The Influence of Games on Society

koneko

This topic has come up a bazillion times before. I imagine people are just bored of writing the same thing over and over again, especially as very few people here disagree (doesn't make for a good discussion, everyone agreeing with eachother).

DonkeyStyle \o/

koneko wrote:

This topic has come up a bazillion times before. I imagine people are just bored of writing the same thing over and over again

Bingo... I couldn't be less arsed.
Try the search feature.

iregk

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Bingo... I couldn't be less arsed.

Exactly!

In either case its incredably easy to point the finger of blame at someone else rather than looking at yourself and taking the blame. In todays moderm society we are full of people who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Somebody walks out onto the road and gets hit by a car, they sue the driver. Why? Because it was the drivers fault for driving on the road! Why on earth would they want to blame themselves for it?

The very same applies to video games. Games have a rating not for the good of their health but for a reason. GTA for example is 18. Now its a lot more profitable to rate it 3+ but no its 18+. The reason being to keep kids away from the violence. But when a kid goes to buy it and gets refused because he is to young what happens? The parents go in and buy it for them. As soon as something happens they blame the manufacturers for being irresponsible in creating these games because they refuse to take the responsibility themselves. Again its far far easier to blame someone else than to blame yourself.

CiDeRmAn

Well thats the story of our times, see it in the increasingly litigious world where personal responsiblity is reduced while we pin all the flaws and misfortunes in our life on anyone but us while we take all the credit for the good things, parents taking the easy way out when their kids are non-communicative and withdrawn to them, blaming tv and the games in their lives while letting them have Sky and a dvd player in their bedroom, and never having the time to engage with them except to tell them how disappointed they are in them. The parents think by giving into their kids every whim they are loving them more while denying the children what they need, a family enviroment in which to feel a part of, in which to feel secure.

BlitzKrieg

if you want to hit them with psychoanalysis...film theorists believe its the lack of control in a movie that creates an almost dreamlike state in your subconcious and hence the appealing power of films on the viewers desires and fears but with computer games you have an alienated form of control (the joypad) as your link to the material, therefore your subconcious has a smaller role to play in the experiance (hence earlier skill building argument).

CiDeRmAn

Interesting stuff, but I guess it still all boils down to parents blaming bad kids on anything except bad parenting, whatever form that may take. We live in a world where parents blame McDonalds for their kids being obese rather than accepting that they are responsible for the things that their children comsume, be it food or video game entertainment and other media, we wil never get through to them until, perhaps the current generation of gamers grows up and has kids and grandkids of their own. taking an interest in gaming and what they are being exposed to.

Now where is that copy of Manhunt?
My 2 year old son has to start gaming somewhere!

Griffon

That is so true

gline

i think games "can" have a bad effect on society, it can cause more and more people to be anti-social and not being able to interact with people in person. But as i said it "can" have a bad effect. It depends on the person and the self control they have. I dont know if thats what you meant by bad effects??

ObeyGiant

gline wrote:

it can cause more and more people to be anti-social and not being able to interact with people in person

Couldn't the same be said for books?

gline

ObeyGiant wrote:

Couldn't the same be said for books?

yes definitly, like i said, it depends on the person. If they want an escape from life they will use anything i suppose

Retr0gamer

gline wrote:

yes definitly, like i said, it depends on the person. If they want an escape from life they will use anything i suppose

God damn delinquints. They should just use porn like everyone else.

iregk

What effect can games have on people, check this out.

WARNING: 10min long vid clip, 56k dial up? Forget it!!!
http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2349&NEXTID=0&PREVID=0&DISPLAYORDER=20050609151844&CAT=movies&NSFW=2&page=1

HappyCrackHead

the point is is that video games are just another medium for expression. another art form. yeah they express ideas but most are benign. ok look at the GTAs and the Manhunts with a lot of killing and i just think, well its better to shoot a cop or murder a stranger in the street in a video game than to actually go out and do it. that said games dont make people do those things. unless ur really impressionable and were brought up to be some kind of idiot then yes. but people shouldnt blame the game makers, they should blame the idiots parents.

no one has died from video games to date that im aware of. and this isnt a case of "they listened to marlyn manson". news media love a scape goat and because video games are seen as being "childish" and not as mainstream as things like movies or books means they're an easy target. personaly i feel that videogames are the only interactive art form, where everyone can make an impression especially in the digital age.

It drives me nuts to hear idiots harp on about kids playing grand theft auto or whatever else, these same idiots buy these games for their twelve year old kids. a friend of mine works in a well known games retail chain and he told me roughly 20% of the parents who purchased gta:sa where shocked/suprised when he told them it was an eighteens agame and the parents put the game back on the shelves. the other 80% he said just shrugged their shoulders. these would be parents of 14-18 year olds.

its a case of stupid parents breeding stupider kids. not the game makers. they just try to make enjoyable games.

Illuvatar

I agree with you 100% HappyCrackHead. Couldn't have put it better myself.

mewso

I think the point on violence is if a guy kills someone and it's disclosed that he played GTA for example. Does this mean that if GTA didnt exist he wouldn't have commited the killing? This is where it breaks done for me. The total inability of people to ask the right questions when terrible things happen.
9/11 - lets go kill some taliban ass. Lets not ask why or how it came about etc.
There are no metal bands recording messages backwards on their albums anymore so we have to find something else to blame. I'm with Bill Hicks* on this one. If a guy tops himself because of a game or game playing it's one less pizza delivery boy in the world.

*describing the sentiment not word for word.