it removes the objection to violence and makes it more acceptable. If you spend hours a day killing people, the idea of doing it in reality becomes less evil to you.

 

Of course I believe that is complete idiocy as well. It's just a product of our irresponsible, lawsuit loving society. People themselves can't be blamed. You always have to have someone else to blame. It's a lot easier to say "the game made me do it" than to admit guilt and face years in jail. Or to admit that you were a poor parent and didn't do your job to ensure your kids didn't get into trouble like that. And it sounds good to ignorant, lazy-minded voters to promise a "crusade against violent video games." If you do nothing more than look at the speeches of fanatics, it sounds like a reasonable and good idea. Sadly the majority of people in our society are too lazy look beyond the surface and see how flawed the argument is.

 

And just to make things worse, no amount of gaming is going to get around weapon laws. A large part of the gaming population can't legally own a gun. If they get access to one, the blame is somewhere else. My copy of Call of Duty did not come with a BAR. If I go shoot someone with one, there has to be another cause. Gaming can not be the cause of violence by itself.

 

I mean, I spend endless hours playing violent games. I kill hundreds or thousands of "people" a day, and so do many of my friends. But where's that showing up in reality? Other than the usual fights every kid gets into, I haven't ever done anything violent in reality. The trend is towards less violence since I've been playing more games, not the other way, as the anti-game fanatics say. Other than maybe saying "I'm going to shoot you for that" instead of "I'm going to beat you for that" as a joking reply, where's the sign of this gaming? The simple answer is, there is none.

 

Parke's Law: People are idiots.

 

This entire debate is excellent proof of this fact.

[Breton Thief Oriana]

As a rule, I define violence as having Death/Blood/gore/etc/yougetdapoint. so, yeah, IRL it is different. but, on the battlefeild IRL its MUCH different, and more terrifying, than just at a shooting range. Ive had stories from my brother (God, man, ive brought him up 3 times!). They might not teach us anything, but i know for a fact that they influence us, especially if we are really little. Not that i would outlaw them, i just think its scary how we are as a race. we're hippocrites, who would rather watch someone die than watch a porno(I appologise to the mods for that last statement there).