Ban this sick filth!

[ladyofastolat]

Yesterday, when I drove to town after far too many hours playing Burnout (i.e. racing at 220 miles an hour through city streets, scenery whizzing past me in a blur) I found I had to concentrate rather more on driving than normal. 40 mph felt slow, in a way it doesn't normally, and I felt as if I hardly had to turn the wheel at all to get round corners (as opposed to skidding round 90 degree bends at 150 mph.) Also, in the evening, after I'd stopped playing, I found I was less able to concentrate on print than normal. My eyes had become accustomed to an image that was whizzing by fast, and my brain had become accustomed to making split-second reactions.

I found this somewhat worrying. Playing on the Xbox for too long seemed to have turned me into an attention-deficient boy racer.



A few weeks ago, I read some new article that claimed that people who play racing games tend to be less safe drivers, therefore (the article claimed) "playing racing games turns people into dangerous drivers." I was rather scathing when I read it, since it didn't seem to consider the fact that boy-racer types are probably a whole lot more likely to play such games in the first place than sedate grannies. Rather than A leading to B, B may well lead to A.

A lot of the "computer games are evil and should be banned" brigade lose all credibility in my eyes for working from a flawed premise. They assume that games = for children, therefore if a game is about shooting people, its sole aim is to corrupt 8 year old boys into glorifying shooting. They totally miss the point that games, like films, are rated by age. If an 8 year old boy is getting corrupted by playing an 18-rated game, then it's the parents' fault for letting him get his hands on it. I know of parents who would never dream of letting their 7 year old watch an 18-rated film, but see nothing wrong with getting them 18-rated games. I've even heard parents shouting at staff in HMV and Blockbuster when they point out the 18 rating on the game they want to buy/borrow for their seven year old son.

Children have less ability than adults to distinguish fiction from reality. It is arguable that a 7 year old boy who spends his days shooting people on his Playstation might get confused and think it's okay in reality. (Though no-one seems to want to ban Tom and Jerry, and, interestingly, I once added up the body count in "family movie" Raiders of the Lost Ark, and found it higher than in Lethal Weapon, and with less focus on consequences.)

Plus, playing games is (usually) a solo activity. A child who spends whole days playing on his Playstation is missing out on social interaction (though the same could be said of reading books) and verbal development. I have read studies that claim that too much exposure to fast-moving images (and this includes TV, not just games) can have a detrimental effect on a child's mental development. (However, as with every such study, I have also read the opposite.) A tense, fast-moving game requires lots of concentration, and there is a lot of frustration when things go wrong. (I know many games are not like this, but 8 year old boys are more likely to play racing and shooting games, than play strategy games.) It's not likely to produce quiet, restful, fluffy thoughts just before bedtime.

However, adults are not children. They are generally assumed to be able to make adult judgements about things, and realise for themselves that games are just that – just games. Every now and then, the media goes into a frenzy when some killer is found to be a fan of "violent computer games", thus proving that computer games cause people to become crazed killers. (Strangely, they never say that he was very fond of baked beans, therefore the beans made him do it.) However, it seems probable that he was predisposed to murderous rampage, anyway. Maybe that's why he liked the games. Maybe the games had nothing to do with it. Attacking the games seems like a knee-jerk reaction – rather like trying to ban swords/pen-knives/cork-screws/toe-nail clippers/whatever else the latest high profile murderer has used.

People might personally consider that a game that involves shooting people isn't very tasteful and isn't their idea of entertainment, but that doesn't mean it should be banned. If it is, at least be consistent and extend the attack to films and books. People seem to be a whole lot more fond of bashing violent games than bashing violent movies, even though the violence in a live-action film is so much more realistic than anything in a game. Presumably this is because the people who campaign have all watched films, but have never played a computer game. It's always easier to attack the thing you don't understand. And they don't understand. Of all the unusual hobbies I have, playing computer games is the one people at work can least comprehend. ("But why? I grew out of games thirty years ago.")

Which, really, is why I was rather disturbed to find that I, a sensible adult, was finding it harder to drive sensibly yesterday, and was finding it less able to concentrate. I seem to be proving all those campaigners right.

Comments

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I think there's a crucial distinction to be drawn between games changing what you do, and them changing how you do it. I think the latter is far more likely than the former.

If I'm used to driving at 200 mph from playing Burnout, I can see how that might affect my driving in real life - it's a case of muscle memory and reflex - but playing Burnout doesn't induce me to jump in the car and go for a drive. Similarly, if I've been fragging people with a flak cannon in UT2K4 then arguably I may prefer to use a flak cannon when I frag people in real life. Except, of course, that I don't have access to a real flak cannon, and there's nothing about playing UT2K4 that creates a desire in me to kill people.

It's like that line in Scream: horror films don't make people into psychopaths, they make psychopaths more creative. Violent games don't make people inherently violent, but they may mould the precise form of the violence someone chooses to engage in.

You know how Wightfrag goes: one minute you're shouting in frustration as your power core explodes, the next you're asking if people need any help with the washing up and insisting that they have the last party ring, you're quite happy with Pringles :-D

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Though, arguably, if playing Burnout affects your driving in real life, that's a cause for concern...? You and I are sensible, rational, educated people (or so we believe), whose reaction to the a game-induced urge to drive faster than the limit, or to fire laser cannons at white vans, is to think, "how strange," and carry on as normal. But what about people with less sense...? Yes, it's a "Oh, but we're different; we use it responsibly" argument again. Maybe everyone who wants to play a "bad" computer game should sit a psychological test first to see if they can switch effortlessly from blowing their friends' heads off, to being polite over party rings. ;-)

By the way, did you read about that Christian computer game in which you have to kill or convert people? Apparently, preachers and Christian youth workers have been endorsing it and recommending it to their flocks. Brutal computerised slaughter is fine if it's in the name of religion, it seems.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

BTW, and OT: Don't forget you're supposed to be home on time today (i.e. to have left work by now), because of the need to dance at Herod's Feast. Or whatever it is.

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

The inconsistancy in calls for bans has bothered me for a long time. After all, when Tipper Gore was screaming for ratings labels for rock albums, she never suggested doing anything about folk music or opera, both of which are just as perverse, perverted, and violent as anything you'll find in rock. After all, Wagner's Ring Cycle includes: extreme violence, murder, theft, chicanery, incest, adultery, fornication, dark magic, and all manner of vice but people would rather their fifteen-year-olds listened to that than the Stones or a rap album, which, ironically, often contain less specific perversion. Maybe singing about these things in German is what makes it respectable.

And once upon a time I knew a girl who decided she was only ever going to listen to 'uplifting' music for the rest of her life and in her mind that meant Irish folk music exclusively. And so it was that she wandered around humming this rather pretty little tune all the time. When I listened to the actual song and its lyrics, it was all about a couple Irishmen wandering the streets on Christmas morning when a soldier comes up and offers them a chance to be all they can be in the royal army...so they beat the shit out of the soldier and his little drummer boy all on a Christmas morning. Yeah. Really uplifting, that.

My one suggestion would be taking a slightly longer break between playing 200mph chase games and getting in an actual car. I can see how the difference would be slightly disorienting for a while. OTOH, I find that playing my Sims quite violently on ocassion helps me keep my agression and frustration in check. I build death boxes and fill them with public figures I detest or representations of people who are making my life miserable and kill them horribly. And cackle. And then I turn off the computer and go make a lovely dinner for my beloved and my brother, feeling curiously refreshed.

We all need a vent now and again. I honestly don't think playing video games makes anyone do anything. They may reinforce negative ideas in some, but those negative ideas had to be there in the first place.

I call it Helter Skelter Syndrome. The Beatles song is more or less nonsense. Some people find it irritating, others think it's great party music. I find it really useful when I'm pissed at the world and want to vent a bit, and then I put it on and howl along at the top of my lungs...and Charles Manson decided it was an order from The Beatles to send his minions out to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders. Kill a pregnant woman is not a line in the song. There's nothing in it about doing anything violent. There just happened to be a phrase that Manson had already imbued with perverse meaning in his own fevered brain.

By the same token, I think people who blame games or movies for their own anti-social actions are copping out, as are those who try to blame the mass media for the behavior of others. I'm not saying there's no influence; more that the influence is molded and tempered by what is already in your brain and what lessons have been reinforced by your personal experiences.

One of my favorite songs is Jethro Tull's Aqualung, which is about a child molester. And yet, I have never once attempted to molest a child, nor would I accept that behavior from someone else if I were aware of it. I just like the tune.

And my Sims live their lives of perversity and violence without my ever laying a hand in anger on anyone or attempting to seduce a neighbor. I'm just not that kind of gal.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That would be Arthur McBride, then. One of the less violent brand of traditional folk song. Many folk songs are riddled with revenge, murder, fraticide, patricide, and any other sort of -icide you could name. (Though probably not insecticide.)

I agree that it's very inconsistent and hypocritical. The reason is presumably that "everyone" knows that rich old ladies watch opera, and happy hippies listen to folk, but rock music is listend to by scary teenage boys who hang around on street corners wearing black and scowling. If you demonise a group (and I would argue that teenage boys are demonised), then everything they do is suspect. The music they listen to, the films they watch, the games they play, etc. Whereas if "We" do it, it's fine, because We know that We have the intelligence and maturity to put it in perspective.

The arguments also don't take escapism into account. I've never been interested in reading novels about people who live the same sort of life that I do. That's why I read fantasy and historical adventures. I like to experience in fiction what I can't, and wouldn't want, to experience in life. I enjoy reading about fantasy battles precisely because I hate violence in real life. Because I've played Thief, I don't need to break into a rich man's mansion to steal his magic jewel, because I have already experienced all the emotions of it. If anyone suggested that I really did race at 200 mph through city streets, I wouldn't need to think, "ooh, I wonder what that would feel like," since I already know. Playing the game is, if anything, going to make me less likely to do it in real life.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Driving a go-cart has a similar effect on one's driving skills, I've found.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

But playing a more serious, simulation-style driving game does not. With a game like GT Legends or GTR, you have to concentrate hard just to keep on the track, so I find I'm always thinking about braking more than accelerating. With karting or a more arcade-style game, the emphasis is on driving fast and somehow hanging on or even powersliding through the bends.