Is any Video Game as Violent as the Old Testament?
April 14th, 2008 by Kavan WolfeIn a previous post, I identified a dialectic reasoning pattern I call the “new stupid” pattern. Here is another example.
Old stupid argument: violent video games make children more dangerous and lead to fighting, gang violence, school shootings, etc.
New stupid argument: its absurd that atomizing monsters with the BFG and sniping aliens would translate too are more violent temperament. This is just fear mongering by out of touch senior citizens.
What’s actually going on: in The Republic, Plato emphasized the importance of the stories told children and how people’s minds are affected by the stories to which they are exposed. Our culture glorifies violence. The ubiquitous exaltation of violence is prominent in video games, board games, movies, television, advertisements, news, the wars being fought, medals given to soldiers, classic and contemporary literature, and religious texts.
Are violent video games contributing to violence in society? Certainly, but no more so than any other medium.
Should society limit children’s access to violent games? Perhaps, but only if we’re willing to limit access to other violent media, including the Bible.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am
That’s it? Longer post next time.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:32 am
@ Jake, sometimes important ideas take many words to express, sometimes they don’t.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:54 am
eh, i agree. i just hate how certain people (jack thompson, hillary clinton) have made it their life’s mission to censor all media they think ‘corrupts youth’, and (could[hopefully not[)have the power to do so.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I’d say the type of medium does make a difference. A more accurate comparison with the Bible would be not video games, but books with graphic violent content - which people often do object to giving to kids, but not nearly to the same extent as video games or movies.
I would very much like to see research into the effect of violent bits of the Bible (and other violent books, and new items for that matter) on people’s behaviour, and yes, they may very well make violence more acceptable. But I think what is different about video games is that the player *enacts* the violence, rather than just reading about it. The difference between reading about Character X shooting somebody, and getting some firsthand practice (however inaccurate) in the best way to aim if you want to blow zombies’ heads off.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I tend to think a lot of the blame lies with parents who do not raise their children - they let the violent games, movies, and television do that for them. I guess my question would not be “do violent video games contribute to violence in society,” but “does violent media untempered by the guidance and wisdom of a caring parent contribute to violence in society?”
April 16th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
While i have not read the bible personally but i have heard many of the strange things that are in it. So why not make a bible RPG and keep it strait to the book. It would be interesting to see reviews, even the game probably would be pretty lame.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
@Dan, If you listen to most people, what supposedly corrupts youth is sexual imagery. However, there really isn’t any evidence of this. I think policy, including aged-based censorship, should be based on evidence.
@Mich, I agree that medium probably makes a difference; however, I suspect the most damaging thing is the societal meme that violence brings glory.
@Riley, sure some parents suck, but some parents will always suck and it’s not the kids’ fault that they were born to bad parents. At a societal level, we have to try to level the playing field.
@Zander, that is an awesome idea, prima facie, but I suspect the creator would be assassinated by radical Christians.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Kavan - yes, this. Fucked if I know how to get rid of that, though. And I’ve noticed that it’s not nearly as potent in some countries, though whether that’s for historical reasons or reasons of how politically/militarily powerful the country is or what, I don’t know.
I could go on a nice long tangent about the corrupting effect of sexual imagery, but it would be a tangent, and it would probably involve TMI. Anyway, you were replying to Dan.
Zander - I believe that’d be the Finnish RPG Anno Domini
Unfortunately, I suspect that the sort of radical Christians who are into assassination would eat up such a game (were it in English) - as with this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article660906.ece
A proper biblical RPG they’d probably use to instill a nice strong fear of God into their kids.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
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