If It Wasn't Fun, We Wouldn't Do It

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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If It Wasn't Fun, We Wouldn't Do It

Let's face it: We're a violent species. We've been beating ten shades of sh*t out of each other since the dawn of time, not just out of necessity but because at some level it's a whole lot of fun, too. Though we can't go around kicking the asses of our fellow citizens with quite the level of abandon we enjoyed a few millennia ago, there's still a little tiny bit of caveman brain inside all of us that longs for nothing more than a bit of skull-busting in the name of survival competition.

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immortal88

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Well written and insightful. I'm not sure the schools should be encouraging violence of any kind, but outside that arena kids should be allowed a certain level of freedom. I know exactly what you mean about the wrestling. Back in middle school (11 years ago) my friends definitely got into that and I never really grasped the appeal, but that didn't mean I was off limits to anything. My friend and I also used to spend days constructing the best rubberband guns we could and then have huge wars with them. As we aged this lapsed as better options presented themselves. I've found another very enjoyable release (beyond video games that is) in paintballing. Should give it a go if you haven't already.
 

Easykill

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I used to have fights with one of my freinds all the time: no malicious intent, just letting off steam. We didn't hold back and punched as hard as we could, our only rules werre to avoid the face and nuts. Eventually though, a punch went awry and I lost a tooth. We didn't really do it much after that. I agree with the violence = fun sentiment, but that is not why I play games. It only works in real life for me.
 

Kogarian

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I have to agree with the article. Very interesting how we grow up from playing with sticks and killing the 'bad guy' and then getting into games such airsoft or paintball and shooting at our friends.

I have to ask though, how do schools cater more to girls than boys? I know a few ideas why, but I'm still in school myself and don't have any children or younger siblings, so I can't look from the outside in. I notice that girls seem to really like school overall but hate gym and just stand there during activities, and most guys do the complete opposite, but I still don't understand it completely.
 
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A friend and I were playing Halo 3 against each other over the weekend, and he talked about how strange it was to get satisfaction out of a kill. I assured him he wasn't alone.
 

Andy Chalk

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The idea, which is in some ways tangential to the article but in some ways not, isn't that girls are "catered to" more than boys, but that "boy stuff" tends to be less tolerated than "girl stuff." Everything from clowning around in class to playing too rough during recess to after-school snowball fights and running around with toy guns (or reasonably-gun-shaped facsimiles) tends to be male-dominated, and when those kinds of activities are institutionally suppressed, what the kids are being implicitly told is, "We wish to hell you'd act more like girls." A frustrating and confusing perception is created that boys' behaviour is somehow wrong or bad.
 

Surggical_Scar

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I really liked this article, I hadn't really considered the effects of gender identity, and this made some new, and oddly enough, quite obvious points. Sometimes we need to be told before we can see what's right in front of our faces.

If I have one problem with Liberal politics, it's the tendency to deny some things which really are part of human nature. Identifying with masculine toys and games really shouldn't be discouraged - hell, I had a mass-toy-sword fight with 9 of my mates down at the local park last week.

Alright, alcohol was also involved, but it was still...ah, forget it.
 

Duck Sandwich

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cool13011 said:
I used to go to some fancy private school for "the highly gifted" and I got detention for an entire week just for making a gun out of my thumb and pointer finger.
That is fucking hilarious.

Why do we require violence to be happy?
That's a question I've been asking myself for quite a while. Apparently, the more sexually repressed a country is, the more it resorts to another base instinct, namely, violence. As to what exactly makes violence fun, I'm not sure. But I see it as one of the greatest forms of competition. Being in a fight tests a lot of things. Strength, stamina, skill, reflexes, mind games, willpower.

I remember taking a kickboxing class and our sensei teaching us a move that would "knock the guy's head off," saying the words with some enthusiasm. However, I'm pretty sure he doesn't exactly condone decapitating people in a fight.

Beating the shit out of stuff/people is fun, and good for letting off steam. Hell, just about everything has violence in it. Games, martial arts, pro wrestling, paintball, chess, movies, plays, music, etc.

cool13011 said:
Isn't school supposed to be preparing people for "the real world?" Why prohibit the largest part of "the real world?"
Probably a conspiracy by the government to turn today's youths into overpampered nancies.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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cool13011 said:
Why do we require violence to be happy?
Because violence is fun. I'm not sure if I buy into the theory that it can be correlated to some kind of "national sexual repression level," although it's an interesting idea, but I do think that violence, like sex, satisfies a base, and very much hardwired, human urge. What's the most obvious and visible universal human characteristic, shared across time and cultures? Warfare. And what's the one form of sport that's stayed with us since the day humanity evolved far enough to say, "Yeah, I'd pay to watch that?" Gladiatorial combat. It's who we are, it's what we are.
 

Arbre

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Malygris said:
The idea, which is in some ways tangential to the article but in some ways not, isn't that girls are "catered to" more than boys, but that "boy stuff" tends to be less tolerated than "girl stuff." Everything from clowning around in class to playing too rough during recess to after-school snowball fights and running around with toy guns (or reasonably-gun-shaped facsimiles) tends to be male-dominated, and when those kinds of activities are institutionally suppressed, what the kids are being implicitly told is, "We wish to hell you'd act more like girls." A frustrating and confusing perception is created that boys' behaviour is somehow wrong or bad.
Woah... that huge can of worms you've opened there.
There's probably an acceptable middle ground between Sparta and Bambi.
While women are gaining more and more liberties, but still struggling a lot, men get progressively criticized, probably as a backdraft of millenia of male domination in certain areas.
Now, some say women can be as ruthless as men, notably in politics and economics, or even war, but some would reply that it's to compete with men and stand a chance against them.

Do men like violence more than women? Would have societies been less destructive (not necessarily better politically) if only governed by women, reproducing through manual genetic mixing and in-vitro growths?

Violence is indeed fun, and we have to deal with that. I'd rather loose steam by playing virtual murder games, instead of hurting someone for real.

The difference between video games and martial arts is interesting. In video games, you can virtually do anything, literally free your mind and achieve most gruesome acts, while having no consequence at all on the physical plane. Your mind explores territories which can be socially reprehensible.
What a sinful activity to let the mind be perverted by such emotions and boundless activities! Where is the discipline in that?
Quick! Rate that game!
But again, it's all fake.
The discipline happens on the mind plane, where you identify and put the barrier between the virtual and the real.

On the other hand, martial arts tell us truths about discipline, sometimes respect, but it they have a more practical side to them. In may cases, though, it's still - and mainly - a case of kicking the crap out of someone else, inducing pleasure (fun) by weakening an oponent, with refined techniques of combat (which is not restricted to men only).

From a certain point of view, it makes little sense to blame video games for their violence, and acclaim people like Armstrong, Ali, Pedrosa, etc.

I suppose that what is disgusting about video games, in many minds, is the lack of physical activity mixed to the unrestricted exploration of any plausible scenario, ethical values be damned if wanted.
Yet, again, I can understand how people can view this as sick, but it does not mean I agree with them.
 

SilentScope001

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What do you mean "If it wasn't fun, we wouldn't do it?"

Have you ever heard of people playing MMORPGs long after they are stale?

Hah, I like witnessing murder as much as the next person is, but that doesn't mean FPSes are fun. Sometimes, I plough through an FPS just to get Achivements. Or just to see some lame cutscene. Or just justify why I wasted my money.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Arbre said:
Woah... that huge can of worms you've opened there.
Not really. The point isn't to debate the differences between boys and girls (which by itself would take all day) but simply that we, as a species, are naturally inclined toward violence. It's in our blood.

SilentScope001 said:
Sometimes, I plough through an FPS just to get Achivements. Or just to see some lame cutscene. Or just justify why I wasted my money.
I can relate to that kind of bloody-mindedness, although if a game isn't fun for me at all (which is very rare), I'll cut it short. It's easy enough to pick out individual games that don't really float your boat, but persisting in playing FPS titles, for example, if you don't care for the FPS genre speaks more to a particular personality quirk than anything else. Besides which, "fun" can be relative. I have a friend who doesn't particularly care for World of Warcraft (on some days he seems to outright loathe it) but he keeps playing because it's the best MMOG out there and it's comparatively more "fun" than anything else he has to do.
 

SilentScope001

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Well, it's more of, if I have an FPS, and I hate it, I may return back to it, due to some reason that is totally unrelated to having 'fun'. I think there are some other people who feel the same way as well, altough I may be a rare person who cares about that.

Eh. I am more used to just responding to an article without fear of getting responded by the writer himself.

Well, I'll might as well post a link to this article: "Violence: Is It The Answer?" ( http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29266 ).
 

Arbre

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Malygris said:
Arbre said:
Woah... that huge can of worms you've opened there.
Not really. The point isn't to debate the differences between boys and girls (which by itself would take all day) but simply that we, as a species, are naturally inclined toward violence. It's in our blood.
The bit which I quoted did draw a line between males and females though, that was what I was adressing.
I found it more interesting rather than just repeat the same old saying that man is a wolf to man, since this is nothing new really.
 

Quietwulf

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Mar 15, 2008
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Nice article. Very throught provoking.

Does anyone else find it sad that even after all this time, after everything we've achieved, we're still retain so many of our base instincts?

I fear crimes like murder, rape and war will dog the human race until the end of time.
 

ElArabDeMagnifico

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I always wondered what Atilla the Hun's favorite game would be, or if "The Romans" would be playing God of War if we brought a PS2 back in time with us (and a power source).