Devaluing Human Life?

[howeird]

Something frankwu said on spacekatgal's LJ, which she dittoed is a major point of contention for me. They say video games, especially first person shooters which exploit violence for the sake of violence, devalue human life.

Hogwash.

It's a game. You're using harmless electrons to attack harmless electrons on an electronic screen attached to an electronic box. If anything, video games are therapeutic - they allow you to take out your aggression on imaginary objects in an imaginary scenario, using imaginary weapons. It's almost as therapeutic as whacking an effigy of your boss with a baseball bat. One could argue that it takes kids off the street who might otherwise be outside with real weapons, in real scenarios, killing real people.

I hold every sharpshooting medal the NRA offers, and I'm here to tell you that first person shooter games are about as useful as a marksmanship training tool as Seinfeld is as a tutorial in nuclear physics.

The argument that video games lead to real life violence is as valid as the argument that book, TV and movie violence leads to real life violence. Yes, there are examples of people who commit crimes inspired by TV, movies and video games. But they are few and far between, nowhere near a significant number compared to the number of people who love to read violent-themed books, watch violent TV shows and movies, or play violent video games.

Comments

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

These are the same people who claim Heavy Metal music causes kids to commit suicide.

I beg to differ. Having to watch one more interview of Courtney Love showing off her snail-track thighs would probably make me want to shuffle off this mortal coil. No wonder Kurt shot himself in the head.

I'm sure some kids are influenced by violence they see in video games, tv, and other sources of entertainment, but I blame the parents for not parenting their spawn to the point of actually letting them know the difference between reality and fiction.

But what do I know? I don't have kids and will never have them, so obviously I don't know a thing about talking to kids or parenting the beasties.

[howeird]

Heavy Metal causes parents to commit homocide. :-)

Nobody knows how to parent.

Irony - intelligent people like you and me don't reproduce, but the cretins crank out babies like mad. Result: a nation of cretins.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

All I can do is sit back and watch the dumbening of our nation as all the stupid people breed.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

I am not sure that exposing your eight year-old to Grand Theft Auto is a good thing. I think partents should monitor their children and make sure that the youngins are not being exposed to materials that the parents find objectionable. I do this when I babysit by not watching programs like CSI that I think might be too frightening for kids. At the same time, I grew up in a time when it was plugged into the heads of every concerned parent that playing Dungeons and Dragons would result in bloodthirsty, reality-challenged youngsters. Although I have met a number of people who might be considered realtity challenged, I have yet to meet anyone who was turned into a blood thirsty butcher by playing Dungeons and Dragons. I imagine the same applies to any variety of games.

I think all this talk about violent games making violent kids is hooey. We do know kids imitate the behavior they see in play settings (there was research done on this in relationship to the Power Rangers - said research discovered that when kids watched Power Rangers they imitated Power Rangers. This is a huge jump from trying to find a connection between first-person shooters and the Virginia Tech shooter. Kids might play at Doom but it takes a special soul to bring it into being.

I think violent entertainment combined with isolation, sadness, poor coping mechanisms might add to a feeling of despair, sorrow or anger in a young person (I don't think there is ever a guarantee of catharsis) - and I think it is the job of the parents to look into that. I think it is also the job of the parents to make sure that their offspring have a clear sense of reality vs. fantasy and a moral center. The question I would ask any kid who wants to rape a pixel girl is "Why do you want to play this?"

Using myself as an example: as part of my generation, I played video game that were/are violent, grew up on slasher films, listened to heavy metal and punk rock, played Dungeons and Dragons and countless other games that should have turned me into a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia and still found time to read comic books, horror novels and the occassional classic. By all intents and purposes I should be doing hard time for interstate massacres. None of this has happened and I don't think I am particulary exceptional.

[howeird]

Do you think violent video games dehumanize?

exposing your eight year-old to Grand Theft Auto
I don't see a problem here. An eight year old has almost no frame of reference for it to affect her at all. Same thing with hard core porn, come to think of it.

The question I would ask any kid who wants to rape a pixel girl is "Why do you want to play this?"
Why ask? It's because here's a chance to do something for pretend which they could never do for real. Like flying a rocket to Alpha Centauri and making mad passionate love to aliens with six breasts.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of eight-year-olds with life experiences that allow for more than an ample frame of reference for Grand Theft Auto.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

Oh did you see this, perfectly stoopid: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071128/tc_nm/media_violence_tech_dc

[spacekatgal.livejournal.com]

The issue Frank and I were commenting on, I believe, wasn't if videogames made people killers - it was if the culture of violent first-person shooters "devalued human life."

I've definitely played my fair share of violent videogames. I am not for censoring them in any way, I think adults can choose any form of entertainment they wish. I, myself, have seen approximately 24,000,000 horror movies in my life.

Here's something to consider though.

This is the third definition of pornography, - "the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction." In my opinion, many violent videogames are pornography - they appeal to the basest instincts for a primal thrill. I have no problem with this, and don't feel they should be censored or regulated - but let's not pretend they're something they are not.

[howeird]

I guess my take is video games do not depict human life, thus do not devalue it.

That third definition of pornography strikes me as missing the word "sexual". By this definition, a video of hang gliding, sky diving or downhill skiing would be pornography.

Part of my attitude about violence in video games is due to my being non-immersive. Many, maybe the majority, of fen become one with a book or a game or a movie. I know while my older sister is reading a book, the rest of the world disappears, and only the world of the book is real to her. I'm not like that. When I shoot at the bogie on the screen, and it explodes in a cloud of red pixels, I do not feel like I have done violence, or harmed a person. I feel joy at achieving a level of eye-hand coordination. I don't anthropomorphise.

That's not a value judgement. I don't think it makes me any better or worse than those who can get into the game.

[spacekatgal.livejournal.com]

I really get that. I love light gun games like Time Crisis too - because it's a test of skill. A synthetic skill, but a skill nonetheless. I don't feel like I've killed anyone either - that game in particular is too cartoonish to warrant that reaction.

However, I still stand by my previous statement. I do think many violent videogames are pornography.

[vasilatos]

I'm still stuck on the presumption of value of human life.

[howeird]

You haven't offed yourself, so I'm guessing you value at least one human life.
:-)

[frankwu.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that playing/watching violent videogames/movies makes one into a violent killer.

I'm not saying that at all.

It's not nearly so black and white.

What I am saying that human beings deserve respect as human beings, and shouldn't be treated like cannon fodder, in reality or virtually.

I complain a lot in my writers group that I read too many stories where characters - real, breathing human beings - are killed in course of the story. AND NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE.

I guess I've had too much first hand experience with people dying - people I know, or seeing dead bodies (2) in the streets of Mexico City, with people just walking by, ignoring them.

Sure, shoot as many asteroids and spaceships as you want, but it viscerally sickens me when I see human heads exploding like cantaloupes - or perhaps red grapefruits would be a better analogy. Just as much as it sickens me to see movies on YouTube of Iraqis slicing off the heads of their screaming captives. Or to see smashed and pulped faces blown off their respective heads, lying in the streets of Baghdad.

There's a coarsening of the human spirit going on here, a growing callousness of the soul. And THAT's what I'm opposed to.

[howeird]

See my comment to our friend in Denver.

I hear what you are saying, and would agree if I saw virtuality parallel with reality. I don't. To me, virtuality is a place where we can kill characters, blow people up, depict unnatural acts, etc. without hurting anyone.

The youTube terrorists are real people, their videos show extreme violence against real people. They make me angry, and they make me want to puke. Just because something is on video doesn't make it virtual, to me a least. The people you kill in the virtual world can get up and be in the next round.

[spacekatgal.livejournal.com]

Frank: "There's a coarsening of the human spirit going on here, a growing callousness of the soul. And THAT's what I'm opposed to."

I couldn't agree more strongly.

I don't mean to light off a political discussion, but there are some things I really find disturbing as part of the American ethos at the moment. We actually have a political faction that wants to legalize torture. People are being detained by our country in secret prisons without having been charged with a crime. Atrocities like Haditha happen with barely a mention in our media.

Are videogames to blame directly? Or course not. But we live in a culture with shows like 24 that regularly justify torture. Our American military makes free first-person shooters that markets military inculcation as a videogame. We are surrounded by remarkably detailed computer simulations of horrific violence - and I can't help but feel that our society sees it more and more as a cartoon and not something that steals away our humanity.

bri

[howeird]

Been thinking about this some more, and the little light went on that you are an artist, you use your hands to create images from life, so for you the line between the two must be very thin. My art is photography, capturing images with a machine, and my job for several years has been to look at pixels and spectrum analyzers, so the wall between life and images is tall, wide and thick for me.