Video Games are Evil

[morningstar2651]

I feel like video games, mainly the violent and shooting ones, are evil. Why are they teaching kids so much violence? From supposed christian gaming companies even.

So Evil.

Teaching children violence.

NOTE: Violent games are not intended for children. If you don't want your child playing violent video games or watching violent films, then don't buy them M rated games or R rated films.

I do, however, find it amusing that you think the purpose of videogames is to teach violence to children.

 

[morningstar2651]

I read a study that analyzed the brain's reactions to different forms of "violence". Participants were shown real violence, played violent video games, watched simulated violence with real people, and watched animated violence. During this, the researchers scanned the brain to see which areas lit up. Surprisingly enough, the brain can distinguish between real and fake. The video games and fake violence lit up different areas in the brain than the areas that lit up when real violence was shown. So, there is no correlation between violent shows or video games and true violence.

Real violence makes people feel sick to their stomach. Nothing drove that point home for me quite like my first successful hunting trip. I'm a gamer - I've played games since I got my hands on my dad's Atari 2600 as a young child.

I played all sorts of games, even the occasional violent video game when my parents permitted it. (I was allowed to rent Mortal Kombat after going to the movie with my dad).

The first time I shot a deer with my bow, I nearly threw up. Video game gore is nothing like real-world gore.

The violence in video games is intentionally unreal. It's slightly cartoony violence in most games because pushing for realism makes people uncomfortable...not just with violence, but also with character models and game mechanics.

Art-wise, when something approaches too close to being human without actually being human, people respond with revulsion. This effect is called the uncanny valley and is a common topic of discussion in robotics and 3D animation. Pictures related.

The driving purpose behind any game design is to make the game enjoyable or fun to play - not to make it realistic. Realism does not make a game better...in fact, realism can make a game much worse than it would be otherwise.

Video games are not evil, and they are not made by nameless faceless evil minions of game publishers. They are made primarily by studios of geeks that love to create games and toys...people that work 70+ hours a week to make their Christmas deadline for a product that might not break even, let alone be profitable.

 

[BrickUponBrick]

@morningstar2651, Couldn't have said it better. I've been gaming my whole life, and I've never felt the least bit like I've been taught violence. I particularly agree with the realism part. Most of the time I don't like games like that, except maybe the racing game like Gran Turismo.

Side note, but when people say shooters teach kids to use guns and kill people, how come people don't play Minecraft and decide, "I want to go out into the forest and punch some trees, use the wood and make tools, go dig and get resources and build some cool stuff and hopefully not get attacked by creepers"?

 

[Carmella Prochaska]

Video games that are evil are usually the ones rated M & above. Other than that, the others are usually fine.

 

[Girder of Loins]

Side note, but when people say shooters teach kids to use guns and kill people, how come people don't play Minecraft and decide, "I want to go out into the forest and punch some trees, use the wood and make tools, go dig and get resources and build some cool stuff and hopefully not get attacked by creepers"?

I have yet to learn how to field-strip an AK-47 or learn how to unjam an M4 carbine from a video game.

 

[morningstar2651]

@morningstar2651, Couldn't have said it better. I've been gaming my whole life, and I've never felt the least bit like I've been taught violence. I particularly agree with the realism part. Most of the time I don't like games like that, except maybe the racing game like Gran Turismo.

Side note, but when people say shooters teach kids to use guns and kill people, how come people don't play Minecraft and decide, "I want to go out into the forest and punch some trees, use the wood and make tools, go dig and get resources and build some cool stuff and hopefully not get attacked by creepers"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGPFkOKbPQ

 

[morningstar2651]

Video games that are evil are usually the ones rated M & above. Other than that, the others are usually fine.

Can you name some evil games and explain why they are evil?

Have you ever played a game with a rating over M, or even seen one on store shelves?

 

[BrickUponBrick]

I have yet to learn how to field-strip an AK-47 or learn how to unjam an M4 carbine from a video game.

My point exactly!


Haha! That video was pretty good! I particularly like the vampire/Joss Whedon bit about when his shows don't get canceled. I always love a good Firefly reference. And the punching trees thing.

 

[Orange Kitten Bob]

You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to believe you're incorrect, which I do.

There are reasons video games have ratings. You can't even buy many games without proof of age, however, I grew up playing violent video games and I'm a pretty peaceful person by nature.

Agreed. WE can be one in through Jesus Christ alone, but disagree on minor stuff like this.

 

[bendstringz]

lol

 

[bendstringz]

I think if it was a game that taught you the satanic bible, and how to perform blood rituals. it might be evil. Slaying dragons, fighting fake wars, not so sure.

 

[Syckological]

I think if it was a game that taught you the satanic bible, and how to perform blood rituals. it might be evil. Slaying dragons, fighting fake wars, not so sure.

There aren't any of those kind of games though xD

 

[morningstar2651]

Speaking of evil video games...

To release a game on the NES, you needed to be a licensed Nintendo developer, and you may have noticed that almost all their old games had the Nintendo seal of approval.

Almost all...except this gem here.

You see, Nintendo had quality standards that prevented the same problem that plagued Atari. With Atari, developers would blatantly infringe on eachother's work. It's one thing to make a game in the same genre, and another to make a game that is functionally identical.

Part of these quality standards involved the content guidelines. Games released for Nintendo consoles could not feature nudity, sexuality, profanity (including racism, sexism or slurs), blood, graphic or domestic violence, drugs, political messages or religious symbols (with the exception of widely unpracticed religions, such as the Greek Pantheon). This means that the developers of the Bible Adventures game didn't license their game through Nintendo. It's not illegal, but it certainly isn't ethical or easy.

So what they did was they copied the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 2, but instead of Mario throwing radishes, it was Jochebed throwing baby Moses, or Noah throwing animals.

 

[Cute Tink]

Part of these quality standards involved the content guidelines. Games released for Nintendo consoles could not feature nudity, sexuality

Which I find odd, because some of the Japanese versions of the Final Fantasy games had the same dancers as the American versions, except that when they started their dances, the first thing they did was toss their clothes off (leaving only the implication of underwear).

 

[abysmul]

Which I find odd, because some of the Japanese versions of the Final Fantasy games had the same dancers as the American versions, except that when they started their dances, the first thing they did was toss their clothes off (leaving only the implication of underwear).

You'd have to verify that specifically, because Nintendo has only had 3 versions of Final Fantasy games, the games are developed by Square Enix and not Nintendo, and are largely on other platforms.

 

[Cute Tink]

You'd have to verify that specifically, because Nintendo has only had 3 versions of Final Fantasy games, the games are developed by Square Enix and not Nintendo, and are largely on other platforms.

Japan got a lot more Final Fantasy games than the US did and initially they were exclusively done on Nintendo. Back then it was Square Soft though.

Final Fantasy 1 was the same in both countries. US Final Fantasy 2 was 4 in Japan. US Final Fantasy 3 was 6 in Japan. Since the release on Playstation later, you can play translations of 2, 3 and 5. The US Final Fantasy 3 was the last Nintendo exclusive release (should note 2 and 3 were Super Nintendo).

Of course this excludes the Game Boy versions of Final Fantasy Legend, Legend 2 and Adventures as well as the later bonus release of Final Fantasy with extra areas to explore.

I am a bit of a Final Fantasy nerd and I played them all up through 9 far too many times.

Also, just because Nintendo didn't make the games, they did put restrictions on other game companies. The original Mortal Kombat release on Super Nintendo was not allowed to have blood come out from the attacks. Instead it was sweat and you had to color the sweat red with the Game Genie if you wanted the more traditional flavor.

 

[abysmul]

Interesting! Well the linked article is from Wikipedia, but it does say:
Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe went further in that games released for Nintendo consoles could not feature nudity, sexuality, profanity (including racism, sexism or slurs), blood, graphic or domestic violence, drugs, political messages or religious symbols (with the exception of widely unpracticed religions, such as the Greek Pantheon).[

So it does sound like different standards for different countries (and also a timeline of when they put what level of restriction in place).

 

[Cute Tink]

Interesting! Well the linked article is from Wikipedia, but it does say:
Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe went further in that games released for Nintendo consoles could not feature nudity, sexuality, profanity (including racism, sexism or slurs), blood, graphic or domestic violence, drugs, political messages or religious symbols (with the exception of widely unpracticed religions, such as the Greek Pantheon).[

So it does sound like different standards for different countries (and also a timeline of when they put what level of restriction in place).

The Japanese culture is a little bit different from the US and Europe. I suppose they tailored the games a bit to the audience. I'm not entirely sure if the Playstation releases of the Japanese games kept the stripping dancers or not. I never quite finished those versions of the games (by the time I got them, I had less time to play them).

I do remember Nintendo games were much more restrictive in the early (NES and Super NES) games than were other consoles. I wanted a truer version of Mortal Kombat, so I bought a Genesis. Later those restrictions were relaxed (probably because people were buying games on other systems instead of the Nintendo versions).

I feel a bit like a video game nerd right now . And I'm OK with that.

 

[Syckological]

The Japanese culture is a little bit different from the US and Europe. I suppose they tailored the games a bit to the audience. I'm not entirely sure if the Playstation releases of the Japanese games kept the stripping dancers or not. I never quite finished those versions of the games (by the time I got them, I had less time to play them).

I do remember Nintendo games were much more restrictive in the early (NES and Super NES) games than were other consoles. I wanted a truer version of Mortal Kombat, so I bought a Genesis. Later those restrictions were relaxed (probably because people were buying games on other systems instead of the Nintendo versions).

I feel a bit like a video game nerd right now . And I'm OK with that.

I'm not entirely sure if the Playstation releases of the Japanese games kept the stripping dancers or not. I never quite finished those versions of the games

You're right about Japanese culture - they're VERY laid back but at the same time they can be strict on cetain issues, but they have loosened as time went on. One point is that when games are "Westernized", the American publisher takes alot out and the Devs tweak certain aspects to make it appeal to an American audience.

One game i'll use is the "Yakuza" series - all of the game is in it's Japanese glory: Japanese text w/ or without subtitles, strippers and the whole nine yards - because the Devs and Publishers of the game were in close contact. Many games that have gained a following didn't have such a connection to the original Japanese Devs, like Final Fantasy.

I do remember Nintendo games were much more restrictive in the early (NES and Super NES) games than were other consoles.

And then began "Custers Revenge" ;D

But overall games have changed with what you can put, as society changes too. But one of the biggest concerns for me is that once you see a bad event, most people (And Fox News) will blame video games such as Counter-Strike and video games in general. Well it's a bittersweet affair I suppose.

 

[Cute Tink]

And then began "Custers Revenge" ;D

But overall games have changed with what you can put, as society changes too. But one of the biggest concerns for me is that once you see a bad event, most people (And Fox News) will blame video games such as Counter-Strike and video games in general. Well it's a bittersweet affair I suppose.

I don't know that it's most people, but enough people will to make me roll my eyes every single time.