Ok, this is not a subject I know too much about any longer, as I gave up most video games when I got married 18 years ago. When I met my wife, I had a PlayStation (the original). As a family we did purchase a Wii when it became popular, and played it pretty heavily for about a year, but even it tapered off and we stopped all together. I was never beaten by anyone in Wii Tennis by the way, something I am still proud of to this day. Today, I have a NES Classic that has many of the original Nintendo Games, and I play it occasionally when I am really bored late at night. Outside of that I have a few mundane games on my phone.
The reason I have chosen this topic for my blog is because of something that has been in the news lately about a specific game that was slotted to release. The game is called, "Active Shooter" and was set to release June 6th on Steam, an online gaming store and platform owned by Valve Corp.
As soon as news of the release became public, there was a swift and strong backlash from the public. This game was set up to allow the gamer to choose to be a SWAT Team member who would enter and take out an active shooter in a school or other building. Another option the game provides is to choose to be the Active Shooter, whose mission is to search out and destroy people. After providing that description I hope it is easy to see why the backlash came in from the public.
Valve Corp. has removed the game and creators from their platform and it will not be released on the 6th as previously planned.
Now, here is where the conversation starts. How far is too far when it comes to video games? As I said at the beginning of this blog, I still play the NES Classic, so the simple pixel games I play do not portray violence to any extreme. Super Mario is a pretty bad cookie for jumping on all those turtle shells, but I am pretty sure he is OK for kids. Fast forward to 2018 and you have a virtual treasure trove of shooter games and horror games that portray horrible death scenes with ample amounts of blood, gore, language, and inappropriate behavior. What makes the games even worse is the realism. Graphics in 2018 are near realistic.
Even games like Grand Theft Auto allow players to do horrible things, like senselessly beat and rape women, kill people whenever and with whatever you want to, etc. Why? I am asking this well knowing that there are MANY people out there who enjoy video games, and for that matter the extremely violent ones. What I really want to know though are two specific things:
1. Why do games that allow you to kill, rape and destroy people in the most horrific manner draw such a crowd?
2. Why would any person want to play a game like that?
I am not asking because I am stupid or being sarcastic. I am asking as a person who truly doesn't understand why so many millions of people like these games and enjoy playing them to the point that developers make millions. It's almost as if people want the next, more violent and inappropriate game to get released, and there are people lined up around the corner at stores on release day. I truly want to know why.
You see legislators bringing up video game violence all the time as a contributing factor to violent teens. I am not saying that at all. I am simply asking why even go there? Parents, the greatest majority of players of these games are under age, as many of the games are labeled Mature. Why do you allow your children to play the games?
This has all been bouncing around in my head and I decided to blog about it because for once, I cannot come up with any feasible answers to the two questions I posed above. So the final questions I have to pose are, Where do we draw the line? Is the line a game like Active Shooter that allows a person to be the Active Shooter? Why wasn't the line a game that allows you to murder and rape innocent people? Where is the line, or is there a line? In your opinion should there be a line?
This is a blog I am very interested in either receiving comments on below, or in private to my stephendunkel@gmail.com email address, because I truly want to know what people think and feel about this subject.
Thank you for reading, and I can't wait to hear from you.
DUNK
The reason I have chosen this topic for my blog is because of something that has been in the news lately about a specific game that was slotted to release. The game is called, "Active Shooter" and was set to release June 6th on Steam, an online gaming store and platform owned by Valve Corp.
As soon as news of the release became public, there was a swift and strong backlash from the public. This game was set up to allow the gamer to choose to be a SWAT Team member who would enter and take out an active shooter in a school or other building. Another option the game provides is to choose to be the Active Shooter, whose mission is to search out and destroy people. After providing that description I hope it is easy to see why the backlash came in from the public.
Valve Corp. has removed the game and creators from their platform and it will not be released on the 6th as previously planned.
Now, here is where the conversation starts. How far is too far when it comes to video games? As I said at the beginning of this blog, I still play the NES Classic, so the simple pixel games I play do not portray violence to any extreme. Super Mario is a pretty bad cookie for jumping on all those turtle shells, but I am pretty sure he is OK for kids. Fast forward to 2018 and you have a virtual treasure trove of shooter games and horror games that portray horrible death scenes with ample amounts of blood, gore, language, and inappropriate behavior. What makes the games even worse is the realism. Graphics in 2018 are near realistic.
Even games like Grand Theft Auto allow players to do horrible things, like senselessly beat and rape women, kill people whenever and with whatever you want to, etc. Why? I am asking this well knowing that there are MANY people out there who enjoy video games, and for that matter the extremely violent ones. What I really want to know though are two specific things:
1. Why do games that allow you to kill, rape and destroy people in the most horrific manner draw such a crowd?
2. Why would any person want to play a game like that?
I am not asking because I am stupid or being sarcastic. I am asking as a person who truly doesn't understand why so many millions of people like these games and enjoy playing them to the point that developers make millions. It's almost as if people want the next, more violent and inappropriate game to get released, and there are people lined up around the corner at stores on release day. I truly want to know why.
You see legislators bringing up video game violence all the time as a contributing factor to violent teens. I am not saying that at all. I am simply asking why even go there? Parents, the greatest majority of players of these games are under age, as many of the games are labeled Mature. Why do you allow your children to play the games?
This has all been bouncing around in my head and I decided to blog about it because for once, I cannot come up with any feasible answers to the two questions I posed above. So the final questions I have to pose are, Where do we draw the line? Is the line a game like Active Shooter that allows a person to be the Active Shooter? Why wasn't the line a game that allows you to murder and rape innocent people? Where is the line, or is there a line? In your opinion should there be a line?
This is a blog I am very interested in either receiving comments on below, or in private to my stephendunkel@gmail.com email address, because I truly want to know what people think and feel about this subject.
Thank you for reading, and I can't wait to hear from you.
DUNK
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