Jaden Kazega said:
Birds fly, fish swim, politicians hate violent videogames....
"I think the really violent videogame becomes a kind of simulator to practice on. And it enables the individual to become much more familiar with that depiction of death and blood," and "Of course it's not the way it is in real life."
Am I the only one who thinks these two statements seem to conflict each other? Am I reading this wrong or misunderstanding what she's trying to say, or did she just contradict herself?
It's coherant to me, she's pretty much trying to say that the games help people become better killers and encourage them to kill, even if the games themselves are not entirely accurate to the reality. The arguement being one of mental preparation more than anything.
The anti-game groups have long been argueing that while playing a shooter might not actually enable you to shoot a real gun well, they help you get into the mindset to want to go out and kill a lot of people, as well as perhaps helping you pick up some basic knowlege of tactics, entry, etc... over a period of time. Especially when dealing with games that have received consultation from real military/police authorities in terms of the tactics and situations. Where they tend to hide guys in some games for "ambush scenes" is where real people would try and bushwhack you from when you enter a room or whatever for example, so your by default learning to check the expected places when you enter a room playing a video game.
Basically in playing a game you'll become more able to inflict violence mentally, and thus when you decide to go buy a gun and practice, and then go on a murder rampage, be more effective. Not to mention the idea that if you had never become entranced by the idea playing video games you probably never would have done it anyway.
It's overall a load of crap actually, and almost exactly like arguements made about a lot of other media that took it's turn as being the "boogie man". The same basic arguement applied to say rock music, which by having anti-social and violent messages it encouraged listeners to get into that mindset, so they would be more likely to learn how to do real violence and become criminals and murderers. You can add movies, comics, and tons of other things to that list.
I'll also say that what games teach you isn't anything you couldn't pick up from reading some tactics manuals or survivalist/military training tapes from gun shops and military surplus stores and the like. Of course there has been a long-standing effort to try and eradicate those things as well, it's just not at the forefront of the media right now.
At the end of the day it's just more of the same, the issue will go on until they find another boogie man. Right now by harping on video games it gives the politicians something to talk about and pretend they are taking action while they try and avoid any kind of strong action on things like immigration, or actually cracking down on the elements of society doing violence (gangs, terrorists, etc...) as they all come with touchy issues and any position in any direction that could potentially be effective or make a differance comes with enough enemies and opposition to be tantamount to political suicide.
In closing, the biggest problem I have with game critics, and what makes them seem paticularly idiotic, is that they tend to be a lot too broad in their accusations because they have little idea what they are talking about. In general I think their problem is mostly in response to realistic/tactical military shooters, things like say "Call Of Duty" and their ilk. To be honest it would be nice if they narrowed their focus to those games, because at least that can be considered fairly reasonable in connection to what they are talking about. Railing about violent video games in general means that they are also talking about things like "Star Wars", "Star Trek", and other types of utter fantasy games. The amount of RL skill, even from a mental perspective, gained from playing something like "Mechwarrior Online" is pretty much non-existant, and the game is plenty violent in an absolute sense.
I still do not agree with them, but to be honest, they would probably seem a bit more sane if they refined their focus.
