Violent video games and movies

[Johnny C]

I find it ironic how the same folks who think that violent video games and movies don’t affect the minds of the masses decry how the leftist media is turning the masses into mindless sheeple.
If the games and movies don’t affect folks, then the news doesn’t either!
If TV etc. didn’t sway the thinking of folks, the broadcasters wouldn’t have commercials! And nobody would pay millions for a 20 second add on the super bowl. Manufacturers spend millions trying to figure out how to sway folks to their products through ads of various kinds.
Sure, kids are more susceptible to programming than most adults, especially when subjected to years of it while their little minds and opinions are being formed, but being bombarded by violence, sex and various forms of propaganda is sure to twist anyone’s view of reality.
I am not saying that if your average person plays a violent video game or watches a movie they are going to become a murderer, I am just saying that denying any affect whatsoever is ignorant.

Johnny C

 

[Double T]

I'll bite.

I am one of the people who play violent video games, and watch violent movies...and guess what. I am unaffected mentally.

The difference is that I know that the games I am playing are not real, and that the news media is supposed to report the news without an agenda and without bias.

If I watch the news for 6 hours, I guarantee I will be depressed. If I play Gears of War for 6 hours, chainsawing people into bloody little stumps and shotgunning them into oblivion...I think the most that I will be is hungry.

You are comparing apples and oranges, and the two types of media are so vastly different that any relation between them is negligable.

I am willingly playing one, the other is being "forced" upon me by someone in an office chair.

 

[HavokCycle]

I'll bite.

I am one of the people who play violent video games, and watch violent movies...and guess what. I am unaffected mentally.

The difference is that I know that the games I am playing are not real, and that the news media is supposed to report the news without an agenda and without bias.

If I watch the news for 6 hours, I guarantee I will be depressed. If I play Gears of War for 6 hours, chainsawing people into bloody little stumps and shotgunning them into oblivion...I think the most that I will be is hungry.

You are comparing apples and oranges, and the two types of media are so vastly different that any relation between them is negligable.



I am willingly playing one, the other is being "forced" upon me by someone in an office chair.

i think the difference could be maturity. those games are rated you know, but how many people know 12 year old kids that play call of duty and such.

now, admittedly i played Doom and such when i was that age. however i was also raised with traditional conservative values, and i was put to work on the farm as soon as i could reach the tractor pedal. hell even before that.

however, there is a HUGE difference in games today. when i was young, the worst you saw was ugly pixelated dead nazis, or demons. big detachment from say, photo-realistic carnage of Russians on a murderous rampage on civilians (Modern Warfare 2). for those that are unfamiliar, you take on the role of a terrorist, march into an airport, and proceed to mow down civvies by the bucket full. no one shooting back at you whatsoever. defenseless. YOU MURDER HUNDREDS of innocent civvies. murder is being glorified.

theres no formula to the broad issue of social violence, but media definitely plays a factor. kids are impressionable and generally stupid. i jumped off our deck with an umbrella when i was like 5 FFS.

so, couple young exposure to violent imagery with liberal upbringing (IE you are special no matter how much you suck, youre entitled to everything, etc) and I think you start to see the problem forming.

does that mean they need to be banned? no, certainly not. however, as said a measure of personal responsibility needs to be levied onto the parent. it says right there on the damn box : mature audiences, contains graphic violence, sexual content, nudity, etc. SAYS RIGHT THERE.

 

[Double T]

i think the difference could be maturity. those games are rated you know, but how many people know 12 year old kids that play call of duty and such.

now, admittedly i played Doom and such when i was that age. however i was also raised with traditional conservative values, and i was put to work on the farm as soon as i could reach the tractor pedal. hell even before that.

however, there is a HUGE difference in games today. when i was young, the worst you saw was ugly pixelated dead nazis, or demons. big detachment from say, photo-realistic carnage of Russians on a murderous rampage on civilians (Modern Warfare 2). for those that are unfamiliar, you take on the role of a terrorist, march into an airport, and proceed to mow down civvies by the bucket full. no one shooting back at you whatsoever. defenseless. YOU MURDER HUNDREDS of innocent civvies. murder is being glorified.

theres no formula to the broad issue of social violence, but media definitely plays a factor. kids are impressionable and generally stupid. i jumped off our deck with an umbrella when i was like 5 FFS.

so, couple young exposure to violent imagery with liberal upbringing (IE you are special no matter how much you suck, youre entitled to everything, etc) and I think you start to see the problem forming.

does that mean they need to be banned? no, certainly not. however, as said a measure of personal responsibility needs to be levied onto the parent. it says right there on the damn box : mature audiences, contains graphic violence, sexual content, nudity, etc. SAYS RIGHT THERE.

So what you're saying is that it all boils down to parent/individual responsibility

 

[HavokCycle]

So what you're saying is that it all boils down to parent/individual responsibility

consider, we have laws against underage smoking, underage drinking, and sexual age of consent, underage driving. these are things that are ILLEGAL for persons of a certain age to engage in.
hell at twelve i could drive a semi better than most tools can drive their sedan.
regularly, we hear stories of parents who give their kids booze, smokes, and throw orgies for them, and THEY (the parents) are the ones that wind up in the can, and rightly so.

to my knowledge it is not illegal for a parent to exposure their child to any sort of objectionable media. while i'm not a fan of some legislation telling me what i can or cannot expose a child to, it seems to be a double standard. harming their bodies or facilitating it is undeniably a no-no, however absolutely distorting their soft impressionable minds is fair game?

i'm all for personal responsibility over legislation that takes my responsibility from me. after all, if liberals mandated that you can't expose a child to religion, firearms, etc, conservatives would be in an uproar.

HOWEVER, there's another side to that, in that its very obvious that taking responsibility for oneself and taking responsibility of your offspring is a dying sentimentality.

perhaps the people who hold influence should be more severely punished than the influenced? your kid screws up, you get it twice as much? not feasible tho, and then some people are just bat**** psycho from the womb.

no simple answer, but the hard honest truth is - the media DOES NOT help.

 

[sepe]

i think the difference could be maturity. those games are rated you know, but how many people know 12 year old kids that play call of duty and such.

now, admittedly i played Doom and such when i was that age. however i was also raised with traditional conservative values, and i was put to work on the farm as soon as i could reach the tractor pedal. hell even before that.

however, there is a HUGE difference in games today. when i was young, the worst you saw was ugly pixelated dead nazis, or demons. big detachment from say, photo-realistic carnage of Russians on a murderous rampage on civilians (Modern Warfare 2). for those that are unfamiliar, you take on the role of a terrorist, march into an airport, and proceed to mow down civvies by the bucket full. no one shooting back at you whatsoever. defenseless. YOU MURDER HUNDREDS of innocent civvies. murder is being glorified.

theres no formula to the broad issue of social violence, but media definitely plays a factor. kids are impressionable and generally stupid. i jumped off our deck with an umbrella when i was like 5 FFS.

so, couple young exposure to violent imagery with liberal upbringing (IE you are special no matter how much you suck, youre entitled to everything, etc) and I think you start to see the problem forming.

does that mean they need to be banned? no, certainly not. however, as said a measure of personal responsibility needs to be levied onto the parent. it says right there on the damn box : mature audiences, contains graphic violence, sexual content, nudity, etc. SAYS RIGHT THERE.

Yeah, those games have ratings on them. The kids can't go out and buy them. Parents letting an xbox or a TV raise their children is the problem, not some form of entertainment.

If anything there should be mandatory IQ and psychological testing as well as parenting classes before people are allowed to start popping out kids. If people have little intention of being the main influence/mentor/guide for their children, they shouldn't have them.

 

[Double T]

I actually think the opposite. I think the .gov should butt the hell out of people's personal lives. It's up to me to decide whether my child should smoke, or drink, or do anything as they are my responsibility until they are 18.

You want to look at the downfall of our american civilization, it's when the Gov started being everyone's "parent".

As for the OP, games don't effect people in the same means because the news is based in reality; whereas video games can simulate reality, they still aren't real.

I think this is like the 10th one of these BS posts I've commented on of late. If you don't like games, great. I play games and own guns, and I didn't kill anyone yesterday or today...and probably won't tomorrow.

 

[HavokCycle]

I actually think the opposite. I think the .gov should butt the hell out of people's personal lives. It's up to me to decide whether my child should smoke, or drink, or do anything as they are my responsibility until they are 18.

You want to look at the downfall of our american civilization, it's when the Gov started being everyone's "parent".

As for the OP, games don't effect people in the same means because the news is based in reality; whereas video games can simulate reality, they still aren't real.

I think this is like the 10th one of these BS posts I've commented on of late. If you don't like games, great. I play games and own guns, and I didn't kill anyone yesterday or today...and probably won't tomorrow.

oh yeah, dont get me wrong. like i said more legislation is not the problem. the problem is a matter of personal responsibility. its really no wonder were headed for socialism, personal responsibility is and has been on a decline for a couple generations now. i escaped that by being raised by farmers but others my age, not so much.

If anything there should be mandatory IQ and psychological testing as well as parenting classes before people are allowed to start popping out kids. If people have little intention of being the main influence/mentor/guide for their children, they shouldn't have them.

personally, im a fan of this as well, but in reality itd be fascism. business training trends me toward fascist thinking by the nature of it. sure, for the greater good its a fine idea, but this country wasnt built on -the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few-
i dont want that for myself or for any others around me. im 100% for personal liberty, i just am unwilling to sacrifice my liberty for yours. again, comes back on personal responsibility. you cant afford another kid? well STOP ****ING

 

[Kutnupe14]

If anything there should be mandatory IQ and psychological testing as well as parenting classes before people are allowed to start popping out kids. If people have little intention of being the main influence/mentor/guide for their children, they shouldn't have them.

Knowing how you traditionally post, I'd wager this speaks more of your frustration rather than actual belief. IQ isn't equal to how smart you are, and it certainly doesn't account for those persons who are willing to do hard work to succeed. In other words, a person with an IQ of 130, could just as easily be a deadbeat as a person with an IQ of 95

 

[RockofStrength]

The media can be said to manipulate by distraction (Honey Boo Boo style) and information manipulation (CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS). Video games, setting aside ones with political slants/messages, fall largely into the former category. They distract from reality. They are escapes no different from books or fairy tales.

Furthermore, every discussion of those violent video games utterly forgets their potential value to a child. I was raised on many a game of Age of Empires as a child, and rather than becoming an army raising megalomaniac I developed a strong interest in the history I had "lived" which goes strong to this day. How often is that considered?

 

[level.eleven]

There is a strong voice against the coverage of these of tragic events. The fear of idolizing and copy-cat crime is real. Showing a picture of the perpetrator for instance. Along those same lines, I think it is negligent to dismiss violent video games and movies as a contributor. Either art effects a man, or it doesn't. I don't think that anyone would argue that art doesn't effect the mind of man, more importantly, developing brains and psyche or those that may lack the capacity to make rational decisions.

As an aside, video games have surpassed Hollywood with regards to revenue generated and individual views. The most popular titles are a series of combat games.

 

[arthrimus]

It can't be denied that as video games have gotten more brutal and more realistic, violent crime and murder rates have steadily declined. I'm not suggesting a direct correlation, but at the very least the possibility that video games have no real effect on the youth must be considered. If it was such a bad thing, you'd think it would show up in some statistics.

 

[SOCOM242]

The "No Russian" level of CoD: MW2 took me completely by surprise. I was literally sick to my stomach.

I'm also 38 years old and have played pretty much every game under the sun all the way back to "Commando Libya" on the Commodore 64C.

Violent video games, violent music, violent movies, and violent news stories DO affect people IMHO, whether they know it or not (or believe it or not). It boils down to a person staying away from things they know will adversely affect them (aka personal responsibility, or in the case of kids, parental responsibility).

 

[Denny347]

The "No Russian" level of CoD: MW2 took me completely by surprise. I was literally sick to my stomach.

I'm also 38 years old and have played pretty much every game under the sun all the way back to "Commando Libya" on the Commodore 64C.

Violent video games, violent music, violent movies, and violent news stories DO affect people IMHO, whether they know it or not (or believe it or not). It boils down to a person staying away from things they know will adversely affect them (aka personal responsibility, or in the case of kids, parental responsibility).

Hmmm, you suggest that violent forms of media CAUSE us to become violent? I propose that the inverse is true. Media produces what will sell, what we want. Violence sells, violent video games, movies, music, etc is a RESULT of our violent society...not the cause. Oh, BTW, I play Black Ops 2 quite a lot and I find it a nice release. It's what I see at work (real life) that affects me the most.

 

[SOCOM242]

Hmmm, you suggest that violent forms of media CAUSE us to become violent? I propose that the inverse is true. Media produces what will sell, what we want. Violence sells, violent video games, movies, music, etc is a RESULT of our violent society...not the cause. Oh, BTW, I play Black Ops 2 quite a lot and I find it a nice release. It's what I see at work (real life) that affects me the most.

War/military games (MoH, CoD, etc.) that have me fighting/killing other combatants is one thing, but killing innocent civilians en masse (a la "No Russian") was on a whole other level. I didn't like it one bit.

Do I think violent media makes us violent? I know in my own life that violent music (industrial, anti-God, and/or self-hating music) made me feel violent. Thankfully that phase of my life is long over. However, I for one am wise enough to know (and admit) that sometimes a violent movie or video game does affect my emotions and frame of mind. Heck, I was so amped and ready to kick some a$$ after watching "Zero Dark Thirty" it's probably a good thing no one bumped into me on the way out.

 

[RockofStrength]

War/military games (MoH, CoD, etc.) that have me fighting/killing other combatants is one thing, but killing innocent civilians en masse (a la "No Russian") was on a whole other level. I didn't like it one bit.

Do I think violent media makes us violent? I know in my own life that violent music (industrial, anti-God, and/or self-hating music) made me feel violent. Thankfully that phase of my life is long over. However, I for one am wise enough to know (and admit) that sometimes a violent movie or video game does affect my emotions and frame of mind. Heck, I was so amped and ready to kick some a$$ after watching "Zero Dark Thirty" it's probably a good thing no one bumped into me on the way out.

People keep mentioning this level like you were supposed to gleefully mow down civilians. The whole point was that you were supposed to feel sickened: the entire rest of the game is hunting down and taking out the people who did that. You don't have to fire a single shot to win that level: it's a roleplaying level in the game, do what you want with it.

 

[Shadow8088]

I wrote a paper on this last year for college... I'm not going to bore you with statistics...

a RESPONSIBLE parent reads and follows the ESRB rating on the box. the games you're playing and using as a reference are at the very least marked M - Mature... for 17year olds and up. Yet while standing in a Game Stop a while back I watched a store employee suggest Call of Duty:Black Ops for a kid that probably wasn't older than 6.. and the father, ignoring the Mature rating on the box, bought it for him..

Whats that? you took your 7 year old to see Paranormal Activity? Enjoy the nightmares.

Do I think that a video game or a movie is going to turn a kid into a killer? Nope, I think the opposite, do I think that mowing down civilians in an airport is okay for a 10 year old to watch, let alone do through a video game? Oh hell no... The ratings are there for a reason, and people need to pay attention to them.

 

[Denny347]

War/military games (MoH, CoD, etc.) that have me fighting/killing other combatants is one thing, but killing innocent civilians en masse (a la "No Russian") was on a whole other level. I didn't like it one bit.

Do I think violent media makes us violent? I know in my own life that violent music (industrial, anti-God, and/or self-hating music) made me feel violent. Thankfully that phase of my life is long over. However, I for one am wise enough to know (and admit) that sometimes a violent movie or video game does affect my emotions and frame of mind. Heck, I was so amped and ready to kick some a$$ after watching "Zero Dark Thirty" it's probably a good thing no one bumped into me on the way out.

Hmmm, I had a time in my youth that I was into "dark" music. But it was my attitude at the time that attracted me to it. I found a connection to it. So I would assume by your post that you NO violent thoughts prior to listening to the music? That you starting listening to music that you had NO connection to and continued to do so until you became violent? You truly wanted to go kick some arse after watching a movie? That is not a typical reaction. Hate to break it too you but "violence" is still in you. Probably has always been there.

 

[Faine]

Everything

Everything we do, we see, we say, we feel, we think, everything effects us. The question at hand is if the playing of video games and/or watching of movies where violence is displayed creates or increases a persons propensity for that self-same violence in real life. Many factors would need to be taken into consideration when addressing this and I don't know that it can be done at all as correlation and causation are not necessarily bed fellows.

In every human there lies the propensity to do violent or evil things. You can say that you would never but the reality is that you could. What would cause those violent things to come out in you? The most simple answer is emotional trauma. There are of course other things like the slow build up of stress without a release, mind altering substances that change the mechanics of your thought processes, and a few other things, but I'm not going into a catch-all here. Let's stick to emotional trauma. So, you come home early from work and walk in on your spouse actively cheating on you. You lose your grip emotionally and act out. What you act out will be by and large determined by a few factors. Have you dealt with this before? You might very well do what you did the first time or you might be so averse to the first time you lose even more of your grip on reality. Or perhaps it's not happened to you. Have you read a book about this? Have you watched a movie or played a video game? Those ideas will be recalled by your brain and influence your thoughts and actions, note there I said influence, not determine or cause. That is a very important distinction.

As everything impacts us in some way, everything can be recalled when the brain sends messages out on how to cope with this issue. Now, most situations that are popular in media involve a spouse harming people in this situation, so that will be there influencing your decision. You may have an strong aversion to violence however and only end up yelling, or you may abhor violence and just walk away. Understand I'm not talking about rational decision making I'm talking about emotional decision making. Emotions cause one to fall back on their most primal training, flight or fight, if you train yourself not to act so basically you can make more comprehensive decisions. It's the same with firearms training, in a self defense course you're training yourself to protect you and/or family where your initial reaction will be to fight or flee, you are training.

Watching movies, reading books, and playing video games is training. It conditions your mind to react in certain ways. When emotional your mind falls back to these conditions and you take action, that action is not determined by your training but it is influenced by it. This is why it's important to understand the impact of games, books, and movies on children. You're conditioning them at such a young age that they will react in a way that may be contrary to what you expect.

Does this effect rational thought and decisions? I happen to think it has little effect on decisions made without emotional impact. That's why people who are trained to remain calm and act rationally do so reliably. They make solid decisions even when in an emotional situation because they've trained to stay calm and rational.

The influence of the news media is a completely different thing from games, books, and movies. The news media is utilizing their media be it news paper, magazine, TV, internet or some other application of media to convey and or distribute a message. Ideally this message would be just the facts, but in todays world news has been scrapped for biased tripe where journalists sell their minds to the highest bidder with complete knowledge they are selling their personal beliefs and will write for their media dictators what they need to so they can maintain their level of comfort. Some do share the same opinions as their employers but some don't. They all try to do the same thing, change a word here, a sentence there and turn an unbiased article into a pro-gun or pro-gun control piece that paints the opposite as hair brained lunatics. While these media outlets can provide some form of influence they do a much larger disservice to their viewers, they distort reality through a very methodical and planned form of mental subversion which basically amounts to brain washing.

Don't think it's real, think I'm spouting nonsense. Think back to some of the great old movies you used to know and love. Think about some of the iconic scenes of Clint Eastwood or John Wayne riding across a field, standing there before a shootout. Go back, time how long the camera was focused on them. Now, take a current day movie, say the newest Star Trek. Can you remember any scene that was held more than 10-15 seconds? No? Why, because the media outlets have learned that they can squeeze more into your brain in less time by focusing for about 7 seconds or so before they need to move the camera. Ever wonder why kids have so little focus these days? Because they're not playing with Legos and spending hours building a space ship, they're watching a movie about a space ship where the scene is changing rapidly and they have to avert their focus to something new very rapidly or risk losing out on something. This is a very small change the movie industry has made over the years to reduce costs and increase profit margins so they use less tape shooting scenes. The effects on people are plain to see.

Finally, I want to say this, creativity breeds jealousy. When someone makes something new, everyone wants it. Been able to find that Shield or XDs lately? No? Because everyone wants one. While it may not seem like jealousy at first it is at its root simply that. The same applies to other things in and out of the media. Star Wars made lightsabers, hundreds of thousands of people bought lightsabers, toy or collectors item is irrelevant, something new, people wanted it. Desire at its core is based in appreciation of a thing and jealousy of that thing belonging to or having been created by someone else.

Anyway, I could rant and rave on for hours and hours and hours about this. Long story short. They effect us because they train us and influence our emotional decision making, rational decision making however is a different story. I think it important to note that I typed so long that I forgot what I typed above.

 

[SOCOM242]

Hmmm, I had a time in my youth that I was into "dark" music. But it was my attitude at the time that attracted me to it. I found a connection to it. So I would assume by your post that you NO violent thoughts prior to listening to the music? That you starting listening to music that you had NO connection to and continued to do so until you became violent? You truly wanted to go kick some arse after watching a movie? That is not a typical reaction. Hate to break it too you but "violence" is still in you. Probably has always been there.

Sorry man, but I don't believe you. You're acting like a Stoic simply to make a point, and to build your case.