Columnist Links Games to Acceptance of Torture

[pieeater911]

Can you say "Scapegoat"?

 

[dthree]

Why is it always seem that people who say gamers can't separate fantasy from reality are people who themselves can't separate fantasy from reality?

 

[Ice Rapture]

How ironic is it that someone in the news is discussing violent media being shown to people, that is absolutely hilarious. This is very possibly the most unintelligent hate speach against games yet, she really needs to deflate her ego before her head explodes. Also, I like the fact that the none-G rated games for the Wii like Resident Evil and Mad World were just swept under the carpet.

My last comment is that the picture of Nico is perfect for this article, the message; SLOW THE HELL DOWN, YOU ARE LEAPING ACROSS REALITIES TO FIND COMPARISONS, fake violence does not = real violence.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I also would be careful about being too dismissive of these articles. I think part of the problem with the videogame industry is we don't have a lot of mainstream highbrow. We can't compare Die Hard to Saving Private Ryan like movies can and note that one is essentially a glorification of violence and the other a more realistic take on it. So all videogames are defended against this criticism equally. But there will be (and there probably are) games that are what this reporter is talking about.

I'd be dismissive purely because things like this [http://img.moonbuggy.org/superman-says-you-can-slap-a-jap/] happened WAY before we had games.

And if we go back to the American Civil War there's a very similar case: Fisher v. State, 110 So. 361, 362 (Miss. 1926) where an African-American confessed after the "water cure", that has remarkable similarity to waterboarding.

Now, as a site full of gamers, would you really want this water cure to be used on anyone? More importantly, would you do it yourself? (Excepting the pithy remarks on doing it to her)

Desensitization to cartoon violence doesn't mean the same as desensitization to real life violence. Otherwise Joseph Barbera and William Hanna would be killing every mouse, cat or dog they met, with a rake placed in the middle of the garden path.

 

[Goldeneye1989]

I dunno. I think there's a point to this. I think the trouble does not lie in violent media in general, but violence portrayed as the best option without any lasting blowback. And in that case, I wouldn't stress that videogames are the major perpetrators. I mean, in Call of Duty, I must kill thousands on a daily basis in unique and extremely painful ways. But there's no emotional fallout for me, nor do I note that the character feels anything about. Certainly none of the characters with lines mention it. But in reality, lots of soldiers are seriously traumatized by combat.

I certainly don't think videogames are the epicenter of this, if there is a relation. And I certainly don't agree with Grossman's take, which has always struck me as preaching doom. I think American culture and government has stressed a world wherein violence has become an accepted mode of behavior. But then again, I think a lot of world cultures have also stressed that. Chess, for example, derives from battle. Each of those pieces represents a figure on a battlefield. Before there was Company of Heroes there was chess.

I also would be careful about being too dismissive of these articles. I think part of the problem with the videogame industry is we don't have a lot of mainstream highbrow. We can't compare Die Hard to Saving Private Ryan like movies can and note that one is essentially a glorification of violence and the other a more realistic take on it. So all videogames are defended against this criticism equally. But there will be (and there probably are) games that are what this reporter is talking about.

there is a saying in stats correlation does not infer causeation which most of these researchers need to loook at.

example i was told. in summer the relationship between eating ice cream and drownings are significanly alligned...

therefore on this premisis it is ok to say that Ice creams cause drowning. however your not taking into account the heat of summer, (ie more people go for a swim, so naturally the drowning rate should go up when there is more people... right)

it's the same with the arguments about gaming, Games cause violence .... they are not talking about unkown factors, like tendicies towards violence and gaming is a good output for some people or... that games such as wow have 6 million + people playing... or that counter strike would have X (i could not find a good source to tell me)

also remember the little roman reference that he put there, i enjoyed that.
hypothetical situation: a boy as young as 6 is told to learn how to kill, gut and burn, this happens throughout a country, and almost world wide, it's medievil england. a 12 year old is told how to use an AK-47. child in africa.....
in 1939-1944, one man using the power of his vioce and influence made germans commit genocide against jew's gypsies and homosexuals.... the Us army offers scolarships to universities if they take a 3year(?) tour of duty, whilst told to kill an enemy that is not seen as one... and if they want to leave they might have been stop loss(ed)

America (and global press for each contry) says that murder is bad... fair enough... but it also says that (insert rival nation)'s deaths are a blessing.


Go away and take your bullcrap stats, your idealoligist views and your unfounded comments and get the fuck of my internet

 

[Ice Rapture]

lol

 

[Goldeneye1989]

we play tf2 because we know a german and a russian will never get along

Hey... I'm russian and one of my closest friends is german...

OH SHIT I THINK I FEEL LIKE TORTURING SOMEONE!

i was more talking about post ww2 where the germans fuctbucked the russians and the russians kicked the crap out of them at then end of ww2

 

[steve141761]

Did she say that WOW was violent?
Jesus.. thats like.... I can't say what thats like cause I don't KNOW what that is like! There is no...BLOOD or GORE in wow! Unless you count the zombies, but still, I've barely played that game and its A HELL OF A LOT LESS GORY then other shit!

Also..

Henley is critical of the desensitizing effects of modern media in general but it's clear that videogames are her bugbear of choice. She quotes Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a noted game critic, who said, "We have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate violence with pleasure, like the Romans cheering and snacking as the Christians were slaughtered in the Coliseum," and adds, "The line between fact and fiction is fine. If we want to stand as a leading nation in moral conduct, we must first explore why we are inundating ourselves with so many images of violence."

That made me laugh so hard...
Fiction and reality are a fine line? QUICK! GET THE BOOK BURNING MOBILE! I HAVE A TON OF WAR NOVELS WE NEED TO BURN! SOME ONE TAKE A MAGNET TO ALL THESE VIDEOS! QUICK! BEFORE OUR CHILDREN THINK THERE IS A PLACE CALLED SESAME STREET!"

 

[Ice Rapture]

WAIT, SESAME STREET IS'NT REAL!?!! IT'S ALL A LIE!!!!!!!

 

[Goldeneye1989]

we play tf2 because we know a german and a russian will never get along

Hey... I'm russian and one of my closest friends is german...

OH SHIT I THINK I FEEL LIKE TORTURING SOMEONE!

i was more talking about post ww2 where the germans fuctbucked the russians and the russians kicked the crap out of them at then end of ww2

Ya but it's not like TF2 takes place during World War 2... -_-

I really don't see how people can still care about some stupid war that happened more then half a century ago. And I think you meant WW1. Germans kicked Russians ass REALLY hard during WW1... and in the beginning of WW2, too.

Meh, old history is old history. Germany is awesome, I love that country.

no it takes place in the 50's no much longer after so there still would be some friction between the two, ah well moving on.

 

[PersianLlama]

I've been playing FPS's since I was like 7, and I firmly despise torture, it's wrong and should never be done on anyone.

However, I do want to punch this idiot, Zeno Clash style.

 

[ModReap]

Sometimes I wish so dearly that stupidity is a crime.

 

[Ice Rapture]

My last comment is that I play Gears of War (one of the goriest games out there), and I can still seperate fiction from reality. The one thing that I would like to be real though is the lancer so I might have it for times like these.

 

[azadiscool]

Hello, I am Kari Henley. Today has been a slow news day, what with the H1N1 influenza and Obama vowing his Afghan-Pakistan support. So I think I will write an article based on a loose connection between video games and acceptance of violence. I win!

FUCKING FAIL

"What about these modern X-Box and online video games?" she asked. "While I happen to enjoy the 'G' rated Wii, over 11 million people are spending their time engrossed in the World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto where the point is to go around and kill people in a calculated way. Tell me again why this is supposed to be fun and relaxing?"

Yes, I am still Kari Henley. I cannot see how these games could be fun and enjoyable. I guess that all those millions of people who play these games constantly play it because it isn't fun or something. My opinion is definitley the best and most educated. You can tell that much is true by the fact that I enjoy the Wii! And that I confuse video game ratings with movie age recommendations. Yeah!

STILL FUCKING FAIL

 

[azadiscool]

I believe that torture is warranted under some circumstances, but video games have absolutely nothing to do with that....

Is one of those circumstances one in which some retarded lady criticizes games for some speculation on her part where people play games and then proceed to say "torture is great"?

 

[Magnaflame]

Yeah, I hate when people focus on the little things that will start something up instead of the big things, such as how more people are going to movies. This was announced on the day North Korea was saying they were launching a "communication satellite" (longs range missile test.)

 

[TheDoctor455]

This is complete bullshit. I'm an American, and I have played games like Splinter Cell, GTA4, and God of War. And when I learned about what was going on at places like Guantanamo Bay, I was completely disgusted with the Bush administration (or rather, I found a much more valid reason for hating it than "Bush is an idiot"). No one has the right to do that to anyone else, no matter what they have or are suspected of doing.

 

[Pimppeter2]

This makes total sense

[/sarcasm]

 

[Yog Sothoth]

I believe that torture is warranted under some circumstances, but video games have absolutely nothing to do with that....

Is one of those circumstances one in which some retarded lady criticizes games for some speculation on her part where people play games and then proceed to say "torture is great"?

Torture should never be taken lightly, but under the extreme circumstances you just described, I'd be OK with it, yes.