Quote Originally Posted by Little Miss Gloom View Post
If I may, I feel like violence in video games today is a lot like a person's desensitation to porn.

You first discover it, it's this magical, shocking thing - forbidden fruit. Angelina Jolie's tits = finishing moves in Mortal Kombat, back in 1991.

But as we progress and become exposed to more and more of this shocking thing, our tastes change. Angelina Jolie's tits just don't do it for us anymore, so we seek out greater thrills. And before we know it, we are on a path of total desensitization, getting our base jollies off on things that any normal human being would be totally reviled by.

And as games get more and more realistic, the shock factor isn't so cartoony anymore, like it was playing Resident Evil on PS1 or DOOM on your PC. Tearing people apart in The Darkness 2 as they scream in agony, helpless to defend themselves. That's fucked up. Really, really fucked up.

But, like porn, it's cathartic, it releases our stresses of the day. But really, how healthy is that for our brains? Especially when more and more games these days rely on such over the top violence?

I do not, by any means, think violent video games incite violent people, but consider this: People bitch and whine about politicians like Jack Thompson, but really if you think about it, is it any wonder there's such a strong petition by government officials when they are shown examples of what a modern video game is?
I'm sorry, but if you believe that violent games don't incite violent people (a view I share by the way), then what does it matter if people are doing something that is in fact cathartic? Are we supposed to censor games simply because extremists like Jack Thompson could have visual evidence to show to the media if we don't? Where do we stop? Should games only support "traditional" notions of family or religion? Should we remove demons and creatures that don't comport with Christian conceptions of the world? What about other illegal or unethical practices in games? For example, when I play complex strategy games like Civilization, I can impose a dictatorship, I can engage in genocide, I can force people into poverty, I can steal from other players, etc...Aren't these also practices that are not acceptable in real life?

I've been playing video games for over 30 years now. I know many other people who do as well. I've never met a fellow video gamer who wasn't fairly intelligent, generous, compassionate and creative yet. These same "violent" video games are sold all over the world and with the exception of a few countries, they aren't edited for content in any manner. Those countries don't have anywhere the level of violence that we do in this country for the most part and in some cases, their domestic media is far more embracing of violence on regular broadcast television (have you ever watched the news outside of the United States and Canada?) and in many countries, sexuality is far more open than in the United States. There are obviously other societal or cultural factors that fuel this purported violence.

I also don't buy that porn is a gateway to deviant behavior. I would suspect that most men and lots of women have watched porn from time to time or even regularly and I can assure you that most of them aren't constantly looking for harder and harder core porn over time.