Virtual reality in declining empires

[briankoontz]

The British Empire, in it's day the greatest empire in world history, in it's dying moment as the dominant world power gave rise to JRR Tolkien. Tolkien wrote about the militant (and non-militant) forces of good militarily (and non-militarily) defeating the forces of evil, at the precise moment when the British were no longer (in their eyes) going to be able to continue to do that.

In the United States Tolkien wasn't popular until the Vietnam War, which began the decline of the American Empire, which followed the British as the dominant global power and eclipsed them, holding half of global wealth at it's peak. The Society for Creative Anachronism, formed during the horrors of extensively applied chemical destruction in Vietnam, honored pre-industrial society (pointedly, the age before such chemicals could be mass produced) and Tolkien, with Dungeons and Dragons following shortly thereafter.

When Tolkien moved to the virtual, "fantasy" sphere he continued the British military tradition of cleansing the world of evil for the sake of the empire (again, how they saw it).

One can't for the most part read a book over and over again. Dungeons and Dragons was a step up in technology from books, allowing players to experience the joys of cleansing evil many times over, initiated at the time when such cleansings were thought to no longer be possible in reality.

In neither society did people stop to question whether the cleansings are right to do in the first place. So of course when the cleansings stop being viable in reality they were merely moved to the virtual sphere, and this has continued to the present day with 80% of mainstream games featuring killing as the primary mode of gameplay, usually of either monsters or "the enemy" and often in effectively genocidal manner.

 

[Bad Jim]

The forces of good did not militarily defeat the forces of evil in LOTR. They just managed to destroy that ring. And Frodo wouldn't even have done that on his own. It's actual destruction was partly by accident.

The good armies were completely outclassed.

 

[Racecarlock]

And? Is this another thing where I'm supposed to feel guilty for killing pixels? Because fuck that.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

80% of mainstream games featuring killing as the primary mode of gameplay, usually of either monsters or "the enemy" and often in effectively genocidal manner.

Source?

This seems like a bit of a stretch. I don't disagree that the U.S. is a declining country, but I think the connection here is tenuous at best. Don't overthink these things; video games are just fun distractions.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

So how do you explain that Sweden is one of the biggest nations in the Western world in terms of amount of gamers relative to population (and has a disproportionate amount of high profile game developers), yet hasn't been in a war for the last 200 years and is currently one of the EU countries that has suffered the least in the last half decade since the economic crash of '08?

It isn't hard to argue that defeating "evil" is one of the most basic elements of all human storytelling. Every oral and written tradition we know off contains stories of people going off to kill monsters or evil people for a good cause. The preposterous amount of killing that takes place in games has more to do with gameplay problems than genocidal urges (it is much, much harder to program one super-intelligent and adaptive enemy than it is to simply throw a dozen stupid enemies at the player), it is also one of the most frequent complaints aimed against action adventures (ie. both Uncharted and Tomb Raider have been criticized for the huge amount of dead bodies the supposedly likable antagonists casually leaves behind).

 

[CloudAtlas]

The preposterous amount of killing that takes place in games has more to do with gameplay problems than genocidal urges (it is much, much harder to program one super-intelligent and adaptive enemy than it is to simply throw a dozen stupid enemies at the player), it is also one of the most frequent complaints aimed against action adventures (ie. both Uncharted and Tomb Raider have been criticized for the huge amount of dead bodies the supposedly likable antagonists casually leaves behind).

And I feel we might see some changes here in the future. It seems to me that a small but increasing number of people within the gaming community, critics and consumers alike, voices their dissatisfaction with this kind of semi-genocidal game play for a number of different reasons, ranging from game play over narrative to moral reasons.

But hey, if the hypothesis of the OP is true and there is indeed such a correlation, that might mean that our (mostly western) countries will be doing just fine, and who would I be to complain about that?