1 day ago
The Gaming Stigma
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
So I finally ran out of excuses to not update my blog... Plus studying seemed less inviting than this... so here I am! How's everyone been? :)
So anyway, after extensive research... here's the answer to all your problems... If you're in *really* deep shit, one sure fire way to get out of it is to say you play video games... Then no matter what you've done (murder, drugs, rape... really... WHATEVER), it's a video game that's to blame.
It's just utterly fucking pissing off that you actually have the nerve to blame a video game when something goes wrong. Once you blame it, how about suing left right and center? Take this article for example (I know it's a bit old, but it's one of the best examples of what I'm trying to explain). I understand the grief of the matter, but how does it even make sense to sue Sony for the tragedy? Sony, for chrissakes...
"There are police at every turn, and endless opportunities to take them down"
Um, NO... Play the fucking game before you talk as though you know it! True, there are police at every turn, but you go around 'taking them down' and you're game is going to be pretty screwed, pretty fast... If GTA's taught me anything... It's to not screw around with the cops...
I say again, I do understand what happened, and the gravity of the situation. I am in no way deadened to it, and I know what "three people dead" means, and it was horrible, no doubt, but blaming something else is not the answer. That's like saying violent movies inspire you to kill people everywhere. And you know what? That WAS the theory for a really long time, until video games came along, and people had new excuses.
How about this?
"Detectives said the game provoked a street gang accused of robbing and killing six people"COME ON!! Notice how it said "Street Gang"? Hey, Let's play some GTA and then go out and kill people... because the game wants us to do that, and we're teenagers... we obviously don't know any better...
The game itself is much like any other game. The GTA Title has existed for a very long time, and I used to be an avid player of GTAII (no less violent, just less 3D). The fact that they're linking murders to games means there's something so inherently wrong with us... How far is the blame going to go till it comes back to who it really belongs to in the first place. Us. And the Sopranos were obviously so fucking angelic were they? Even won tons of awards for their absolute "Old lady love" factor... The game itself is highly mission oriented and goal driven, so really it's not a game based solely on mindless violence. Mindless violence will kill you... In the game, and in real life... and they got that down pat.
There's virtually no difference between the real world and violent games today... Killing people? Happens Everyday... Stealing Cars? Insurance companies for what? And the real world came first. So it's more a case of Virtual violence inspired by real violence. Stop looking at me like I'm too stupid to know the difference between real and imagined violence, and don't look at me like I don't understand cause and effect.... consequences...
I really wish people would think (i.e. touch a game, even Pokemon) before they start talking. And I wish they would stop acting so enlightened about everything. They really aren't. There are still millions of kids with "risk factors" that play GTA4 and go through each day making it a point to not kill people... There is no room for mindless mowing down of people, and the reason GTA is so popular is because its a simulator.. Not a murder simulator, but a real life simulator. I used to love Midtown Madness because of the choice of mission oriented driving, or just plain cruising. GTA lets me do what I want... I can drive a taxi if I want to and earn money for every fare... It's the freedom to do whatever I want, and no other game has that...
Games don't kill people... Ideas kill people... People kill people... And to highlight that, I take one of my favorite quotes, from an article I read somewhere
"You wake up one morning and you're fat. What do you do? You sue McDonalds. Hell, it must be someone else's fault. You're not to blame."
Quote from CtrlAltDel (If you do decide to begin reading, read it from the beginning!)
"So let's play a game, let's find tons of things that are wrong with the world, and blame them on video games... And you get extra points if you can blame World War II on games"
Tackle some real fucking problems will you? I'm sure you'll find some if you pull your head out of your ass.
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It's a coincidence that you should write this. I am doing research on ethics, and the paper I am reading right now describes responsibility of manufacturers for any problems caused due to their product. I had a discussion with my prof today morning where I said it should be the user's responsibility. Maybe when I study more I ll be able to understand the other point of view as well, but for now, You are right dude!
spot on. :) this reminds me of an old case here in the philippines where a little boy shot his yaya (nursemaid) because she wouldn't switch the channel to his favorite tv show. all the concerned parents and media people upped and blamed the whole thing on violent tv shows and movies, but no one wondered why the boy had easy access to his father's gun... apparently he knew exactly where to find it. if i remember correctly, the gun was already loaded when he got it.
there's an old article from penny-arcade that deals with this issue. you might want to read it. :) it's the article entitled a rare opportunity, by gabe, the second article on the page. what's interesting about the article is that it contains a letter from a parent about how her kid blamed his crime on a video game; that doesn't happen often, now does it.
@quarterpastseven: It is our/the users's responsibility. If you make it the manufacturers responsibility, then you're suppressing creativity and free will, and that's media censoring... It won't ever end after that... Sort of like pornography... they're all in it for the money, whether you're hooked to it or not is entirely your choice...
@tina: thank you :) and an excellent point. And thanks for giving me the link, it was heart wrenching to read that article. It must have been torture for the poor mother to even bring the whole thing up again...
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Bharat. You're completely right. I think people really don't take enough blame for their own actions. LIke that McDonalds thing is a perfect example. Obviously everyone with a brain knows that if you get 'fat' its cause of you're own choices in lifestyle, but people want any excuse but to blame themselves cause they can't believe that they would have anything to do with their unhappiness or whatever.
Back in high-school in a Law class, I read an article about these two kids in the States who went to a mall and kid napped a toddler and tortured him. The two kids who kidnapped where like from 7-10 i think. I can't clearly remember..but in any case, they blamed it on watching the movie Chucky. Now I get their younger so the situation is a bit different..but instead of blaming the guardians on how the kids were raised, they blamed the movie...
Weird how it all works.
People just don't want to take responsibility. That's why we have stupid things in this world like warning:HOT labels on coffee cups and and stickers not to drink drain cleaner. People don't want to take the responsibility for their own stupidity. Even if we rate a game mature, parents will buy it for their kids. I saw a dad buying GTA for his kid one day, couldn't have been more than 10 years old, but the kid wanted it so he got it. Parents really need to pay attention to their offspring and most of these problems would be solved. Instead, parents buy games and stuff for their kids to stop their whining. They just want them to shut up and not bother them, so why not get them the game they've been wanting for months? As long as mommy can gossip with her friends and sit on her porch and not be bothered...
@againstthegrain: yes definitely weird... tomorrow it's going to be virtual reality or even "humanity and kindness" that's the principal reason for all the problems in the world...
@arielle: I sense a lot of pent up anger from you on this subject... maybe the parent knew exactly what he was doing? I don't know... Sometimes I just think we're never going to really tackle the problem...
I've been giving this argument back in high school. It's ridiculous to blame violent games, movies, or even stories for people's actions.