Are violent video games damaging to society?

[Daft]

Are you saying it's wrong that your character doesn't know what name his enemy is?

 

Because unless every person in every war we've had knew each name and rank of the person s/he was shooting at, I fail to see what your point is.

 

No, I'm saying it dehumanises the enemy. War needs an 'otherness'. Whether it is wrong or right in the real world is neither here nor there because this is a game (they obviously aren't the same thing so it's just incredibly silly to make that direct a comparison), a piece of role play. My point is that the people in the airport are inhuman and thus are more similar to the enemy than any of your team mates who you'd probably be more attached to.

 

I'd go into it more but I need sleep so I'm going to have to leave you with just that.

 

Daft; I dislike your need to cling to a more reknowned critic to make your point, and I don't think that point particularly backs up what you're trying to say about dehumanisation and the absurd (maybe an element of the absurd :P)

 

Sorry for the unasked crit.

 

My centicles; on Dead Space I was stamping on the bodies of dead people in order to get a dismemberment achievement. I thought it was funny at first, then it started making me feel a little disturbed. But once you go full-blown disturbed then it's alright, because you're laughing like a maniac with a key to the straightjacket.

 

EDIT: tbf daft, you did say snippet. Sorry again!

 

It's from a much longer review which originally was going to be much much shorter. I only quoted Brooker because I usually agree with him but this time I didn't. My point was that I don't agree that it's horrifying because, simply put, the level is not well thought out enough.

 

Unless you're talking about the Yahtzee quote, in which case, I just like that quote and it conveys problems that a lot of gamers decide to shrug off.

 

I've never played Dead Space but from the sounds of it that activity lasted longer than the five minutes 'No Russian' took. 'No Russian' is a unique mission in the game and should really have much more impact than something that you would get used to if it were available thought the game (for example, killing people in general. No one bats an eyelid).

 

I want to explain this better but, if I'm honest, I cannot be bothered right now. If I were up for it I'd source stuff, ethnographies and the like. I really shouldn't have posted in the first place. Sorry.

Edited November 19, 2009 by Daft
Automerged Doublepost

[Dan_Dare]

Personally I disagree about No Russian. I found it quite unpleasant, taken in isolation. I think it's faintly absurd in the context of the plot (and criminally under used, more to the point of my ire) but as a stand alone scene it's pretty grim.

 

we don't agree on much though

 

anyway, substantial re-write hit tonight. The article is a different beast and has left my hands by future-post. Thanks to all for the input.

[Chris the great]

My centicles; on Dead Space I was stamping on the bodies of dead people in order to get a dismemberment achievement. I thought it was funny at first, then it started making me feel a little disturbed. But once you go full-blown disturbed then it's alright, because you're laughing like a maniac with a key to the straightjacket.

 

EDIT: tbf daft, you did say snippet. Sorry again!

 

i was stamping on them, but for anouther reason, the horrible bats that turn them into necromorphs. it was a little bit sick, and id have hated any one watching me, but it was tactial, and i reasoned they were dead, so who cares.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

RE: Eyesight.

 

You should invest in some clear, contrast lensed glasses (similar to cyclists) to avoid messing up your eyes. They're like £10 and go a long way at protecting your eyes from tv/computer screens... it is necessary unless you enjoy the prospects of having 3/4 of your pupils covered in later life.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BOLLE-SOLIS-CONTRAST-SAFETY-CYCLING-GLASSES_W0QQitemZ110148912192QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_BOI_ProtectiveGear_RL?hash=item19a5630440

[BlueStar]

The Fox News outrage at CoD:MW2 is hillarious. "You can play as terrorists and kill civillians!" Look, people have played games involving conflict for decades. The classic conflict is between good and evil, and if you're going to play it as a competitive game then you need someone to be the bad guys. The people moaning about this probably played Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Japs and Commandos when they were kids. If they were on the team of the robbers or the "Japs" did that mean they were condoning criminals or Nazi sympathisers? Same with WWII board games or Civil War re-enactments, someone has to be the Nazis or the Confederates.

 

And then "But the terrorists kill civillians!" - how would you like terrorists to be portrayed? like the A-Team, where they pepper an airport with automatic weaponry, amazingly leaving anyone who's not in a military uniform untouched because they care about collateral damage?