Video Games: one of the many hazzards

What really interests me is what makes these ultra-violent video games so gratifying to play? Is it because we would really like to go out and kill everybody that has ever pissed us off?
If so, then it is possible that these games have actually prevented murders by meeting this need vicariously.

What do you think?

I don’t think the problem with videogames is they cause violence, they probably don’t. The problem I have is with people getting obsessed with them. If you do ANYTHING THAT ISN’T PRODUCTIVE, including videogames, too much it’ll affect your psyche.

So go ahead and play videogames (though like I said I think most of them suck nowadays…good old Nintendo) but just don’t waste your entire life doing it.

so if you know what is NOT the meaning of life, then what IS the meaning of life. you can’t answer that question. maybe the meaning of life is to play computer games. :grin: it’s like god… can’t prove it, can’t disprove it.

Fabi
(just rambling :wink: )

This is way off the topic, but I do know the meaning of (my) life, and that is

  1. To stay alive
  2. To understand the truth about everything possible
  3. To act accordingly

Videogames do little to nothing to perpetuate life and little to nothing to understand the world, so therefore I can safely say that playing computer games is not the meaning of life. Not mine at least.

Your little “you can’t prove or disprove it” thing is pathetic. Why even live if you don’t believe in your own ability to rationalize?

YOU are pathetic if you don’t realize that we always have to rely upon possibilities and probabilities. We can be tricked. Just look at how our dreams can trick us. What if ‘reality’ is just a bigger dream, where it also doesn’t matter whether you are playing computer or whatnot.

YOUR meaning of YOUR life is just an interpretation. One, that of course suits you very well, but that nevertheless is not reliable simply because it is not objective but subjective. YOU want to know things and live and stuff, but that doesn’ necessarily mean that that IS the meaning of even your life.

Besides that I agree that too much time spent in front of a computer playing games could be considered a waste of time, but not because it doesn’t tie in with some bigger meaning of life, but because it SEEMS both boring and egoistic. I do not claim, however, that my opinion is right… It is of course based upon my beliefs and is not objective.

Oh well, I think you know what I mean. There are so many different layers to this question/problem that it is hard to discuss.
If we’re only talking ‘what you see and feel is real’, then of course computer games could be considered a waste of time. but if we were to discuss other layers of this question, then I would have to say, as I’ve already done, that your assumption cannot be proven.

Sorry to be such a fucking smartass. I hope you have a sense of humor and an open mind. I am sure you do. :smile: :wiske:

Fabi

First off sorry for calling you pathetic. I think you said it best: We have to rely on possiblilities and probabilities. And in all probability, from all the evidence I’ve seen since I was born, the world that I see is real. I mean, you could always say, “oh yeah well you can’t prove it!” But what are we going to do, sit around like a bunch of logs questioning whether we exist or not?

Furthermore, even if our lives IS a part of a bigger dream as you suggested, excessive videogame playing still wouldn’t be a good thing to do. When you try to have a lucid dream, you try to do cool, fun stuff right? Well if life was just a dream, the same thing would apply. And while videogames can be entertaining in moderation, when they become too big a part of someone’s life they greatly detract from the pleasure one can derive from it.

About objectivity and subjectivity: I know my fair share about objectivity. If you look at the situation objectively, you’ll find that in all probability the world DOES exist just as we see it.

Anyways, that’s just how I feel. I’m a big proponent of man’s ability to create his own reality

ooooh, I think I found an existentialist hiding in the above post. :grin: :wink:

Sometimes I believe that we can make decisions, that we should take responsibilities. Other times I look at the world and it seems as if we were only able to react to it. And not even freely, but just within the frame of our neurophysiological builup. Do you know what I mean? I mean, there are so many things that seem to happen involuntarily to me, that often it is hard to believe that I could freely create anything. :sad:

Nice talking to you, by the way. :content:

Alber Camus (one of the most famous existentialists of all time) is one of my favorite writers, but I wouldn’t really consider myself an existentialist. I think I’m more of an objectivists.

fabi, if you’ve never read any Ayn Rand books (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged) I highly suggest it. She writes about this very subject. However, both of those books are fairly long and complex, so if you’re not into reading you may not like it too much…

And it was nice talking to you too.

from what i have read of her stuff so far i have to say that i really do not like her. she pretty much promoted a very cruel and selfish behavior.

:eh: But of course i could be wrong. :wiske:

Fabi

Quote: “Pilot-games can rob you of money and time.”

its our damn money . . . . and its not a waste if we enjoy it. . . . . f*ck reality.

Selfish behavior, yes. But not cruel behavior.

What Atheist said is true, only a small percentage of ppl cant handle many things…from drug to tv, etc, for most its just a healthy escape from reality…
Here again comes the gauss curve…15 % of ppl is under average 70% is average and 15 % is above average and has great self control :smile:
Well the percentages can of course be different here…but the point is that a great number of ppl dont have problems with games whats however…and the percentage that has, just have a problem controling their selves anyway!
So how do you balance that group if they cant even handle them selves…
Our society isnt that far developed that a computer is able to recognize you as who you are and says…no no you may not play this game you dont have enough selfcontrol…
So basicly its a job for the parents…and remember folks for an small group of ppl because of who they are, there will allways be problems with selfcontrol.
Thats just the way it is…And for the rest its trail and errror.
I mean in future games will become at one point super realistic…could mean that for the small group that dont have enough selfcontrol it could become more of a problem maybe? Still you cant block out all things in the world for 80% of the ppl who can handle things because a small group of ppl cant, that aint freedom. :smile:

Jeff

Hello Sephiroth2 Is it possible you like the final fantasy series too? :cool:

I must admit I find some of the more violent games off-putting. But the risk is people keep on pushing back the bounderies (that spelling isn’t right - but I should be trying to ld by this time) of what is acceptable in these games and it makes you wonder when it will really go too far
:eek:
The word should have been boundaries. Meaning the outer limits of what people take as acceptable.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by ‘acceptable’, or ‘too far’. Those terms are surely defined by the individual, and video games are probably the least submissive form of entertainment available. In other words, you have to be actively playing the game to experience what it has to offer. If people don’t enjoy it, they aren’t forced to endure it - something that can’t be said for most other major forms of multimedia.

Well, the answer, I think, is pretty simple: Everything in moderation.
I don’t think videogames really actually CAUSE mental problems…Maybe, rarely, do they actually show them, but that’s all. I personally don’t like the real violent ones, it gets to the point where it seems the whole point is just violence. :eh:
Anyway, too much eating is bad, too little excercising is bad, too little sleeping is bad, too much videogames is bad.
Just don’t obsess over anything and you’ll be fine. :neutral:
As long as it’s all harmless fun, it’s okay.

For the moment, allow me to compare video games to lucid dreaming. Both give you the freedom to do anything you like (immoral, illegal or otherwise) in an environment that ultimately has no effect on reality whatsoever. If you choose to spend your time exploring the ruins of some ancient city, fantastic. Equally, if you’d prefer the fast-paced excitement of stealing cars and gunning down wave after wave of government officials (and innocent bystanders around them) as they try to stop you - go for it. It’s just a different way of escaping your regular life in favor of some fantasy adventure that you’ll never get the chance to experience in real life.

I’m of two minds on this subject - firstly, I think that video games, like all other art forms, should be allowed full and free reign, without restriction of any kind. on the other hand, like all art - I’m going to see a lot of corporate drivel that is wildly popular, horribly shallow, and ultimately damaging to the people who indulge and the culture they are a part of. It’s not the violent video games that make children emotionally disturbed and aggressive, it’s the violent, unrealistic, and damaged culture.

so, I guess I’m of three minds since I want to make another point - speaking from personal experience, I know that video games can be ridiculously addictive, regardless of how violent they are.
I wouldn’t think of myself as aggressive or violent in the least, but I did spend the better part of two years playing dark age of camelot for at least 10 hours a day as my relationships, schoolwork, finances, and ultimately my health crumbled around me. I can’t even play the lame little innocent games (like snood or tetris, etc.) anymore.

video games are an art, life without art is a sad sad thing, but life without good art, and art without life are two things just as bad.

I read in some psychology book that videogames provided an acceptable outlet for stress and violent impulses, so people playing them would be less prone to be violent. And I think that while many kids who play a lot of computer games are antisocial, you have to look at cause and effect. Are they antisocial because they play a lot of computer games, or do they play a lot of computer games because they’re antisocial? Or perhaps a bit of both?

Sorry if someone’s already made the above points, I’m tired and didn’t read every post. Also, once I played Doom for several hours past my bedtime and I couldn’t get it off my mind, literally. Ok, not quite literally, but I couldn’t think about anything else for the next hour or two, no matter how hard I tried. Literally. Those grainy demons and badly-textured rooms haunted my imagination without relent.

Yeah, Doom certainly was a great game. I played for days on end, and it had absolutely no negative effect on me. Though it’s funny how each time I pick up a shotgun, all the people around me start to look like demons…
:devil:

[b][color=red]This topic is continued here:

PART 2[/color][/b]