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The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => Hardcore Gaming 101 => Topic started by: darkwzrd4 on March 22, 2013, 01:00:48 AM

Title: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: darkwzrd4 on March 22, 2013, 01:00:48 AM
Some people such as politicians and over-protective parents believe that videogames are to violent and want game companies to tone down the violence. Some even want to ban violent games all together. Me, I don't think violent games are bad. They can actually be therapeutic. We all get stressed and get pissed off. Both of these usually lead to aggressive behavior and just letting go and throwing a tantrum or lashing out physically is immature and unacceptable. So, how do you deal with all that aggression? What can act as a release? Well, the best way would be to allow yourself to feel that aggression and just let loose. Playing violent games can allow you to be as violent as you want without hurting anyone. They act as a release.
If I'm really stressed after work, I play games like Skyrim or some other violent game and a few hours later I feel less stressed.
The problem is that most kids play violent games before they are mature enough to properly handle it. Thus, they are either traumatized or they start to believe that they can act that way in real life. If parents think that these games are too violent, then they shouldn't buy the games for their kids in the first place.

Feel free to post your opinions after you vote.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Abnormal Freak on March 22, 2013, 01:03:32 AM
I wish there were games with MORE violence. :p MadWorld and the Splatterhouse reboot are pretty off the chain, it would be nice to see more comic portrayals of extreme violence.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lelygax on March 22, 2013, 01:14:20 AM
If parents think that these games are too violent, then they shouldn't buy the games for their kids in the first place.
^THAT^
Also we have a age rating system now, like ERSB and many others, so they know what to expect of the game and if their kids should play it or not, dont blame the games, blame themself for buying a game that your kids shouldnt even been playing to begin with. If some parent come say bad things about violence in games, then please
(click to show/hide)

Ditto at AF, I prefered when MK are more comic than serious like now, we need violent games since different people tend to free themself from stress and crazy ideas using different themes.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on March 22, 2013, 04:40:59 AM
Why do people always blame videogames as violent?

The internet, movies and tv shows are more accessible and they have violence in them too.
What about the news? Isn't that the most violent one of all with actual events shown live?

Blame the parents for not monitoring their kids.
Blame the system for lax gun laws.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Mooning Freddy on March 22, 2013, 05:00:33 AM
I remember playing Mortal Kombat 9 for the first time, and seeing how they added an x-ray style simulation of broken bones and organs I was like "Holy shit that is friggin epic and horrible at the same time".  :P
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: C Belmont on March 22, 2013, 06:47:49 AM
I read a book on designing games once which if I recall correctly had something like this to say about violent video games:

Children are always going to want to play the games they are not allowed to play and not necessarily the ones which are aimed at their age bracket. So by making videogames which are violent you can target both adults and children at the same time.

I can’t help feeling that a lot of modern games embrace this philosophy way too much and that all the irresponsible parents, older brothers, friends, cousins etc.  Out there make it all too easy for developers to keep embracing it.

Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: son_the_vampire on March 22, 2013, 11:00:46 AM
MORE VIOLENCE... this way, the person who had the vision making the game doesnt need to feel restricted due to the ESRB. its like listening to your favorite songs, only to have the lyrics altered to cater to the youth. im sure this day and age there are becoming fewer ways to keep the youth from the "violence exposure" Thanks Google!
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: X on March 22, 2013, 04:17:28 PM
Are video games too violent? Or movies for that matter? I don't think so because they are a reflection of our world which is far more violent then any form of media could ever be. To see something on a screen is one thing, to experience it in real life would be a heart-stopper. If parents, governments, etc. complain these things are too violent then they shouldn't buy 'em. And if they still persist in getting rid of them then drag their sorry, ignorant asses out to the middle of a war zone and give them a taste of reality. Games and movies aren't as bad as they make them out to be. It is the reality that is far worse. I'd rather see violence on the screen rather then in real life.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lelygax on March 22, 2013, 05:47:09 PM
I'd rather see violence on the screen rather then in real life.

A brief of what I tried to say, thanks for it. I prefer it that way too.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Ratty on March 22, 2013, 07:02:01 PM
Nope
Tragedy and Video Game Violence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwAo8lcAC4#ws)

Censorship is never the answer. And few things get me madder than people trying to force myself or others not to consume media or do other harmless activities just because they find said media/activities distasteful. Usually they'll use their children's possible exposure to media as an excuse to call for censorship. But it's not my job or anyone else's to raise your kid, controlling what they see and don't see is your choice and your responsibility, not mine and not society's. To have freedom of speech you have to have freedom of all speech, and that includes expressions of beliefs and artistic depictions of actions which go against everything you might hold as true and right.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Abnormal Freak on March 23, 2013, 12:36:32 AM
Who voted "more violence = better games"? :p I hope that was a tongue-in-cheek answer.

My favorite game of all time, Yoshi's Island, would be pretty retarded if Yoshi's eggs ripped apart Shy Guys in a bloody, giblety mess.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Pfil on March 23, 2013, 04:28:19 AM
I find modern games to be too violent, but I didn't want to be so extreme with my voting, in order to avoid sounding dictatorial.
They should control better what's in each game, but total censoring wouldn't be the answer either. Censoring violence would also mean, perhaps, censoring some pretty interesting stuff, since I believe everything comes together (I mean, it's the same people who censor, and if they become more strict, they would censor not only violence).
What I would censor every time is games that promote crime, like GTA. Fantasy violence is one thing, that doesn't bother me a lot, though sometimes it's borderline with bad taste or even exceeds that line. But real violence is really disturbing, and letting it in the hands of younger gamers is not a good idea. They should grow up playing Mario, not GTA (in my opinion).
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: VladCT on March 23, 2013, 05:03:58 AM
But real violence is really disturbing, and letting it in the hands of younger gamers is not a good idea. They should grow up playing Mario, not GTA (in my opinion).
Then they should never have gotten a hold of it in the first place. Ratings exist for a reason, enforce it.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Mooning Freddy on March 23, 2013, 05:22:29 AM
Well, it's not like cinema doesn't give you the share of random violence aplenty. Gangster movies and series make the gangsters appear badass, which is a possibly worse than simply showing violence. Goodfellas and Scarface come to mind. Then there're movies like Trainspotting.

Begbie - who the fuck are you bar fight full scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3E7UkIzt4#ws)
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Pfil on March 23, 2013, 05:50:24 AM
Yes of course it applies to movies, even more than in videogames. That should be something parents concern about too, not only letting to censors do their work. But I still don't have sons, so I'm not entitled to say much on the matter.
On the other hand, I believe videogames being interactive could make a bigger problem to younger players than what movies could do, being something more, I don't know... passive?
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lelygax on March 23, 2013, 05:56:48 AM
I think censoring things is a lazy way to adress a problem, educating the parents that they need to read the ratings before letting their kids watch or play something is the way to go. If some kid see it without a parent permission it only shows in the majority of the cases (not all) that the parents are relying more on censorship than educating their sons of what they can and cannot do without asking first, IMO (this means "in my opinion" right? I dont want to do as the others users without having sure that I know what this abreviation means lol).
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Pfil on March 23, 2013, 06:01:45 AM
I completely agree with you Lelygax.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lelygax on March 23, 2013, 06:14:40 AM
Thanks. ^^
Also, HOW my respect have changed from 184 to 211 in less than 2 hours? lol
Thanks for that whoever did that, someone knows from where these new +1 have come? It changed in a glimpse.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lone Wolf on March 23, 2013, 07:09:09 AM
Are video games too violent? Or movies for that matter? I don't think so because they are a reflection of our world which is far more violent then any form of media could ever be. To see something on a screen is one thing, to experience it in real life would be a heart-stopper. If parents, governments, etc. complain these things are too violent then they shouldn't buy 'em. And if they still persist in getting rid of them then drag their sorry, ignorant asses out to the middle of a war zone and give them a taste of reality. Games and movies aren't as bad as they make them out to be. It is the reality that is far worse. I'd rather see violence on the screen rather then in real life.

Yes, that's a reason why you shouldn't waste your time worried about something that doesn't even come out of the screen and affects you. Unless you're brainless enough to just do whatever the videogames characters do in there, out of the screen. Maybe some liittle children could do it, IF that's the case, but doesn't mean they're crazy, still they're not so conscious of what they were doing. STILL dangerous, though... So a little bit of care is never too much, i guess. :P
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Abnormal Freak on March 23, 2013, 09:35:53 AM
I dunno about the rest of you fools, but I was blasting away Nazis in Wolfenstein 3D when it came out in '92 when I was only six years old. :p And I've nary thrown even a punch at someone. (Save for that one time my brother and I got real mad at each other over stupid BS.) Then again, I grew up in a household where my parents actually cared about me and taught me right from wrong, and if I got a whuppin' it was only because they expected better out of me, not because I wasn't doing exactly what they wanted me to and wanted to throw a power trip.

'Course, that doesn't mean my dad wasn't wary of certain games. :p He always had trouble accepting the ones where you shoot/kill people. Turok 2 he was a little more forgiving of considering it's humanoid dinos, but he still disapproved of a young kid playing games with all this bloodshed but he never outright said not to play them.

So I dunno. I know it's a tired discussion, but I don't think violence in media affects or influences people in the real world. Some may add, "Unless they're mentally ill, that is." Well, not even... Sometimes you just have sociopaths who just don't give a fudge about their fellow human beings, but it's not as if a video game filled with sunshine and rainbows is gonna make such a person any less of a scumbag. One need look no further than Chris-chan for an example.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Ratty on March 23, 2013, 09:28:52 PM
What I would censor every time is games that promote crime, like GTA. Fantasy violence is one thing, that doesn't bother me a lot, though sometimes it's borderline with bad taste or even exceeds that line. But real violence is really disturbing, and letting it in the hands of younger gamers is not a good idea. They should grow up playing Mario, not GTA (in my opinion).

Yeah but what a kid grows up seeing is up to the parents, it's their responsibility to monitor what their kids see. It has to be. Can you imagine what chaos would reign if just the strong believers of different religions tried to decide what all children should be taught and exposed to? It's the parents responsibility, to this end we have the ESRB to quickly and easily give shopping parents an idea of what is in the game and if it is appropriate for their kids. Though a game like "Grand Theft Auto", which is named after a felony, should speak for itself anyway. The argument of it's interactivity being more dangerous is not new, when film first came out similar arguments were made for it's censorship just because photo realism in motion wasn't like anything that had been seen before and that scared some people.

But there haven't been any studies, at least not reliable, objectively funded ones I've heard of, that show a positive link in video games and an increased tendency to violence. All that has been shown is a short burst of increased aggression, which is probably brought about primarily by the competitive nature of the game (the strive to win that's as much a part of Tetris as Call of Duty) rather than any violence within it.

As for whether impressionable or mentally unstable kids should consume violent media, of course they shouldn't. But again that's the responsibility of the parents. Should we ban all over the counter sugar sales so the parents of kids with diabetes don't have to watch what snacks they get ahold of as much?

So I dunno. I know it's a tired discussion, but I don't think violence in media affects or influences people in the real world. Some may add, "Unless they're mentally ill, that is." Well, not even... Sometimes you just have sociopaths who just don't give a fudge about their fellow human beings, but it's not as if a video game filled with sunshine and rainbows is gonna make such a person any less of a scumbag. One need look no further than Chris-chan for an example.

I dunno how bad a person Chris-Chan is, he's certainly a very troubled individual with mental health issues raised by very backward people. But because of those preconditions I'm not sure I would call him a "scumbag". But I would agree that video games certainly don't seem to have caused his problems, and I don't think it's very likely he would have wound up much different without them.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: X on March 24, 2013, 12:18:36 AM
Quote
Can you imagine what chaos would reign if just the strong believers of different religions tried to decide what all children should be taught and exposed to?

This has already happened with the Catholic church. That's why it's called the Dark ages (Medieval age).
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Ratty on March 24, 2013, 12:47:42 AM
This has already happened with the Catholic church. That's why it's called the Dark ages (Medieval age).

That was just one church. I'm talking about if it was everyone's responsibility to judge what every child should see as they grew up, do you think the fundamentalist Hindu would agree with the fundamentalist Christian would agree with the fundamentalist Muslim would agree with the fundamentalist Jane would agree with the fundamentalist Jew? Obviously not, it would be total chaos trying to get those people to agree on the essential life lessons and perspectives. (And that's just one example.) For this reason we have to leave the judgement of what is appropriate or inappropriate entertainment and teachings for a child to their parents.

This sometimes means that kids who shouldn't get exposed to bad teachings/media by lousy parents, and even that they get indoctrinated into horrible racist or otherwise bigoted beliefs. (Like all the kids at the Westboro Baptist Church for example.) But it also helps minimize the ability of one group of adults to to dictate what all children and by extension all adults can or should have the freedom to see, discuss or question.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lone Wolf on March 24, 2013, 03:35:00 AM
...do you think the fundamentalist Hindu would agree with the fundamentalist Christian would agree with the fundamentalist Muslim would agree with the fundamentalist Jane would agree with the fundamentalist Jew?

Whoa, so many agreements... :P
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Ratty on March 24, 2013, 04:50:25 AM
Whoa, so many agreements... :P

Or rather, so many arguments.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Mooning Freddy on March 24, 2013, 06:29:00 AM
I'm talking about if it was everyone's responsibility to judge what every child should see as they grew up, do you think the fundamentalist Hindu would agree with the fundamentalist Christian would agree with the fundamentalist Muslim would agree with the fundamentalist Jane would agree with the fundamentalist Jew? Obviously not, it would be total chaos trying to get those people to agree on the essential life lessons and perspectives.

If you study thoroughly the moral-political foundations of the three monotheistic religions you'd find that the core values are quite similar, and I believe all or most of those theologies borrowed ideas from neo-platonism. That's why it's often called "Judeo-Christian values". The reason the religions fought each other for so long is because they were all like "screw you my religion is best God said I was the chosen one herp derp".
In Israel there is a great rage and hatred among the liberal community towards the so-called Haredi Ultra-Orthodox community because one of their core philosophies is rejection of modern values. What it means is that they refuse to study non-religious (correction: non-Jewish) subjects like history and geography and often even mathematics. People who decide to leave the community are absolutely ignorant and have no tools whatsoever to get a proper job and becoming productive members of society. What's most absurd is that unlike in the USA, many members of the community do not work at all and depend on government funding. Once people start protesting against them being basically leeches of the system, they give put excuses like "we are defending the nation by studying Torah" which is something you really can't argue with, but that's a situation which libertarians simply could not accept.
 
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Ratty on March 24, 2013, 06:40:47 AM
If you study thoroughly the moral-political foundations of the three monotheistic religions you'd find that the core values are quite similar, and I believe all or most of those theologies borrowed ideas from neo-platonism. That's why it's often called "Judeo-Christian values". The reason the religions fought each other for so long is because they were all like "screw you my religion is best God said I was the chosen one herp derp".

But that's still just 3 religions. And the moderates and fundamentalists within those Abrahamic religions don't even agree about a lot of basic things that bear heavily on life, like the role of science. For example most moderate Christians are fine accepting evolution as a scientific fact crucial to understanding biology and modern medicine, and viewing the story of Adam and Eve as an allegory or at least not the whole story of creation. While this position is unacceptable to fundamentalist Christians who maintain that either every word of the Bible (usually the King James translation of the Bible in particular) is literally true or none of it is and therefore life automatically has no meaning.

So you would have difficulty even getting moderates and fundamentalists of the same religion to agree on an important issue in child rearing here (the role and importance of objective knowledge and secular learning) and that's not even getting into the whole sticky issue of denominations and their varying teachings.

they give put excuses like "we are defending the nation by studying Torah" which is something you really can't argue with

I could, but then I am not an Israeli.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lone Wolf on March 24, 2013, 10:37:50 PM
Or rather, so many arguments.

Yeah, i just.. Noticed that.. lol :P
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Inccubus on March 25, 2013, 12:25:04 AM
To all the haters that blames video games for violence: How do you explain the countries that have the same or worse violence in media, but lower rates of violent crime? Case closed.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Kale on March 25, 2013, 01:35:03 PM
To all the haters that blames video games for violence: How do you explain the countries that have the same or worse violence in media, but lower rates of violent crime? Case closed.

Logic, those people have none.
Title: Re: Are Videogames Too Violent?
Post by: Lelygax on March 25, 2013, 07:43:34 PM
To all the haters that blames video games for violence: How do you explain the countries that have the same or worse violence in media, but lower rates of violent crime? Case closed.
Reversal also works:
To all the haters that blames video games for violence: How do you explain the countries that have lower rates of violence in media, but the same or worse of violent crime? Case closed.