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Author Topic: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN  (Read 6211 times)

Tinman57

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Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« on: December 21, 2012, 07:46 PM »
  And here we go again....

Video games to come under scrutiny in U.S. gun violence review

Violence in video games and other aspects of pop culture in the U.S. will be among the areas examined as part of an investigation aimed at reducing gun violence in the country.

http://www.pcworld.c...violence-review.html

TaoPhoenix

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2012, 08:29 PM »
If I had more energy I'd really add more options to my news generator spoof-nany. "____ has decided that videogames are violent."


SeraphimLabs

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2012, 12:56 AM »
I would think that violent videogames would have the opposite effect.

People can safely vent frustrations with reality into violent video games, simulating things that in reality would have deadly results without any physical harm other than possibly the medical effects of sitting in front of an electronic device for hours on end.

Plus most videogames have a feature where if you screw up you get killed. That basic rule in nearly every game serves as a constant reminder that one cannot simply do this kind of thing for real, because in reality you can't respawn if you mess up and get shot.

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2012, 01:02 AM »
Plus most videogames have a feature where if you screw up you get killed. That basic rule in nearly every game serves as a constant reminder that one cannot simply do this kind of thing for real, because in reality you can't respawn if you mess up and get shot.

Then again, not to overestimate the intelligence of some gamers, they may well think that "the game will go on", and not really contemplate the consequences of their actions. Remember, this is the same crowd where you get reports of people dying because they forgot to do things like eat, drink, and sleep.
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SeraphimLabs

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2012, 01:29 AM »
Plus most videogames have a feature where if you screw up you get killed. That basic rule in nearly every game serves as a constant reminder that one cannot simply do this kind of thing for real, because in reality you can't respawn if you mess up and get shot.

Then again, not to overestimate the intelligence of some gamers, they may well think that "the game will go on", and not really contemplate the consequences of their actions. Remember, this is the same crowd where you get reports of people dying because they forgot to do things like eat, drink, and sleep.


Yeah but such happenings are a minority among people who play videogames. There are the casuals- people who enjoy a game once and a while but don't seriously play any particular game, the weekend warriors (Like me) who will sit down with a game on a weekend or a night with a few hours free and enjoy it in depth, and the hardcore gamers who other than playing their game do nothing else that they don't absolutely have to do.

For the most part such events and related phenomena such as videogame addicts only appear in the hardcore category, as other types tend to maintain enough of an attachment to reality to not be consumed by their game for more than a session's duration at a time.

Otherwise said games would have long been deemed hazardous to one's health in more severe ways than just the risks of sitting around too much enjoying them, and would have been either regulated like smokes or outright pulled from shelves.

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2012, 01:55 AM »
Plus most videogames have a feature where if you screw up you get killed. That basic rule in nearly every game serves as a constant reminder that one cannot simply do this kind of thing for real, because in reality you can't respawn if you mess up and get shot.

Then again, not to overestimate the intelligence of some gamers, they may well think that "the game will go on", and not really contemplate the consequences of their actions. Remember, this is the same crowd where you get reports of people dying because they forgot to do things like eat, drink, and sleep.


Yeah but such happenings are a minority among people who play videogames. There are the casuals- people who enjoy a game once and a while but don't seriously play any particular game, the weekend warriors (Like me) who will sit down with a game on a weekend or a night with a few hours free and enjoy it in depth, and the hardcore gamers who other than playing their game do nothing else that they don't absolutely have to do.

For the most part such events and related phenomena such as videogame addicts only appear in the hardcore category, as other types tend to maintain enough of an attachment to reality to not be consumed by their game for more than a session's duration at a time.

Otherwise said games would have long been deemed hazardous to one's health in more severe ways than just the risks of sitting around too much enjoying them, and would have been either regulated like smokes or outright pulled from shelves.

True enough. There's always an idiot in every crowd, and there's always someone ready to accept a Darwin Award. It doesn't really matter how innocuous an activity it - somebody will find a way to make it dangerous. Kind of reminds me about the guys out drinking and proving how macho they were... One fellow used a chainsaw to lop off his foot. The next fellow, not to be outdone, decapitated himself.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

wraith808

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2012, 02:27 PM »
But we can't tailor society for those marginal people, can we?

rgdot

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2012, 03:16 PM »
The NRA laid a trap for themselves. The way the NRA guy talked was like video games are not ok but the actual physical device is ok and more of it is needed too.
Once upon a time the argument was both are dangerous and bad...

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2012, 05:11 PM »
But we can't tailor society for those marginal people, can we?

That's an exercise in futility.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

4wd

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2012, 07:29 PM »
That's an exercise in futility.

Quite right, they'll always create a better idiot.

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #10 on: December 23, 2012, 09:19 PM »
That's an exercise in futility.

Quite right, they'll always create a better idiot.

Case in point - http://www.darwinawa...n/darwin2007-13.html

Absolutely spectacular Darwin Award, and totally NSFW.

Innovation knows no bounds in the consummate idiot.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

wraith808

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #11 on: December 23, 2012, 10:11 PM »
But... that's what they're trying to do, if they try to remove everything that could possibly be harmful b/c there are idiots out there...

barney

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #12 on: December 23, 2012, 10:18 PM »
Case in point - http://www.darwinawa...n/darwin2007-13.html

Absolutely spectacular Darwin Award, and totally NSFW.

Innovation knows no bounds in the consummate idiot.

Don't think I ever drank just to get drunk ... and there's no flavour in an enema - I thimk - but maybe there's some other enticing element.  Anyway, methinks that Darwin Award was well - albeit tardily - placed.  But just the thought of the process makes me shudder  :o.

barney

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #13 on: December 23, 2012, 10:27 PM »
... if they try to remove everything that could possibly be harmful ...

Which is just about anything you can experience in the course of a normal day.  Is there anything that cannot be harmful in excess?  I knew a man who killed himself via excessive sex - fatal heart attack.  Don't feel sorry for him, but feel very sorry for his partner at that moment ... she spent several years in psychotherapy.

There are times when I could agree with the argument of preemptive Darwin Awards ... not often, but at times ...

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2012, 10:35 PM »
But... that's what they're trying to do, if they try to remove everything that could possibly be harmful b/c there are idiots out there...

To me, this represents the absolute greatest danger - the well-meaning idiot that actually believes that violently forcing/imposing their stupid ideas on others will somehow solve all the world's problems and magically protect all the other numbskulls from their own idiocy.

I'm all for offering a helping hand, but that's not what happens when some retard decides that now all FPS video games must be banned/criminalized, or insert any other dumb idea there. Any idea that must be "enforced" is probably a bad idea. I don't see banning violent video games as any kind of a solution to any problem, whether or not they do lead to violent behaviour.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

barney

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #15 on: December 23, 2012, 10:59 PM »
I don't see banning violent video games as any kind of a solution to any problem, whether or not they do lead to violent behaviour.

Mostly just drive 'em underground, but never will stop 'em as long as a market exists.  The current drug and prostitution markets make a prime example.

Renegade

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Re: Video games Under Scrutiny AGAIN
« Reply #16 on: December 23, 2012, 11:24 PM »
I don't see banning violent video games as any kind of a solution to any problem, whether or not they do lead to violent behaviour.

Mostly just drive 'em underground, but never will stop 'em as long as a market exists.  The current drug and prostitution markets make a prime example.

Exactly. Outlawing non-violent, consensual behaviour is counter-productive. Prohibition didn't work out, and the war on drugs is a failure of epic proportions.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker