There are two major flaws in the blog. First, the guy is making a generalization from what amounts to anecdotal evidence. It is not logical to conclude that the gaming industry as a whole loves violence with a "sociopathic abandon" just because he didn't like the ad campaigns for the select number of FPSs that he watched at the latest E3. Second, he undercuts his own argument with examples of games that he enjoys that do not treat violence with sociopathic abandon.
But what really hit me when I read this blog was that this was one more gamer who falls in line with all the censorship bs that is out there. It always amazes me how many gamers out there buy into the arguments that violence in video games is dangerous and deserves special condemnation over all other forms of violence in the media.
It's interesting how these kinds of gamers compartmentalize the violence. It's OK for them to enjoy video game violence because (1) they are well-balanced, mature individuals (yeah, even the 15 year olds and younger gamers consider themselves mature), but they fear for the fate of those unbalanced immature gamers out there with their lazy, no good parents who let them play violent video games and torture the family cat or (2) their games are OK because they only include socially acceptable violence, but they fear for the fate of those who play games with socially unacceptable violence because who can resist such violence. Clearly, the blogger falls into the second category. He makes it clear that the kinds of violent video games that he enjoys are perfectly OK and socially acceptable but the kinds of violent video games that he doesn't enjoy are seen as evil and corrupting. I call bs on that whole line of argument.
I especially take issue with the blogger's notion that the only socially acceptable use of violence in the media is when a hero is relunctantly forced to punish a bad guy who deserves it. Talk about "creative adolescence." Painting the world black and white/good versus evil is not a mature world view.
Are there games out there that I find distasteful? Hell yes. Am I scared by them? No way. It has been my anecdotal observation that the really distasteful games do not sell. I'm perfectly comfortable with letting the market take care of this issue. I'm certainly not going to sit down next to the blogger on his high perch and "look with dismay" on all the people who do not share his narrow viewpoint of what is acceptable in video games and what is not.
Solori
Good points all around.
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