Current Events > Violence in video/ Guns and gun violence

(+) Yeah! (+)

Any differing opinions as an adult Vs as a kid?
I think it kicked in during MW3, when it came out, "Why am I LARPing as a British special ops dude ina fictional Middle East nation firing full auto L-86/SA80 machine guns on these fictional terrorist NPCs..."

And then fortnite, dropping into American Suburban and Rural homes, breaking in and stealing all of their shotguns and AR15s

This all has to impact our minds. Not unlike kids playing with toy guns, cowboys and Indians or Cops n Robbers

Studies have shown there is no impact

Dakimakura posted...

Studies have shown there is no impact

Has anything kicked in, changing your opinion or mindset on simulating killing people in vicariously through video games?

What exactly is the issue here? You seem like you have a real fear of guns. So much so, that video game guns frighten you.

If fiction influenced our real life actions to any major degree, civilization would have collapsed by now given mass consumption of media of all kinds.

These nonsense has been debunked.

If there was a direct correlation between the two as you suggest wouldnt there have been a huge increase in crime when Fortnite blew up?

Well there wasnt.

Pepys Monster posted...

What exactly is the issue here? You seem like you have a real fear of guns. So much so, that video game guns frighten you.

No, the action of shooting clearly fictional Arabs in the middle east with very little context as to "why"

The only time I've ever seriously thought something (not real) from video games might've been real was when I first started learning to drive, and asked "If I want to reverse, do I push the accelerator or the brake?"

Which of course, is the kind of thing you ask once, and get an answer to, and then know how it works in reality.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/04/14/video-games-on-trial

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Yes yes yes

I mean didn't that one show where a character wore Vans slip ons, make Vans completely sell out of the sneakers

ElkLordOldSpice posted...

No, the action of shooting clearly fictional Arabs in the middle east with very little context as to "why"

Those poor virtual bad guys. How much context do you need? Old games usually had a text-based briefing before a mission. Modern games usually have full FMVs moving the story along.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

If youre using those examples, something violent or action packed would cause you to feel momentary adrenaline or the urge to move around. Its not gonna want to make you go out and punch someone in the face or run someone down in a car. If someone is being overly influenced by that, theyre already a sociopath and are always a step away from committing some act of violence.

Nemu posted...

If fiction influenced our real life actions to any major degree, civilization would have collapsed by now given mass consumption of media of all kinds.

Major civilizations have collapsed, if not outright fail to flourish, precisely because they are preoccupied with acting out myths or legends and/or drowning themselves in ritualistic entertainment / other rigid lifestyles for the sake of lifestyles. They fail to adapt or leave themselves open or aggress another group of people. A cultural gap can prevent them from trading or allying with their neighbors, if not spark war. A lot of that stuff is heavily, heavily carried from generation to generation by their songs, books or scrolls, art, sculpture, stories, and other traditions. Honestly, video games are just the next evolution. Instead of watching a yearly reenactment of your heroes, and playing out what you see with your kids, and quoting it in conversation, or remembering the scenes in your head, and modeling things or even yourself based on the standards presented in those experiences.... We can simulate it on a computer. It's no different. Think of it as cultural blueprints and impressions. What a person does in a virtual environment can be indicative of what they would do or straight up will do in the same scenario in the real world.

Does this monster scare you in the game? It will scare you if it were real too, if not much worse. Do you find this character attractive? Are you attracted to similar people in reality? Etc

Of all people, I think Jim Sterling had the best argument against video game violence desensitizing people to real violence. He made a video which included Budd Dwyer's on-air suicide. He pointed out that he'd previously made a video which included that footage and he got a lot of complaints that he hadn't put enough of a warning ahead of it. A lot of comments also talked about how disturbing, upsetting, and hard to watch it was.

His videos cater to gamers, but they were the ones upset by footage of real life violence. The brain is able to tell the difference between fiction and reality and the former doesn't desensitize you to the latter.