Friends of CwG Discussion Board

I have been thinking a lot about this topic of violence in gaming. I was just reading the Wikipedia article for Doom, and apparently someone who went on a killing spree said it will be just "like fu**ing doom!" and the shotgun was "straight from the game" or something along those lines. It is a bit of a worry.

Personally, although playing a very violent game for too long makes me physically ill (If it's a game where you have to kill monsters, I turn the violence level off if there's an option), to me, at least in Doom you're fighting against monsters and demons, it's not a killing spree of innocent people. Even so, I do think they should invent more games that are less about blowing things up and more about doing nice things for others, but find a way to make it fun.

Anyway, rather then just offering an opinion on the matter, I would suggest one check out this research;

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16099971/ns ... nce-games/

Why not create a G version of Doom? Rather then a marine, you're a Care Bear firing hearts at the monsters and rather then killing them, turning them into little bears and puppies.

Hmmm, I have one philosophical question about all this that I cannot answer...

Remember those school kids that murdered many of their classmates, claiming that it would be "just like f*king doom! the shotgun came straight from the game!" ? People have said that this sort of behavior was something they would have done anyway, and dispute the claim the game pushed them over the edge. But to me, it makes sense, that if you expose most of society to a high level of violence, this will encourage more people to behave violently.

Then again, I am concerned that if people were to say that violent games should be banned because of such a thing, although might be good in the short term, in the long term, I feel such a move would ignore the bigger picture; some people for instance, myself included, like exploring the darker sides of their personalities in fiction where it's not appropriate to do so in life. I mean, if this school kids attacked with a bomb instead, and said "it will be the biggest explosion since the Big Bang!!" I don't think any sane person could argue that this would discredit the Big Bang theory of the universe at all.

I have thought much of this topic, and as much as I have desperately tried to find a "right" way to go forward on this issue, it's simply too complex, there are too many variables-it really depends on the situation. If for instance, there is a child that already has violent tendencies and is quite willing to bash others up to get his or her way, then no, I don't think going crazy with a violent computer game is a good idea. If however, if the person is someone who is really quite a shy, introverted person, that would respond to someone trying to rip them off or whatever, then I would see more of that masculine energy, that usually comes in most violent games, as beneficial, as this is the sort of person that needs to stand up for themselves more, perhaps. I guess it's all about balance, it depends on the person and it would be up to a parent to determine whether they feel their child is mature enough or not to make up their own mind on these matters. That said though, there are a few more things, that are helping me to come to my own conclusions about this...

Generally speaking, most Western societies I know of, assume that a child the teen years does not yet have the ability to tell the complete difference between right, wrong, the consequences of their actions, etc. People emulate one another so much...I try not to copy others, but when I consider the fact that every single word I am writing right now has a certain meaning the other humans have told me each word means, I think it's quite reasonable to assume that a younger human being is much more likely to copy whatever they see in comparison to an adult, as children don't yet enough have intelligence to form original ideas...or rather, ideas on your own, when you consider the fact that at this point, there are very few things that can be thought of that someone else hasn't thought of or said, just a consequence of having seven billion people in the world (I can think of countless things I have thought up all on my own, but then had someone else tell me I got the idea from such and such a source, which was purely coincidentally). This is all very relevant, because children unfortunately, aren't taught to think critically and for themselves at an early age in many places, but rather are fed like sponges, so if you leave a four year old at home, watching nothing other then murder and mayhem and they kill the cat or whatever, then essentially, I would say the parent has manslaughtered their pet. To me, that's very obvious that a young child see such violence will act upon that violence in the waking world.

Remember, I do NOT condemn violent material at all, there's another side to it, that obviously if you had someone from age 1-100 watching nothing other then Care Bears, although this person might turn out a very nice person, I wonder how Elmo would do in a mine, or on the phone trying to sell a holiday like I do. The balance has to be right...me? I will watch anything from Care Bears, to playing Doom, the balance is absolutely everything for me.