“Play The News” Will Make You Kill Puppies
May 1st, 2008 by Sam |
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It looks like my previous post on GTA IV started something between a heated debate and flame war, and I have to admit the post was extremely biased towards the gaming crowd. So, in the interest of fairness, I should probably cover the negative impact of gaming. Case in point: Play the News by Impact Games. This game blatantly and unapologetically portrays acts of violence, alcoholism, and prostitution in a way that shows little concern for public safety. Sure, the game is billed as an “educational game” with a focus on “current events”, but a study by Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts paints a different picture. Monitoring 50 supporters of the Democratic party while they played the NC/IN primary game, The study found that all 50 participants had heightened blood pressure and exhibited “alarmingly aggressive behavior”, as well as, for some reason, “excessive grooming”. Despite the obvious and numerous dangers of Play the News, the game has not been rated by the ESRB, and is freely available on the internet, meaning your children could be playing this game Right Now! At this very second! (For the sake of full disclosure, you should probably know I wrote the bulk of this post on my way to work via my Blackberry. Was I negatively influenced by the texting-while-driving functionality of GTA VI, or is LA traffic horrible enough to have drivers be at a standstill for minutes at a time? I report. You decide) |
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May 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am
That’s why I only play Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
True fact: My wife will not let me drive after I’ve played Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 or Gran Turismo. It’s just a given that I’m gonna drive a little harder after playing those games.
True Story: I also remember leaving the theater after seeing a sneak-peek screening of The Matrix and wanting for the life of me to throw down right then and there.
Also true: Watching Wes Anderson movies makes me very, very sad.
Why do video games continue to get singled out as how they influence players when ALL media elicits emotional (and often a corresponding physical) response? Isn’t that, in fact, the very point of media, regardless of the medium?
Where’s the study to measure the aggression effects of listening to the Jason Nevin’s dub remix of N.E.R.D.’s ‘Rockstar’? (Does wonders for my blood pressure, let me tell you) or AC/DC?
Hell, where’s the study to measure how much of an asshole you become after reading Ayn Rand books? Or Hemingway? What about the pretentious bastard effect of Bukowski?
May 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I deeply agree re: the central point to all media- it is meant to affect the audience/player/viewer/listener in one way or another. Be it to make them cry, laugh, love, or just be happy or sad or even angry, the reason we consume media is because it has an effect on us.
So yes, video games do lead to an increase in violence, as did several famous pieces of classical music. Granted, they did not demonstrate how to go about being violent, but the central theme of social and parental responsibility is at the core of all of this. We need to get away from our litigious, overprotective way of raising kids and start holding people accountable for their own actions.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
“True Story: I also remember leaving the theater after seeing a sneak-peek screening of The Matrix and wanting for the life of me to throw down right then and there.”
But did you? No, of course not. The difference between you and someone who supposedly lets media dictate their actions is that they had emotional issues even before sitting down with the game/movie/book/Vaudeville show. We pay a big price for media freedom – the chance that someone who is already damaged might see it and it’ll set them off. But who is to say they wouldn’t get set off unless locked in a padded room?
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Well said, Babs*.
I firmly believe in the truth that freedom means being at risk, and I for one accept that risk as it’s lesser than the greater reward of living in a world that will continually expose me to new and different ideas, perspectives, and experiences.
*You realize that, as a comic book nerd, I’m now forced to imagine you as Batgirl/Oracle, taking time out from providing intel for the world’s superheroes to make your opinion heard.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I just posted the following (paraphrased here) over on Alphamonkey’s post on this topic on Transbuddha:
D&D was supposed to ruin society, and it did not (duh!). It seems that at all times, our society needs and eagerly chooses a scapegoat. The biggest thing we need to do is to create a society that values and enforces personal responsibility and basic values (not religious ones, humane ones).
I wish we had less lawsuits, and less metaphorical book burnings like the ones now being leveled at video games.
UGH.