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I usually don't play computer games. But I know Minecraft because my children play this game. To understand the game dynamics, I played Minecraft for a few day

I usually don't play computer games. But I know Minecraft because my children play this game. To understand the game dynamics, I played Minecraft for a few days and watched Youtube videos and consumed other contents about the game. I am sure I don't know many subtleties and the Minecraft subculture, but this is not neccessary to understand what "entitlement simulator" means: I watched how my son casually killed a villager's llama then did not even pick up the remains. I asked him why he killed that animal in the game. It seemed to belong to someone! He was genuinely surprised by my question. Now I understand why he killed the llama. He had power. He had entitlement. He did it just because he could. Minecraft gave him freedom. I need to understand this because I don't want this attitude near me in real life. Luckily my son seems to know the difference between the game world and real life. But, wow, was I very surprised by the callousness of that action!!

matheusmoreira 4y ago
This is a recognized phenomenon. Games are simulations of reality, almost always with softer rules, and players are essentially gods within that simulation. Here's a massive collection of examples: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameCrueltyPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameCruelty... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGamePerversityPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGamePervers... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatTheHellPlayer https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatTheHellPlaye... And also a massive list of positive examples: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCaringPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCaringP... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCrueltyPunishment https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCruelty... > know the difference between the game world and real life This is the norm. As far as I know, all attempts to prove otherwise have failed.
hypertele-Xii 4y ago
The whole point of video games is to get to do things you can't do in real life, and explore what kind of person you are through that experience. When a video game presents you with a verb, a possible action you can perform, in this case to cause damage to what's in front of you, of course players will experiment what happens when they use that verb on pretty much everything. Do you also experience moral panic when you erase a pencil drawing of a llama? That's what your son did. He erased a symbolic representation from the virtual canvas of his Minecraft world.
barrysteve 4y ago
You play video games for long enough and the symbol of "llama" wears off and it starts to become a symbol of "crafting ingredient for this recipe I need" and then later on it becomes "a series of button presses on the road to a speed run goal". The callousness is not against the animal. The callousness is against an uncaring mathematical system he wants to get through and towards his own goals. He doesn't see llamas in the real world as a mathematical abstraction, nor does he see human ownership of animals as arbitrary developer code.
- _nalply 4y ago
  Thanks, that was something I am trying to understand. In other words, these are only pixels on a screen and these affect me in a different way than a real llama does.
chrisco255 4y ago
That's not your son being entitled, that's him being entertained in a sandbox. Even without video games your kid will stand up action figures and kill some of them with the others. Even without action figures at some point he'll play a game where killing is part of the play. Even animals in the animal kingdom do mock battles with their fellow lion cubs and wolf pups. It's completely natural.
- _nalply 4y ago
  What does mean entitled, then? My other son tried to push his brother from the stool in the kitchen because he wanted to take that place. Is this entitled?
  - zaphar 4y ago
    If your son thought he was "entitled" to that place it would be a form of entitlement. Most children start out feeling entitled. Learning that the world doesn't exist for their benefit is something that is learned. Even games teach you the concept. The game doesn't care about your goals and won't modify it's rules just so you can reach those goals. You learn while playing the game that there is a system there you need to work within. You can learn to exploit that system to reach your goals but the system itself won't modify itself to meet your goals. Games don't teach entitlement they teach you how to understand and adapt to a specific system to reach your goals.

matheusmoreira 4y ago

This is a recognized phenomenon. Games are simulations of reality, almost always with softer rules, and players are essentially gods within that simulation. Here's a massive collection of examples: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameCrueltyPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameCruelty... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGamePerversityPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGamePervers... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatTheHellPlayer https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatTheHellPlaye... And also a massive list of positive examples: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCaringPotential https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCaringP... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCrueltyPunishment https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameCruelty... > know the difference between the game world and real life This is the norm. As far as I know, all attempts to prove otherwise have failed.

hypertele-Xii 4y ago

The whole point of video games is to get to do things you can't do in real life, and explore what kind of person you are through that experience. When a video game presents you with a verb, a possible action you can perform, in this case to cause damage to what's in front of you, of course players will experiment what happens when they use that verb on pretty much everything. Do you also experience moral panic when you erase a pencil drawing of a llama? That's what your son did. He erased a symbolic representation from the virtual canvas of his Minecraft world.

barrysteve 4y ago

You play video games for long enough and the symbol of "llama" wears off and it starts to become a symbol of "crafting ingredient for this recipe I need" and then later on it becomes "a series of button presses on the road to a speed run goal". The callousness is not against the animal. The callousness is against an uncaring mathematical system he wants to get through and towards his own goals. He doesn't see llamas in the real world as a mathematical abstraction, nor does he see human ownership of animals as arbitrary developer code.

_nalply 4y ago
Thanks, that was something I am trying to understand. In other words, these are only pixels on a screen and these affect me in a different way than a real llama does.

chrisco255 4y ago

That's not your son being entitled, that's him being entertained in a sandbox. Even without video games your kid will stand up action figures and kill some of them with the others. Even without action figures at some point he'll play a game where killing is part of the play. Even animals in the animal kingdom do mock battles with their fellow lion cubs and wolf pups. It's completely natural.

_nalply 4y ago
What does mean entitled, then? My other son tried to push his brother from the stool in the kitchen because he wanted to take that place. Is this entitled?
- zaphar 4y ago
  If your son thought he was "entitled" to that place it would be a form of entitlement. Most children start out feeling entitled. Learning that the world doesn't exist for their benefit is something that is learned. Even games teach you the concept. The game doesn't care about your goals and won't modify it's rules just so you can reach those goals. You learn while playing the game that there is a system there you need to work within. You can learn to exploit that system to reach your goals but the system itself won't modify itself to meet your goals. Games don't teach entitlement they teach you how to understand and adapt to a specific system to reach your goals.