Do you believe that you can still be nonviolent in real life, even if you like violence in mass media? I do not see how it is possible. I think that if a person is nonviolent (like me), he/she will not like violence. And if a person likes violence, that person would not allow himself/herself to be harmed by another human being.

Mawy_Golomb

That says more about your closemindness then it does about others I think. I'm a Catholic (not that religion is a instant sign of peace, bear with me), not raised a hand against another since I was a child, would hope I never do, I hate violence against fellow humans and my inclinations are strongly towards pearce. I also, incidentally, am a strong hater of the kicking tendency in football were players slid in purely to foul, I hate that and was ashamed when Gallas and co began kicking Nani. I also hate Boxing, so I don't see myself as a voilent person who likes seeing people get hurt or has a wish to punch people.

I'm able to square all that with playing GTA, Doom and others, for one I know it isn't real. Nobody gets harmed by me shooting that alien monster with my plasma gun, all that gets hurt are polygons on a screen as I simply enjoy myself. I'm not suddenly going to go looking for a fight, not going to suddenly dream of becoming a boxer so I'm not sure how I am suddenly a violent person.

Love your posts Grammaton-Cleric and clicketyclick. Hope I spelt that right, sorry if I didn't.

As many have pointed out, the thread is horribly generalising about games as a whole and of games that do contain violence. I personally enjoy games that give a moral choice, that give options for non violent means to tasks and there are games without violence in them. I also enjoyed CoD4, partly for the great gameplay but the clincher for me was how sad it made me feel when it took away your characters and your allies, hardly glorifying war but showing the consequences can be horrible. GTA doesn't so much glorify violence as take the Micheal out of a lot of things, allow people to have a laugh and sometimes give moral choices, if it wanted to portray violence in a glorified light then Rockstar are surprisingly incompetent. The main characters have never been very warm and loveable, in GTA4 alone, Niko pays for his lust for revenge, loses loved ones and the storyline goes into some of the horror's of war and gangsters.

Yet sometimes some of us don't want or need a game that makes us think or a game that pulls our heartstrings, or even be very complicated but a game where we just turn it on and start shooting things. The Doom's, the Medal of Honours, the Killzone's, the Time Splitter's, we just want to get rid of some energy or boredom and sometimes to get out of ourselves and simply have fun. When my father was made redundant having moved with the firm, he responded by (well obliviously looking for a new job), playing Doom to take away the anger, the hurt and just to escape. He is not a violent man inclined to going around beating people up, nor is he a mean who particularly enjoys shooters, but he needed an escape from the world for awhile. Nothing wrong with some mindless fun that doesn't hurt anyone