Tuesday, December 25, 2012

It's videogames fault... again!

Realizing I had some visits from US I decided to translated in English my last article. Because after all I love you motherfuckers.

So here we go.

We are at it again.
After the newton massacre the NRA thought to blame videogames for the dire fact.

RNA is defending with all means the second emendament of a constitution written more than 200 years ago, when indipendence war was raging in USA.
Like we say we need to follow a constituion written during Savoia reign in Italy.

But if in Italy Berlusconi and bros consider lecit to change the constituion in name of preserving their own interests, the US "patriots" will never forfeit their right to amass guns and pistols granted by the second emendament. Of course no one give a fuck about the first emendament.

Said that, let's discuss the second issue, the violence on videogames.

Violence on videogames is ovverated.
Let me explain better: if I compare videogames of the current generation to other media, they're not so violent.

The increased videogame violence is generated from tecnological innovation. If a while ago videogame violence was trascuable because it was too abstract (shooting sprites is like shooting at toons) now that videogames are much more realistic the content delivered is much less abstract.
But this is not the issue.
The issue is that the "violent" games are not violent but freaky. Games with a overwhelming amount of violence most of the time do not take themselves seriously (it came to my mind Blood) and so the message relayed is laughable and less powerful compared to the one delivered by other medias. For example games that present explicit scenes of torture, cannibalism or mutilation are kinda rare, but if we look at movies, these kinds of scenes are pretty common in horror movies and do not provoke so much indignation to move mobs with pitchforks in front of movie theaters.
Aren't horror movies accessible by everyone? Yes, of course. Because television is a common media. Only recently with satellite TV and cable TV a form of parental control was introduced.

So why so much hostlity towards video games?

There are several reasons in my opionion.

Firstly is clearly the lack ok knoweledge. While TV is a common device worldwide, we cannot say the same of computers and consoles, especially if we go back 20 or 30 years ago, when the current parent generation was living their adolescence. We can say that now computers are widespread but don't you think they are so common. In the advances world they surely are, but we need to take in consideration also other countries like Africa, South America or Asia were millions of people do not have access to this media because they live in different condition (extreme poverty or very rural and arretrated areas). This create a certain form of diffidence toward these new medias, because it's hard for a parent to understand why his kid enjoys spending so much time playing games.

The second reason is linked with the "immersion" in videogames. Allow me to explain better. We can watch a movie and retain a detached feeling, because the actions are played by an actor. In a videogame the adventure is played by the player himself, so he need to take choiches and there are several immersive videogames that put the player in different situations emotionally involving. So the player involvement in videogames is more strong than the one of someone watching a movie. When we watch a movie where the bad guy meet his end, we are patecipating in a cathartic purification. The watcher feels like he's freed from a heavy load and get a feeling of comfort. In a videogame this feeling is amplified because the experience is much more immersive. Surely there are many players that aren't indifferent in front of the events of a videogame and to the feeling of fullfilment when a boss is defeated. I observed a stronger involvment in persons that aren't abitually videogame players. It's always quite funny to see people that move their whole body according to the actions on the screen instead of just pushing the buttons on their controllers. This lead me to think that the involvment of non players is stronger than the one of an abitual player. So the feeling of violence to the eyes of a non player it's also amplified.

The third reason is the common perception of videogames. Videogames are still preceived as a entertainment for kids. The videogame market and his target is actually very large and cover different age ranges. There are videogames for kids and videogames for adults. On every videogame there is a rating to identify the specific age target of the game. Often parents do not care about the rating and buy videogames without asking themselves if they are suited to their kids age. And also like movies, there are videogames that require parental guidance. Parents need to overcome their indifference and diffidence and start to get involved in their own kids hobbbies. If it's normal for parents (not for everyone but for the ones that care) to watch TV with their own kids, it should also be normal to play with their own kids, understand what they're playing and what they're enjoying. Unfortunately often parents are too involved in their own problems to really care about their sons hobbies. Videogames are a form of entertainment that need to be monitored, like everyhing else. I think we want to know who is the guy who is dating our daughter, in the same way we should care about the game that our son is playing.
Videogames are not a solution to get some free hours, is not fair to put our own childrens in front of a TV or videogame to get them busy for few hours.
I can talk like this because I had good parents that followed me. My father used to play with me, my first game videogame partner was him, when we used to play bubble bobble on commodore 64 and we both had fun.
It's also true that my first PC game was DOOM and probably I would not buy it for my son at a young age. But playing DOOM didn't make a killer of me. Videogames do not create killers. The indifference of parents ignoring deep problems create killers. Young gangsters are born in the street, in the general indifference of parents, teachers and institutions. They do not become so playing DOOM or GTA.

But as usual, in the depserate search for a scapegoat for unplesant events, they blame the media instead of the real responsibles: the social enviroment in which Adam Lanza lived, the personal events that transformed him into a killer capable of butchering a entire class of kids.
Because, let's be serious, there are thousands, even millions of people that play videogames but no one kill kids in cold blood.

As usual we look for the most suitable scapegoat. In he past times when videogames and televisison didn't exist we would say that was the devil suggesting this actions. Now we blame what is perceived as the modern face of the devil. Metal music, videogame, TV. But the responsability of the media is as imaginary as the responsability of the devil of the long time past.

As usual no one will care. Until we'll get wiches to burn, the crowd can sleep in peace, freeing themselves from worries and responsabilities. Because in the end if this things still happens we are all responsible.
Everytime we turn our back to someone with poblems, every time we ignore someone screaming for help, everytime we turn our gaze then we see something wrong, we create a small bit of a criminal.

And as usual, no one will give a fuck.




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