How did so many millions of Americans get through decades of playing violent video games without killing anyone I wonder.
>>How did so many millions of Americans get through decades of playing violent video games without killing anyone I wonder.
I’ve played video games and rpg’s since they were invented and still do at age 52 so I am certainly a gamer.
The differences are:
1) in the past, kids had a real life in addition to their gaming life. They got to experience pain and consequences. Today, all children are pampered princesses and consequences are for other people.
2) they had fathers to bring them down to earth
3) they were not on mind altering drugs just for acting like boys
4) games were not so realistic
5) the culture valued life and normality. Today’s culture values deviance, so the more deviant you become, the more value you think you have especially in light of #1-3.
“How did so many millions of Americans get through decades of playing violent video games without killing anyone I wonder.”
In fact, violent crime has fallen quite a bit since the advent of violent video games. I think it works the other way, allowing release of violent impulses.
In my view, violent movies are far worse. Other than the GTA series (which is pretty antisocial I must admit), video games are quite tame compared to a lot of the themes in movies, and the movies have FAR more graphic violence.
It’s funny there’s so much angst about violent video games, and so little about violent movies.
Those games taught kids to shoot bad guys in the name of truth and justice.
Today’s games teach kids to run over cops and sleep with hookers, as in GTA.
I have always thought that targeting the violence in movies, video games and music was primarily a distraction from the issue of lack of fathers and viable male role models. Bringing this up nowadays gets you tarred as an anti woman monster faster than you can blink, and so everything else is targeted to keep us from thinking about it.
Some of those who think video games are part of the problem seem to think full contact sports and letting young boys do anything remotely considered traditional for young boys is also part of the problem and want more action taken to make them “less patriarchal”.
If you’ve seen the South Park Sarcastaball episode, you would likely know what I mean - and, as I noted, that some of the opponents of violent video seem to actually advocate for that kind of stuff.