Violence in VG & BioShock
The four readings for today all discussed the effect of violent video games in our society. I found the article “Violent video games make people violent. But so do pictures of snakes” to be particularly interesting. This article compared the rush after playing a video game to the feeling during athletic competitions or seeing something scary. Basically, it’s a spike in adrenaline. I do understand that this adrenaline feels amazing, and people may do things to achieve this high. That does not mean that people will take the video game into the real world by harming people. Plenty of people can simply play the game again and again or find it through another outlet. Maybe there are a select few who are inspired by violent video games, but their issue does not come directly from the game; it comes from personal mental issues and unhealthy interactions with the rest of society. I also found the comparison of the US, UK, and Japan to be convincing. The US, UK, and Japan all have similar video game use but very different levels of societal violence. If violence in games truly caused violence in society, then why would the numbers be so different (even among very different cultures)?
The third article talks about the NRA and how they label the video game industry but also brings up that over half of US households have a game console, meaning a large swathe of Americans play video games and do not exhibit violent behavior. This article made me more doubtful than before of the link between violence and video games when you consider the role of the NRA. They want to shift the focus of mass shootings away from issues with guns and chose violence in media to be their scapegoat. Considering their strong politcal influence, it is no surprise that they were able to effectively spread the misconception that violence in video games inspires shooters. (Sorry to bring politics into this discussion….)
I will say that for me personally, playing BioShock did not give me any sort of high. I found the creepy cult society a very interesting story (side note: I have a MAJOR obsession with cults). I couldn’t bring myself to throw the ball at the people tied up, and my only other option was to hit the announcer. That is when sh*t truly hit the fan. I knew that I had to find the officers, but the blood splatter and mutilated faces really bothered me. I tried to just run away from them, but they all just kept hitting me. The game did not give me any sort of high at all. I was super uncomfortable with my actions.
I do agree with many of your pints, where when it comes to any real issue, people point to something else as the scapegoat in order to protect their own ideals. It has been used many of times through out history and in truly horrible ways as well. As for not being comfortable with the gore, thats totally understandable. Some games are not for everybody, which goes for tv shows as well, some things that seem okay to a few disturb others.