a podcast idea

[Sashajade]

  I happened to catch some news on the politics channels on violent video games.

There is a recent version of the game called 'grand theft auto'. sorry im not great with

punctuation lol! I would like to see Stef do a podcast referencing the phsycology,

impact, people behind it, the propoganda. I just find these type of games shocking,

disturbing. i was talking to a male friend who happened to b playing the recent

version #5. i remember seeing the first ones played before.

That game is so realistic, and the part that is most shocking is that

u can do anything. including violence against women, its been awhile but i belive

i saw a prostitute getting hit or something. my mouth dropped.

I just think it's kinda sad. In reality if u were in the positions of those

characters, it would not be glamorous at all.

[Stephen C]

I think it would be worth doing a podcast as well, I've heard it's the most selling game of all time and it's super popular right now so this should drag in a lot of views. Great suggestion

[Wesley]

I voted up the post and think it would be a great idea as well.

 

I have some mixed feelings on this and would be interested to see what angle Stef would go from.

[aFireInside]

Yeah you could do almost anything rated R things. (and XXX)

 

I do think these games are violent and nasty, but I don’t know if someone who is raised peacefully would really enjoy playing these games.

 

I like playing shooting games, but I don’t think of the people as “real”, more like robots. I like the strategy and skill involved not necessarily the killing part. It’s kind of like playing tag but with guns.

[Duderio]

goodbye

[Sashajade]

 Just because there is a rating doesn't mean that young impressionable minds aren't getting access to it.

[MysterionMuffles]

Yeah I have a lot of ambivelance about this game. It's philosophical merits (hang on here lol) include satire on American culture, and politics. It has a lot of anti-State undertones with its story line and some of the cartoons you can watch on the TV's laying around in the game.

 

However of course, there is the blatant concern of sexuality especially in this version of the game where you can go to strip clubs. There's a mini game where if you want to take a stripper home to have sex with, you have to flirt with her and touch her body during a private lap dance, but you have to touch her when the bouncer isn't looking, otherwise you get thrown out of the joint. There are plenty articles on the web concerning over this, and I can see what effects it can have on impressionable young boys who will be encouraged to grope women "when no one's looking."

 

FURTHERMORE, although the writing is actually pretty good in terms of the storyline (not great, but good for a video game's standards of being able to empathize with the 3 main criminals you get to play as) they made all the women in the game act very annoying and one dimensional. They're just cheating, feminazi psychos who exploit themselves sexually or simply there to talk crap to the men in the game.

 

Though some other owners of this game right here at FDR have argued that you should just not take it seriously, and I agree. The entire game is built around immorality from being able to run over civilians in cars you can easily steal to the elaborate bank heists you can perform--but I just don't feel negatively affected by it. I can tell that this is just a game and there ARE things I can do in the game that I just wouldn't in real life. ie. Drive recklessly, beat up random pedestrians and take their money, and I most definitely would not be spending my time at a strip club.

 

So okay in the game, I played the stripper mini-game about three times just to see what happens if you succeed at taking them home. Nothing happens. You just take her to her apartment, they show an outside view of the apartment while there's a time lapse animation of day turning to night without so much of sounds of two people having sex like in previous games. There is no real pay off in playing that mini-game and since I've just stayed away from the strip club. It's an empty rewardless aspect of the game that is alright I guess to have, ya know...if you like to get off pixelated boobies, but you don't realy miss out on much if you don't play it. There's plenty of more fun things to do around the vast cities.

 

However, in real life, two men who I'm no longer friends with (for many reasons I won't get into here) once took me to a strip club and I just felt completely uncomfortable. I was not at all willing to spend any money to get a private dance, and the girls who were dancing at the stage varied in attractiveness. But despite of how hot or not they were, I just felt...really sad for them. Is there really such thing as a woman with healthy self esteem who just so happens to choose to strip? I dunno, but anyways, that night at the strip club I just felt completely out of my element. I couldn't wait to leave beacuse the entire energy of the place wreaked of sleaze, just the way the entire place was set up with the dim lighting and flashy lights. And the women who would come to our table to flirt...ah anyways

 

My point is, I don't think there's anything wrong in indulging in video game playing as long as you know how to detach reality from fiction. I can spend hours on this game driving recklessly, running reds, breaking traffic lights, crashing into other cars and running people over--and then step outside and drive safely in my real life car, almost to textbook precision. Sorry for the long ramble, but if I can sum it up, I think the more self knowledge you have, the more naturally you can resist the possible negative influences of playing such a violent and immoral seeming game.

 

If Stef happens to see this thread and DOES a podcast on this, I'd look forward to it. Hell he should even bring back the Let's Play series he tried out with Unreal Tournament LOL. Like he should play the game and have by the minute philosophical discussion as to how wrong the game is...

 

But in the end. It's just a game. Some would even argue that it helps relieve stress and that it's a safe place to unleash you inner demons without hurting any real people. A lot of hard working nerds put about 5 years into developing this huge sandbox world with much to do, not to mention writing a solid script (again for video game standards) and i don't think it's particularly a bad thing to play the game as long as you're aware of how it's all just SATIRE!!! Not to be taken seriously or as any moral compass.