Now I'm not this first to stumble across this ACTUAL!!! movie trailer. And I'm not the first, nor I can assure you with every fiber of my soul, will I be the last to point out what kind of sensationalistic crap in the name of furthering political careers this is. It actually made me ill seeing this. And, as I have blogged on this wonderful free speech site on this very subject before, I thought I would share it. I won't even go into the different games they chose to identify as violence causing... but I will point out that City Of Heroes, Scooty and my's entertainment of choice, whose very essence is to uphold good, justice, and ARREST not kill, criminals, is prominently featured as one of the violent digitized brainwashing timebombs that will assuredly create a thousand new Columbines. I live near Columbine. I have had Columbine survivors work for me. I can say unequivocally there is not a single Columbine survivor who blame the video games the two teenage gunmen played. All the survivors I've spoken to blame the parents who never noticed thier sons had flags of the swastika hanging over their beds, or that their sons spent lazy afternoons building pipebombs in the garage. The same garage the parents parked in. Daily.
I won't even go into the real nausea I felt when they blame the video game industry for 9/11. I don't like to talk about 9/11. There are two things I know for sure about 9/11, the rest I won't even pretend to understand. But those two things I do know: The videogame industry had NOTHING to do with 9/11, and Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go take a shower after watching this. And possibly write a letter or two to some politicians.
Friday, January 5, 2007
The Coming Teenage Apocalypse... Apperently
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4 comments:
Well, since I've never actually played probably 99% of the games featured in that trailer, I'm not sure I can comment too much about this topic. Then again, all these politicians up in arms probably haven't played them either, so I guess I'll mouth off as I please.
What I will say is that this is a trailer, and thus, is supposed to be sensationalistic. I'd be interested to see exactly what the movie as a whole has to say, and whether they give the other side a chance to speak.
Now I'm not in favor of banning video games, or putting restrictions on creative talents. But I do think awareness of the content of some of these video games and what their impact on a developing child's brain might be is very important and worth studying more. The exposure kids get from TV, movies, and video games these days is on the rise, and likely has an impact on their behavior. This isn't politicians making these observations, this is the American Academy of Pediatrics, a group you can guess I have some respect for. To ask parents to shield their children from all of this is quite a challenge. Heck, my parents tried to hide me away from R-rated movies till I was 18--you all know how successful they were with that. ;-)
Now I give you that politicians and parents are sensationalizing the issue. But unfortunately in this day and age, it seems to take a bit of extremism to get attention to an issue.
I'm sure I'll have a more coherent comment to make about this later.
Granted, there were violent images in that promo that made me wince. But I still contend that if you think that your kids are playing games that are too violent, then you aren't monitoring your kids well enough.
The fact is that many of these games are designed for adults. It's a weird concept because games used to be more for kids and adolescents. But hey, we grew up yet not out of video games.
And to make the comparisson that if terrorists can fly a plane into a tower by training on a video simulator, then a kid can learn to shoot from an x-box is ridiculous. There are no glowing reticles in real life that appear over targets. A joystick or mouse is a far cry from the ergonomics of a rifle, not to mention weight, recoil, trigger pressure, loading, and operation of the safety.
I think, as does my old man (the psychologist), that video games often in fact relieve tension and help vent natural male aggression. They may prevent actual violence. It's like the flap over roleplaying games. If a roleplayer harms someone in the fashion of his or her fantasy, the problem is the poor controls that person had outside of the game. I can speak with surety that the vast majority of roleplayers are chubby nerds who wouldn't harm a flea. They're doughy little kittens, I tells ya. Same deal with videogame players, except that it's a little more socially accepted, so the gamers aren't always as nerdy.
I just don't buy the idea that exposure to simulated violence desensitizes one to real violence. Take a first-person-shooter junkie, and have him watch someone's head get blown off for real, and I would bet all that I have that he would be just as traumatized as someone who never played a single fps.
The real danger in video games lies in something a person from the clip said: We have no idea what video games will be like in 40 years. If we ever get to a place where we can jack into completely believable virtual realities ala' The Matrix, then all us lazy slobs will be living our super hero/soldier/sex stud fantasies 24/7, and won't come back to the real world.
For the majority of people exposed to violence, nothing will happen. But I think what opponents to media and video game violence are trying to address is those few who are susceptible to such things.
Sure, seeing a man's head get blown off in real life is a completely different experience than what happens in the context of playing a video game, but repeated viewings of such things could possibly have some impact on a person's mental status in a negative way.
Additionally, you have to wonder why a theater full of viewers starts to giggle, cheer, and say "Oh yeah!" when a guy gets his head blown off with a high powered rifle during Miami Vice. 20-30 years ago, the reaction to such a scene probably would have been sheer disgust. Now I'm not saying that those people are going to go out and blow people's heads off, but you've gotta wonder why seeing such things are entertaining. Same goes for playing video games. Why is it that blowing a person's head off in a first person shooter is cool?
Now such graphic scenes are kind of the extreme, though. But I've seen plenty a kid jump all over the exam room trying to kick me in the nuts after he's just watched Power Rangers or Dragon Ball Z. Heck, I think Scootypuff tried such things back in the day when we were young after he got hyped up on some random action movie or playing Street Fighter before he actually learned to accurately control his moves in tae kwon do. Hard to argue that the media doesn't impact how a young person acts.
Similar things have been said about pornography, that watching women in submissive roles and in simulated rape scenes promotes such actions in real life, and created a society that at times makes it cool to demean women. Interesting how most of would easily agree with those theories, but hesitate to say the same about video game violence.
Again, I'm not calling for censorship. The AAP, in their consensus statement (http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;108/5/1222, doesn't really call for it either. But I do think it deserves more careful thought, study, and real honesty about what we're calling entertainment.
And that's my last two cents on the matter. Hope we can all still be friends. ;-)
What? Of course.
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