Adrenelin jag?

Violence grabs people's attention. It is the sound bite that makes them keep listening. We drive by lots of cars each day, remember very few, but the one rolled on its roof, we slow down and allow make and model to sink in. I am not saying it is a good thing. It is a marketing thing. Like barely dressed women in car ads, it helps sell the product. The juicy sound bite often determines if people will stay up and watch the 11 o'clock news. Video games that are flashier and bloodier sell better. It is graphics. Like horro movies got bloodier and bloodier, it is not about script and dialogue or acting, it is about special effects. All marketing. We apparently have always been this way.

There's an old idea from news "If it bleeds, it leads."

There's something about violence which sinks into us, which effects us. I'm not sure what it is.

MikePaterson asked: "What do we "like" so much about simulated violence?"

EZ Answer: With the PS2 I know it is simulated. In the WonderCafe forum it can be real.

I have a PS2 and just got the Wii and I have many violent games. I just like games where you fight people, whether by sword fighting, shooting, or by controling an army, I just love it. The feeling of defeating a challenging opponent is so good. I would never perform the violent acts I do in videogames in real life though because in the game the people are insignificant polygenal sprites with programmed intelligence. In real life, a person you kill has a family and friends and the law is out to get you. It's totally different. Killing in games is for fun. Killing in real life is a no no.

Studies have shown that kids who play violent video games are more violent in real life than kids who do not play violent video games. All the people who play violent video do not go out and commit murder but if your child was murdered by a person who played violent video games than you would want them banned too. Personally, I think video games are a little useless. They do not make kids smarter like reading. They eat up a lot of time that the children could spend practising their instrument or exercising, or playing sports. Not only do these things make you smarter, keep you healthier, teach social skills, they raise self esteem.

But if we ban violent video games and movies,etc... becase someone with no "moral checks and balances" kills or attacks someone, aren't we placing social blame and responsibility on the game and the production company rather then family, parents, community, schools, etc... which completly and utterly failed in raising and forming a well balanced and morally astute child?

I enjoy playing video games, violent and non-violent ones. It's fun to splatter an opponent all over a wall in UT2004 but that doesn't mean that I ever have an urge to do the same in my daily life, for a whole slew of reasons.

I'm not trying to downplay the saddness and the fear such an occurence creates but I am saying that we are so quick to point the finger in any direction that is opposite ours and send the blame that way.

Violent video games are evidence of an attraction to gore, adrenaline, curiosity, whatever that was already there. Without the video games, there will always be the kids who pull legs off spiders, fray ants with a magnifying glass, chase birds.

Maybe that's not as gory, but it's crueler because those are real living things. And yet almost everyone has done those things.

Sure the games waste time. But they shouldn't be banned because of that. Lots of fun things "waste" time.

Also, anything can be proven with statistics. There are just as many studies that show that video games don't make people more violent to others.

Anyway, moveies, games; I don't think it really connects that violent things are happening to people. So, I don't think it would cause them to be more likely to do violent things to real living things.

One last thing: There are always murderers who played violent video games a lot. But it doesn't mean it caused them to be more violent. Or that they played them because they enjoyed that they were violent.

Great question, Mike.

I'm wondering if there have been any studies on this...I'm sure that there have been some.

I'll follow up with a question. Is the violence that we are exposed to now in our media and entertainment any different than, say, the violent spectacles that folks flocked to in earlier times.

I guess I'm trying to understand whether we have become more voracious consumers of violence, or have we just found ways to feed the craving?

Hmmm...

Why did the Romans enjoy their gladitorial fights? Why did the Greeks create the games, which in their beginning were pretty bloody? Why did war with swords, spears and shields hold such an appeal? Even the idea of being given a "beautiful death" by dying in these ways was sought after. It seems to me that people have always "thirsted for blood" in a way. As for why, well, you've got me there.

a long time ago, I read a book - I think by Lewis Mumford - on the Roman taste for violence in their "games".

His theory was that the Romans were useless (they no longer served in the military or did any other sort of service, and simply lived off the empire). And they knew they were useless, and they felt a contempt for themselves, rather as though they deserved to be punished for what worthless wretches they were.

That punishment which they deserved they symbolically inflicted on the gladiators and others who died in their games.

There's a little too much psychology in there for me to feel comfortable with it. But i think there's a germ of truth in there.

The people who like to inflict punishment, the bullies, are often those who aren't worth much of anything themselves. The same can be said of those who follow extreme sports like cage fighting.

At Grand prix time, Montreal is flooded with those from a wealthier set. but the Montreal reference to them as Eurotrash is a pretty vivid one. Many are there to see a crash because they don't understand enough to enjoy anything else. You can get much the same with stock car racing.

A rise in the taste for that sort of second hand violence my be telling us something very unpleasant about our society and about the images so many of our people have of themselves.

graeme