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Violence in games.
Not an uncommon presence in today's electronic entertainment, and one that is frequently debated both for and against.
In the attempt not to go too far down the road of whether violence should be allowed in today's gaming world, I am going to first of all show brief arguments of both for and against mature videogames before I get to the real point I am trying to make here.
In one hand we have the countless teenagers blowing apart animated soldiers in their free time, trying to deal out the most painful and visually horrific deaths thinkable. We have parents targetting games for virtually every crime commited by a youngster in today's society. But then we also have the more sensible arguments that say that violent games are nothing but an effective stress-reliever, acting as a way of winding down following a hard day, rather than seeing you actually doing something violent or stupid in real life.
But something much more disturbing hit me last Friday, something that really was quite unsettling...
Being one of the most thrilling and visually impressive games made in recent times, Soldier of fortune 2 is a title that frequently is found lying at the very top of my gaming collection. Not suprising, then, that Friday nigh I was once again enjoying splattering unsuspecting guards up the side of walls, blowing heads in two and exploding body parts all over the screen. Progressing past a part I had previously got stuck on I was hooked for the night, playing for about an hour and a half, maybe more. By about 8 o'clock I stopped playing and turned on the TV, just to see if there was any more news on the war, and found myself glued to the television watching live pictures of the war itself. I was seeing some really quite exciting pictures of planes bombing Baghdad itself, and was amazed at the hammering the Allied forces were dealing out, and that's when I realised something that made me feel very uncomfortable.
I realised that I was actually being entertained by it. I found watching buildings being blown sky-high, and people with them entertaining. These were real lives, real people being killed and I was using it as a form of entertainment?!?! As were thousands of others around the country no doubt...
So, the question is why? Has the media turned war into just another piece of entertainment that they can earn money off, reducing the impact it really has on viewers? Or is it that games and films have had such an impact on us that we are used to seeing horrific events on screen, and we do not really understand the terror of it all?
I'm not saying whether the war is right or wrong, all I am saying is that next time you are blowing someone apart on a game, just bear in mind that this is really happening in other parts of the world, and real people are having to deal with it.
When you think about it, it really does seem quite frightening.
Not an uncommon presence in today's electronic entertainment, and one that is frequently debated both for and against.
In the attempt not to go too far down the road of whether violence should be allowed in today's gaming world, I am going to first of all show brief arguments of both for and against mature videogames before I get to the real point I am trying to make here.
In one hand we have the countless teenagers blowing apart animated soldiers in their free time, trying to deal out the most painful and visually horrific deaths thinkable. We have parents targetting games for virtually every crime commited by a youngster in today's society. But then we also have the more sensible arguments that say that violent games are nothing but an effective stress-reliever, acting as a way of winding down following a hard day, rather than seeing you actually doing something violent or stupid in real life.
But something much more disturbing hit me last Friday, something that really was quite unsettling...
Being one of the most thrilling and visually impressive games made in recent times, Soldier of fortune 2 is a title that frequently is found lying at the very top of my gaming collection. Not suprising, then, that Friday nigh I was once again enjoying splattering unsuspecting guards up the side of walls, blowing heads in two and exploding body parts all over the screen. Progressing past a part I had previously got stuck on I was hooked for the night, playing for about an hour and a half, maybe more. By about 8 o'clock I stopped playing and turned on the TV, just to see if there was any more news on the war, and found myself glued to the television watching live pictures of the war itself. I was seeing some really quite exciting pictures of planes bombing Baghdad itself, and was amazed at the hammering the Allied forces were dealing out, and that's when I realised something that made me feel very uncomfortable.
I realised that I was actually being entertained by it. I found watching buildings being blown sky-high, and people with them entertaining. These were real lives, real people being killed and I was using it as a form of entertainment?!?! As were thousands of others around the country no doubt...
So, the question is why? Has the media turned war into just another piece of entertainment that they can earn money off, reducing the impact it really has on viewers? Or is it that games and films have had such an impact on us that we are used to seeing horrific events on screen, and we do not really understand the terror of it all?
I'm not saying whether the war is right or wrong, all I am saying is that next time you are blowing someone apart on a game, just bear in mind that this is really happening in other parts of the world, and real people are having to deal with it.
When you think about it, it really does seem quite frightening.
BLAHpro wrote:
> He he! Nice post.
Thanks
> Vilonce rocks...
Except, of course, when it is happening in real life...
:)
> He he! Nice post.
Thanks
> Vilonce rocks...
Except, of course, when it is happening in real life...
:)
He he! Nice post.
Vilonce rocks...
Vilonce rocks...
kurt cobain wrote:
> Oh my God, I've never thought about it that way before.
Exactly.
> Oh my God, I've never thought about it that way before.
Exactly.
Oh my God, I've never thought about it that way before.
Violence in games.
Not an uncommon presence in today's electronic entertainment, and one that is frequently debated both for and against.
In the attempt not to go too far down the road of whether violence should be allowed in today's gaming world, I am going to first of all show brief arguments of both for and against mature videogames before I get to the real point I am trying to make here.
In one hand we have the countless teenagers blowing apart animated soldiers in their free time, trying to deal out the most painful and visually horrific deaths thinkable. We have parents targetting games for virtually every crime commited by a youngster in today's society. But then we also have the more sensible arguments that say that violent games are nothing but an effective stress-reliever, acting as a way of winding down following a hard day, rather than seeing you actually doing something violent or stupid in real life.
But something much more disturbing hit me last Friday, something that really was quite unsettling...
Being one of the most thrilling and visually impressive games made in recent times, Soldier of fortune 2 is a title that frequently is found lying at the very top of my gaming collection. Not suprising, then, that Friday nigh I was once again enjoying splattering unsuspecting guards up the side of walls, blowing heads in two and exploding body parts all over the screen. Progressing past a part I had previously got stuck on I was hooked for the night, playing for about an hour and a half, maybe more. By about 8 o'clock I stopped playing and turned on the TV, just to see if there was any more news on the war, and found myself glued to the television watching live pictures of the war itself. I was seeing some really quite exciting pictures of planes bombing Baghdad itself, and was amazed at the hammering the Allied forces were dealing out, and that's when I realised something that made me feel very uncomfortable.
I realised that I was actually being entertained by it. I found watching buildings being blown sky-high, and people with them entertaining. These were real lives, real people being killed and I was using it as a form of entertainment?!?! As were thousands of others around the country no doubt...
So, the question is why? Has the media turned war into just another piece of entertainment that they can earn money off, reducing the impact it really has on viewers? Or is it that games and films have had such an impact on us that we are used to seeing horrific events on screen, and we do not really understand the terror of it all?
I'm not saying whether the war is right or wrong, all I am saying is that next time you are blowing someone apart on a game, just bear in mind that this is really happening in other parts of the world, and real people are having to deal with it.
When you think about it, it really does seem quite frightening.
Not an uncommon presence in today's electronic entertainment, and one that is frequently debated both for and against.
In the attempt not to go too far down the road of whether violence should be allowed in today's gaming world, I am going to first of all show brief arguments of both for and against mature videogames before I get to the real point I am trying to make here.
In one hand we have the countless teenagers blowing apart animated soldiers in their free time, trying to deal out the most painful and visually horrific deaths thinkable. We have parents targetting games for virtually every crime commited by a youngster in today's society. But then we also have the more sensible arguments that say that violent games are nothing but an effective stress-reliever, acting as a way of winding down following a hard day, rather than seeing you actually doing something violent or stupid in real life.
But something much more disturbing hit me last Friday, something that really was quite unsettling...
Being one of the most thrilling and visually impressive games made in recent times, Soldier of fortune 2 is a title that frequently is found lying at the very top of my gaming collection. Not suprising, then, that Friday nigh I was once again enjoying splattering unsuspecting guards up the side of walls, blowing heads in two and exploding body parts all over the screen. Progressing past a part I had previously got stuck on I was hooked for the night, playing for about an hour and a half, maybe more. By about 8 o'clock I stopped playing and turned on the TV, just to see if there was any more news on the war, and found myself glued to the television watching live pictures of the war itself. I was seeing some really quite exciting pictures of planes bombing Baghdad itself, and was amazed at the hammering the Allied forces were dealing out, and that's when I realised something that made me feel very uncomfortable.
I realised that I was actually being entertained by it. I found watching buildings being blown sky-high, and people with them entertaining. These were real lives, real people being killed and I was using it as a form of entertainment?!?! As were thousands of others around the country no doubt...
So, the question is why? Has the media turned war into just another piece of entertainment that they can earn money off, reducing the impact it really has on viewers? Or is it that games and films have had such an impact on us that we are used to seeing horrific events on screen, and we do not really understand the terror of it all?
I'm not saying whether the war is right or wrong, all I am saying is that next time you are blowing someone apart on a game, just bear in mind that this is really happening in other parts of the world, and real people are having to deal with it.
When you think about it, it really does seem quite frightening.