What are your thoughts on this subject? I Didn't search so hopefully it hasn't been covered...

 

hmmm i'm sort of half half on the subject.

First off, as much as people hate to admit it, what you watch, listen to, and interact with can, does and will affect your personality to some extent.

However, the cause and effect of something are different from something controlling you. Things can affect your thinking and what not.. For instance some people react sparatically and spontaneously to loud and aggressive music. Is it controlling them? No, simply the way they react to it causes a moodshift.

There was some interesting thing I saw a long time ago that was like a picture with "dolphins", it said to see what you saw in this picture. Anyone above the age of something like 12 saw some sort of playboy figurine/model in the picture, whereas little kids saw pictures of "dolphins" so by the age of 12 they could prove that their mind was focused on "other things" to some extent. That has to have something to do with our society. Not that it means they are sexually obsessed freaks or anything, but the things you are exposed to, the things you listen to, the things you grow up with to affect how you see things, perceive things...

However, I like to believe that it depends on how open minded a person wants to be. If a person watches violent movies all the time it'll get to a point where they get "bored" with the violence, if they play violent video games all the time they get "bored" with the things that happen. I for instance do play a lot of games. Mostly racing games, but I Love the shoot'em up games too. I remember when Soldier of fortune came out, the graphics were "traumitizing" from what I remember my mom's friend saying when I was a kid. Then when I was older soldier of fortune 2 came out, and I remember the "big thing" of the game is that the bodies had something like 350 individual pionts that could be manipulated, blown apart, off, away, and mutilated. Playing the game was "entertaining" because it never appeared that an enemy died the same way. However, WHY was it entertaining. Dig deep down into the game. Take away the violence in regards to the graphic mutilation, take away the cussing, the physics and make the game more tame and people think the game is "sissy" or "crappy" or "has no substance". So perhaps it isn't actually the game thats entertaining, but something within our personality that we can release, experience or express that we can't in real life that we get drawn to in these, a lot of people get into the shooter games because its a "stress reliever" (how many times have you hear that from a co-worker?) or it's a "time killer" or something along those lines. You set two games side by side, soldier of fortune 2 and soldier of fortune 2 (edited for adult content and violence) and you go see how many people buy the edited copy.

Same with movies. Something about the progressive and/or progressing realistic violence in movies brings people to it. Why? Because it either continues a previous movie that had the same substance to it, or because it has more than the last movie.

Saving private ryan: Do you think if it had no people dying or censored the violence, or took out the shock of war and the crazy moments along with other things in the movie that had to do with the "being there" aspect that people would have seen it as much? A lot of it was "It was crazy, it showed what it was like" well, what does that tell you, the person concentrated heavily on how real it was to life or realistic it was to "the real thing". If it was "saving private ryan's smoke shop from hillbilly's" it'd be just like real life, but it wouldn't be as entertaining. You can live your daily life without seeing a movie that is just like it right? Add something you don't experience, can't, or won't or refuse to or would feel guilty to and it takes you out of that cushion that you don't experience every day. I think it gives people a thrill. People live for thrill don't they?

Anyway, I could type more but I need more coffee and am at work.

 

Ok, back with more coffee.

So, to the flip side of that... I think that the media needs to STFU and quit blaming violent acts and murder on video games and movies.

For instance did anyone hear about the chinese kid who committed suicide because he played world of warcraft for 36 hours straight and "wanted to be with his fallen heros"? I play that game, but I don't really feel like jumping off a building because I died.

Or perhaps the mid 20s guy who lived with his parents who shot himself with a .22 pistol because someone stole his crap from his character in evercrack?(or something like that, it was a while back).

Or what about the kid who was in a starcraft tournament, and won, and his opponent stabbed him to death. That was in korea.

Don't forget the counter-strike tournament where a kid was accused of "cheating" and someone stabbed him.

Now every single one of those was video game violence. However, how many of us play those games? How many of us love them? I know i've played every single one of those, but I have absolutely no desire, nor have I ever mentally thought of stabbing my opponent, shooting him/her, strangling, or jumping off a building. I play games pretty much every day, just a hobby that me and my fiance have together, but we don't play them extensively, nor do we let them consume us, hell, we have better things to do like go riding on the ninja or hit autocross. But its still fun.

I'd say the kid who jumped off a building who played for 36 hours had some parenting problems, i know for damn sure no child of mine would play for 36 hours straight. mid 20s male playing everquest all day all night after he gets home from work? I know thats obsession and addiction, you have underlying issues if you do it that much. Stabbing someone for winning a game? When is the last time your parents taught you that stabbing someone for winning a race was right? I'd say underlying parental issues, counter-strike guy? Same thing.

Don't forget the school shootings, I remember there was a school shooting here in oregon (i think there has been 2 or 3 by now if I remember right). And every single god damn time, the media has come up with something like "well that kid played house of the dead, and it was training them to kill people." OH YEAH, yeah, i sit around the house playing shooter games to train myself to go to work to kill my co-workers, OKAY, the subliminal messages got me! Come on... give me a break. Every single one of those, the media and parents blamed and sued either a music artist or a video game company, sega got into it with some parents due to a school shooting.

Yet every single time, isn't it funny how the parents said "We never knew our kid was like that." or "I thought he was just going through a weird phase." that sounds to me like the parents weren't /too/ involved. Though I understand that parents will never be able to FULLY absolutely 100% know every single thing their kid knows, they can at least get involved and interested in their life and their hobbies and interests to avoid their kid going absolutely freaking nuts.

In other words. Games, violence, movies, they can all affect you, but they don't have any control over you making the concious decision to go take someone's life. Every man and woman makes their own decision. To blame your concious decisions on a song saying "Yeah maralyn manson told me to go shoot my brother in the head" is probably the stupidest thing i've ever heard.

 

parents teach thier kids what is real and what is fake, what is right, what is wrong, they will be fine.

i watched a ton of violent stuff when i was a kid and i never was violent. i watch a lot of gorey movies and stuff and i know its fake.

i think it falls back to parenting and them not teaching their kids.

 

I totally agree with you and I was the same way as a child. The thing that bothers me is how people actually blame the media for certain actions kids commit that is wrong, when everybody knows it should be the parents responsibility to teach the child the differences.

And

koihoshi I'll read your post when I get home from work

 

what makes me mad is. parents go buy their kids games like grand theft auto which cleary states the M mature symbol on it for rating. then they complain.

1 parents fault for buying it. every game store i go into i see the rating clearly stated.

 

Video Game developers have expanded marketing and research departments that are larger and funded incredibly higher then the geeks that program the games themselves. Not only have they hired marketing and research wizards, but they have hired doctors and scientists that research dopamine effects on the brain. They develope games that allow addictions that can become more addicting then cocaine and nicotine.

In the next few years, we will start seeing court cases about this and regulations that crack down on these studies and developements that make these games so addicting.

And if you want to argue the facts, do some research...it's real:

http://www.google.com/search?hs=Xys&...es&btnG=Search

It's Mario Brothers on Steriods...

 

anything can be addicting. heck im additced to those little life saver mints.
shit some people are addicting to masturbating, some to working, some to sleeping. weak argument.

 

I don't even know why I'm wasting my time replying to this, but those addictions aren't physical addictions. Cocaine increases dopamin levels in the brain. Many of the video games that are created today raise similar levels of dopamine in the brain. And it's not just a coinsidence. The companies that market these games hire scientists and doctors that do countless hours of research, sometimes years of research, then program the games accordingly and test it on hundreds of individuals before the game is released. They are marketing a physical addiction for the sole purpose of getting the gamers addicted.

 

still man you can get addicted to anything :P :fawk: you know i luv you andy xoxoxo