A recent string of shootings in Chicago will probably be linked to today's release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Never mind that violence in major cities existed long before, well, video games. Somewhere, a generic activist organization is already working to blame this violent video game for the demise of the modern American society.
During the height of the Persian Gulf War, I was playing Super Mario Bros. 3, but I don't remember drawing comparisons between American fighter jets and Mario, who, if you don't remember, could fly. Still, now that I look back on it, the coincidences are startling. Did the US government become active in the conflict because of Mario's adventure? Only time--and money--will tell.
In the 1990's, my obsession with GoldenEye for Nintendo 64 only ended after I realized that the Columbine shooters probably used the game to target terrorists (though they pretended they were classmates). Thankfully, Marilyn Manson took the fall for that incident, and the video game industry was largely saved. How is it, though, that millions of people play these games, yet there aren't millions of murders?
Maybe, just maybe, it's us--and not the games we play.
Today, Grand Theft Auto titles are largely to blame for anything and everything wrong with America. It makes sense, really. The game is violent, so people become violent. The game celebrates crime, so we celebrate crime. It couldn't be any clearer that violent video games contribute largely to the collapse of our society; besides, look at what violent movies have been doing since, um, forever?
Thankfully for the creators of GTA, they can't be blamed for slowing the economy--rough estimates suggest that Grand Theft Auto IV will sell millions of copies in its first week of release. So, if anything, we can thank them for doing what President Bush's stimulus checks won't do: Make people go out and buy something.
P.S. Don't bother reaching me, I'm playing GTA IV.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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6 comments:
You're a cheeky bastard! I don't dare buy it before the end of the semester for fear of failing all my classes.
That's certainly an issue for me, too. Then again, I'm still in class (as I write this), and I haven't actually purchased it.
But I will....I must.
Interesting.......
there was a pretty good study done in 1994 by a psychologist who was also a lt. colonol in the u.s. army who found that throughout the history of modern warfare soldiers tended to miss their targets on purpose or not fire their weapons at all during battles. in WWII the rate of return fire for american g.i.s was like 20%, in vietnam it was like 60%, and in iraq its been like 90%.
he also found that killing goes against human nature and anybody who can kill another human without a lifetime of regret is basically a psychopath.
anyway, the u.s. military learned new pavlovs dog-type techniques to train soldiers to kill and it included desensitizing them to violence (for example, instead of shooting a paper target, shoot a lifelike mannequin with a pumpkin for a head b/c that simluates what a brain does when it explodes from bullets).
the author also argued that our violence-saturated culture of video games, hollywood blockbusters and the like are having the same kind of desensitation effect.
i think dave chappelle did it best when he did a live skit mimicking GTA. he just sat there with a machine gun laying into some other guy while the dudes "energy/life bar, slowly decreased". satire at its finest.
Great game! Grabbed it at midnight at Wal-Mart the other day. Capped my first hooker last night.. it was the only way to get a refund for her "services." :-)
*hates GTA games*
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