Video games and violence

Literally in the NYT right now:

Nanny Asked Ex-Boyfriend to Return Key. He Arrived With a Knife.

Those who knew Mr. Porter are shocked at the charges he now faces. Victor Toro, a superintendent at the Elizabeth, N.J., building where Mr. Porter lived with his mother, said he saw him often walking in and out of the apartment with his girlfriend.

“She was always really quiet, next to him,” Mr. Toro said.

You don't say.

I haven't added all that much to the conversation because katherine and in orbit have said what I wanted to better than I would have.

Every time an incel with a manifesto goes on a murder spree, there are always random assholes that pipe in with:

"Now obviously I don't agree with murder, but can't you put yourself in his shoes? He was lonely and girls wouldn't pay him attention".

The idea that a guy is entitled to physical and/or affection purely by virtue of existing gets sympathy well outside the incel community.

So weird that women might not be drawn to someone with a disregard for the lives of other humans.

xp I think a lot of people make the leap from "everyone needs to be loved," which is reasonable, to "I am entitled to affection" which is not. This is getting off-topic, but I think the moral constructs at work there are worth picking apart.

As for violent videogames, they are an expression of cultural attitudes toward violence, rather than a cause. The important question IMO isn't "do videogames influence violence" as it is "why do we have such violent fantasies to begin with?"

FWIW, I pose that question as someone who enjoys Doom as much as any idiot

I mean it's simplistic as explanations go but we do still have canines. We're clearly still a few hundred thousand years away from purging all of our baser animal impulses.

Video games do not make murderers. If they did, China (which has almost as many gamers as the US has humans) would have constant domestic attacks.

HOWEVER.

Gaming-related media in America is filled with Nazi trolls working hard to recruit children.

— Christopher Keelty 🏳️‍🌈 (@keeltyc) August 7, 2019

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

weird results!

impressive double tie

I voted “more than we admit” because it felt like the responsible empirical choice - we don’t know enough about what playing shitloads of Fortnite or PUBG does to individuals’ personal capacity for aggression.

I’d love to see convincing research that they don’t have any effects on that, though. And I’m still in the camp that says giving bored young men something to do with their idle time that doesn’t hurt others is a net plus.

rare numbers for a poll these days

results kinda otm

Ok boomer:

https://www.techspot.com/news/83623-joe-biden-calls-game-developers-little-creeps-who.html

Biden in "what if you could *talk* to the monsters?" shocker

fuck you biden you handsy senescent i'll noscope you in fortnite anytime

i think the man has a serious point, this is the first time in US history that a major form of popular culture has been saturated with celebrations of violence and gunplay

“And then one of these righteous people said to me that, you know, 'We are the economic engine of America. We are the ones.' And fortunately I had done a little homework before I went and I said, you know, I find it fascinating,” Biden continued. “As I added up the seven outfits, everyone’s there but Microsoft. I said, you have fewer people on your payroll than all the losses that General Motors just faced in the last quarter, of employees. So don’t lecture me about how you’ve created all this employment.

"let me tell you this, jack, the real economic engine of america is our military-industrial complex", added biden, thumping the table for emphasis. "that's why i voted to kill hundreds of thousands of people in iraq and afghanistan and i'd do it again in a heartbeat, you little shit"

going for the gamer vote by promising to shut down EA

lol, touché

Ok boomer:

https://www.techspot.com/news/83623-joe-biden-calls-game-developers-little-creeps-who.html🕸

using actual fucking xbox controllers iirc

not many game developers are in silicon valley

feel like Biden's maybe confusing two different meetings again

xp I knew there was a reason I always liked the PS more, I mean that & Tekken

69 ilxors believe playing video games have a negative impact vis-a-vis violence vs 9 who say they don't

i think probably playing violent video games lowers violence rate bc it keeps young violent men indoors playing games

nice

Vape Store (crüt) at 8:59 5 Aug 19

xp have you ever seen somebody throw a gameboy across the room because they were mad at Tetris?

I called Mario a cunt once, I'm not proud of it

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, August 5, 2019 10:05 AM bookmarkflaglink

still dying at this, a year later

i know this will seem a little dated, but there are a lot of really good points in here

Intoxicating time warp. Every detail better than the last. pic.twitter.com/NXSNwktSsg

— Rob Delaney (@robdelaney) October 30, 2020