Perhaps my curiosity with the subject derives from my little brother. Mike is a ballin' gamer and, in my opinion, a pretty creative trash talker. I say creative because he seems to take it to the next level. Like playing the new Call of Duty game, characters can get guard dogs to fight along side them in online play. After melee killing another character's dog my brother plays this commercial into his headset. Nice one Mike, I thought it was genius. On the flip side I've heard him tell a kid he was going to kill their mom, which some people might think is inappropriate. While I do agree, it is inappropriate, both instances have something in common; they both are incredibly gratuitous. In this way I think of my brother's trash talking like a Tarantino movie. There is something so ridiculous about it, so over the top not going to happen, that it is not only harmless, but it's pretty freaking funny. Though I can't bring myself to condone it too much because I would rather my brother not be accused of being a terrorist.
One thing that I'm not down with are the millions of homophobic and racist comments being made all across the air waves. Now I am about to make something real clear: there is nothing OK about shooting up a kindergarten. Clear? That being said, it is an overly gratuitous statement, uttered by a stupid 19 year old. The threat should be assessed, but the jail time was a little excessive. On the other hand, why are kids allowed to call each other faggots? I appreciate language and know that words have meaning, the word faggot is incredibly offensive, derogatory and used in any other context other than acknowledging it exists, is hate speech. Last I checked hate speech is the closest thing to terrorism you could probably get in real life while playing a video game. Again, people should not be thrown in jail for saying the word faggot, but I would like to see more concern from the gaming community. Why was Justin Carter in jail? Because he posted something on Facebook that, due to fairly recent tragic events, made a lot of important people feel like they had to do something.
Trash talking has always been a part of competition. Even threats have, remember when Mike Tyson told his competitor he would eat his children? People went nuts! Now I'm sure things of that nature are said on a fairly regular basis. The threats and insults come in a constant stream in online gaming. Sometimes when things get too out of hand other players can flag your account. But what the slug?! Racism is still very prevalent online, I've heard the N word on multiple occasions. There are adults who play these games! Why aren't more people flagged for blatant racism? Because it hasn't come to the attention of the right important person. My point: lets not throw idiots in jail and deem them terrorists unless we know they're terrorists. Maybe, we can use our power and resources to work with the gaming community and try our best to moderate and educate the trash talkers of the world. If we harnessed all of that trash talking creativity who the hell knows what we can do with it. I'd like to see my brother become a comedic radio talk show host, maybe if given that kind of hope, Justin Carter wouldn't have felt the need to vie for acceptance through shock value. Or maybe I'm just a douche.
Thanks for Listening,
Kyle
I was just having a discussion about this at GDC the other day. I also believe that video games do not make children violent; But, does that mean they do not affect them at all? Game developers, like artists, and writers would like to believe that their creations move people to emotion, as they should. So, what about violent games? Some games understate or cartoonize the violence to the effect that we know it is not real and, like a cartoon, has no real consequences. But, then there are other games (Call of Duty for example) that make violence and death as real as possible. To what effect for their users? To desensitize them like the U.S. military? Even their developers have stated that "They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call of Duty every night. And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of platform." This is because they are targeting a very specific demographic: Already angry teens, and Militia who have never been in combat. These games draw on this unused anger, they feed it and they also are a release for it. They essentially create their own consumers; very different consumers from the average gamer. They have created a separate game market and thus a whole group of exceptionally violent speaking gamers. However violently these teens and military men may speak during game I think most of them get their violence out virtually and are actually less likely to shoot up schools or beat wives in real life. Actual sociopaths or psychopaths who do this will do it regardless of video games. Like in books and movies when someone doesn't get the plot; Game developers cannot account for the small percent of viewers (psychopaths and sociopaths other mentally unwell) who are unable to grasp the concepts of reality vs. a game.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, your blog hurts my eyes, Kyle. You shouldn't use white type on a black background in your large body of text. It strains the eyes, after reading I can still see stripes like I have been staring at blinds over a window for too long. Try a softer gray or brown background. I'll read the rest of your posts when I'm not dizzy.
Thanks for the post Stephanie! It's awesome to hear from you!! I totally agree with your point too. Plus you're right, I need to change up my layout. Thanks again for reading dude, I hope you are well!
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