thaluikhain said:
Agree with the first, not so much the second.
By way of example, marital rape wasn't a crime in all states of the US until 1993. Up til them, it was legal for a man to have sex with his wife if she didn't want it, because they were married. He was entitled to that, her consent was assumed.
Likewise, there are any number of surveys in which people (if you don't use the word rape) will say that a man is owed sex under certain circumstances.
Now, in both those cases, it's not that they are entitled to rape, but that, because they are entitled to sex, it doesn't count as rape.
Games that recognise they are promoting misogyny would be rare (not non-existent though). Games that promote misogyny (in various forms), presumably without the people involved thinking about it too much, really aren't. The Duke Nukem games, for example, I doubt many people sat around saying "Hey, this game needs more misogyny". Rather they'd be dreaming up lots of macho bullshit to stick in, and didn't pay attention to any misogyny.
That law didnt only existed in the US of A and it has been done with for good reason. Also that law existed in times where videogames did not existed so i dont see the connection here.
Nor do i see the connection between that law and any other method of entertainment like movies or books. So in truth this had nothing to do with anything but old cultural beliefs that things had to be that way.
Those dont exist today anymore.(or should i say you wont find any majority for something like this anymore that would prompt a law change)
Furthermore the "entitlement" to sex is not tought by games. Its passed down by fathers, who got that worldview from their fathers and so on and so forth. Then theres alot of gang crime going on where you dont want to look "weak" infront of your gang and thus might "smack the ***** around" if she doesnt pay you enough "respect"
All these examples have absolutely nothing to do with the entertainment industry but with that persons upbringing and suroundings.
Sports jocks in the US for example are tought that they can get away with ANYTHING aslong as they are the stars of their college football team. Im not kidding... there was a case where a girl commited suicide after being raped by a bunch of sports jocks and the media was talking about "those poor kids whos lives where ruined" and they sure as hell werent talking about the victim here.
And again that had nothing to do with games or any other entertainment media. It has all to do with people sending those kids the message that they can get away with anything. A game that lets you get away with stuff on the other hand has no influence on your decisions in Real live because you brain is quite capable of knowing that whats going on in the game is fake.
However if you Coach tells you that he will "overlook" you beating and bullying the nerds at school because youre the only good quarterback they have and they want to win the next big tournament you where just thought that its okay to do these things.
See the difference?
As for duke nukem... if you didnt get the obvious joke and really thing that duke nukem made people macho you should check out when it was released.
Back then only nerds and geeks played video games and those are usually not your top suspects for rape or violence. Also aslong as it stays in peoples no one has any business telling people whats what.
Thinking or fantasizing about something is not a crime and that is something people have to realize. You nor anyone else is allowed to point at people and tell them they are at the border of being criminals because those "games" have a negative influence on them even thought crime rates and violence rates have been going DOWN for the last 10 years.
So no... the argument that games have a negative influence on people will allways, ALLWAYS fall flat on its nose when faced with the actual crime statistics.
Again and i cant say it enough:
Its Real people who teach real people how to behave and act in real live.
Fiction at best can only give inspiration for what isnt possible right now. Like Star trek having "mobile phones" before that was even possible.
Remember when all the news media claimed that DnD lead to satanism in the 80s?
There where entire MOVIES claiming that role playing made people go gaga... (was it spoony or nostalgia critic who riffed that movie?)
They used the same logic people who claim games have that sort of influence on people use.
And yet... nothing happened... we didnt saw a sudden surge of satanism. We didnt saw a raise in crimes with satanism as a background. Hell the influence of DnD was non existant in any measurable way or form.
Nowadays its just seen as an obscure hobby at worst. No one cares of the possible "negative influences" of DnD on teenagers nowadays.
Maybe these pseudo scientific nonsense claims where just that in the end... false accusations out of shakely founded fears of the unknown.