3 ms·

Video Game Violence: Why Do We Like It, and What's It Doing to Us?

5 points by hochmartinez 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
brucethemoose2 3y ago
I really hate how Call of Duty is the poster child for PC/console gaming. There are so many brilliant indie/AA games that don't involve shooting other humanoids, or are at least more arcadey, but bit CoD (and all its hyper tacticool peers) are so entrenched :/
palata 3y ago
Pretty bad article IMO. It just raises a few questions, without answering them clearly, other than throwing some theories (without any source for those that are not completely unfounded). > The answer is unclear, but one thing is obvious: Violence sells games. The most popular video game franchise is Call of Duty, a war game where killing is the goal. [...] Employees sometimes take breaks and shoot at each other. Sounds like how a non-gamer would describe Call of Duty. Let's now read what a gamer says, just on the next paragraph: > "It's a military game where basically you have an objective on each level, and basically you need to pass the objective, whether that's getting past supersoldiers or a checkpoint, without dying," So the person who plays says that it is about high level objectives, but the journalist concludes that it is about "shooting at each other"? > Violence sells Sure. So do sports games. And I wouldn't say that Nintendo games are violent, are they? Could we stop for a minute and consider maybe that "video games sell"? > Gentile says that his research shows that children who play more violent games by and large behave more aggressively. Could they be less specific? First, how old are those children, and what are those violent games? And couldn't it be that more aggressive children tend to play more violent games, rather than the opposite?
alpaca128 3y ago
> Violence sells games The best-selling game of all time is Minecraft. Some other titles in the top 10 are Tetris, Wii Sports, Mario Kart etc. [0] > The most popular video game franchise is Call of Duty Actually it's in fourth place after Mario, Tetris and Pokemon [1] > Gentile says we don't know whether games turn people into murderers, because the sample size is just too small We know crime rates have consistently been in decline since 1990 or so, shortly before Doom was released. Is the population of the US a sufficiently large sample size? Edit: turns out this article is from 2013. Well, it's not getting any more correct. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...
atmanactive 3y ago
As long as age restrictions are being enforced by parents, there is nothing to worry about. On the other hand, expose a hundred eight-year-olds to realism and brutality of Call of Duty and you'll end up with a few dangerous psychopathic sociopaths for sure. It's that simple.

5 points by hochmartinez 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

I really hate how Call of Duty is the poster child for PC/console gaming. There are so many brilliant indie/AA games that don't involve shooting other humanoids, or are at least more arcadey, but bit CoD (and all its hyper tacticool peers) are so entrenched :/

palata 3y ago

Pretty bad article IMO. It just raises a few questions, without answering them clearly, other than throwing some theories (without any source for those that are not completely unfounded). > The answer is unclear, but one thing is obvious: Violence sells games. The most popular video game franchise is Call of Duty, a war game where killing is the goal. [...] Employees sometimes take breaks and shoot at each other. Sounds like how a non-gamer would describe Call of Duty. Let's now read what a gamer says, just on the next paragraph: > "It's a military game where basically you have an objective on each level, and basically you need to pass the objective, whether that's getting past supersoldiers or a checkpoint, without dying," So the person who plays says that it is about high level objectives, but the journalist concludes that it is about "shooting at each other"? > Violence sells Sure. So do sports games. And I wouldn't say that Nintendo games are violent, are they? Could we stop for a minute and consider maybe that "video games sell"? > Gentile says that his research shows that children who play more violent games by and large behave more aggressively. Could they be less specific? First, how old are those children, and what are those violent games? And couldn't it be that more aggressive children tend to play more violent games, rather than the opposite?

alpaca128 3y ago

> Violence sells games The best-selling game of all time is Minecraft. Some other titles in the top 10 are Tetris, Wii Sports, Mario Kart etc. [0] > The most popular video game franchise is Call of Duty Actually it's in fourth place after Mario, Tetris and Pokemon [1] > Gentile says we don't know whether games turn people into murderers, because the sample size is just too small We know crime rates have consistently been in decline since 1990 or so, shortly before Doom was released. Is the population of the US a sufficiently large sample size? Edit: turns out this article is from 2013. Well, it's not getting any more correct. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...

atmanactive 3y ago

As long as age restrictions are being enforced by parents, there is nothing to worry about. On the other hand, expose a hundred eight-year-olds to realism and brutality of Call of Duty and you'll end up with a few dangerous psychopathic sociopaths for sure. It's that simple.