Thursday, 17 January 2013

Just entertainment?

Have you ever played man hunting video games like that Manhunt 2? Or have you ever watched the Saw film series? Which ones are more harmful to people?

According to the article Under Glare of  Scrutiny by Schiesell.S (29. October. 2007) while the worst slasher films or books which are full of brutal delieations go without remark in America, video games are dealed  very differntly at rating; however, revised Manhunt2 rated M will be released and this will be good the market of the  makers like that Nintendo or Wii.

The title of the video game Manhunt attracted my interest, because it looks very violent and horror ; in addition to this it seems also harmful. On the contrary my first impression while I was reading this article I changed my mind.

I remined my experiences relating video games. Although I don't usually play them often, the most of them are violent . I don't remember the title; however they are fighting games that are full  of kicking and fisting to fall down the opponent. They are very normal and simple games that are easily found out in the places for video games.

For the slasher movies I think what kind of person enjoy them; One face flashes me- my brother I remember he was enthusiastic like that saw films for a while; then I thought that his taste was very different from me. That's all. He's very normal and even very nice person.

I remember one research that violent video games don' t increase the violent tendency of human.  The result surprised me but I nodded then. I found that I also have more sensitive attitudes to the games than other kind of entertainments like that movies or books. We can choose what we want because we are adults.
However I don't want my kids spend their time with playing fighting games. There are good games for children but it's not easy to meet our ends.

_____
Reference
Schiesell.S. (2007, October 29). Under Glare of Scrutiny, a Game Is Toned Down. The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/arts/29manh.html?_r=0

6 comments:

  1. Jennifer,
    It fits very neatly with the blog post that I've just finished with my morning coffee. I like the way you use your brother as an example to support your idea in response to the article.

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  2. I believe that children are as white papers. They will be as you draw and paint; moreover, these papers can absorb colors around them by themselves although we do not intend them to do so. Therefore, I agree with you that we should not allow children to spend time to play violent games; in case they want some plays to relax, we also have many alternatives such as sport games.

    Furthermore, I think, sometimes, we must be careful when we read some researches because samples in those researches might be unfortunately incomprehensive our cases.

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    Replies
    1. I'm afraid I agree with Jennifer - the evidence seems strong and reliable from numerous studies that extremely violent video games do not make children violent and do not create violent adults. In fact, some evidence suggests the opposite - Japan, for example, is very fond of very violent games, including games with sexual violence such as rape, but violent crime in Japan is lower than in many other countries.

      But Sup does make a good point: the only way we can be sure of our opinion on any topic is to test it against opposite opinions, and to ensure that critical, especially strongly negative criticism, can be stated in order to be investigate. This is why free speech is absolutely essential both to democracy and to knowledge: where censorship prevents free speech on any topic, there can be no knowledge and no well-founded, well-balanced opinion on that topic protected from discussion by censorship - there can only be largely worthless opinion based on legally enforced ignorance, and in most cases, that is a very bad thing, especially for any matter of public concern.

      I think that the possibility of knowledge is generally better than legally enforced ignorance.

      But that adverb generally is not an accident. It is there for a reason - there are cases where ignorance on a topic is preferable to knowledge. Can you think of any such situations where censorship and suppression of free speech in order to create ignorance and worthless opinion on a topic is a good thing? Or maybe you disagree with me completely about the certain ignorance and rendering worthless of opinion that must normally result from censoring by law or otherwise some opinions?

      Delete
  3. I used to like playing video games, but I didn't like violent video games because according to development of a technology, they came to be similar to the real. The real-like blood, severed bodies, and screams made me sick. So, I don’t want to recommend those kinds of video games to others, especially children.
    We have to think why violent video games come to be a social issue even though many studies say there is no relevance between violent video games and violent actions. This issue makes our focus take off the serious social problems which could be the real reasons of social violence such the rich and the poor, the neglected class of people, and so on. However, the relation is so plausible to believe. Who makes us, mass media, real facts, or our feeling?

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  4. When I was young, I played many video games. Some of them were violent like killing zombies, shooting thieves and fighting opponents. Although they from time to time made me feel depressed and stressful, I had never imitated those cruel acts. However, some children cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. I think that violent video games partly affect human’s mind and mentality. As a result, children absorb those brutal images while they are playing games. It depends on individual maturity to copy or ignore them. Not only video games but also other media, such as TV programmes, soap operas and newspaper, can affect our thought and acts. For example, an 8-year-old girl attempted suicide by hanging herself after watching a popular Thai soap opera, Raeng-ngao. Fortunately, she did not die. I think that her parents were culprits since Raeng-ngao had a rating of 16+ and they still let their daughter watch it. Even if they allowed her to watch it, they should give her an appropriate guidance and instruction. Another tragic example is that 14-year-old boy killed his mother after she had tried to dissuade him from playing a video game. I had not imagined about a great impact of media and I felt very sad after I read this news. All in all, I believe that those brutal acts in media influence children’s mind and can lead to mimicry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I was reading Soi's excellent response above (January 19, 2013 at 4:06 PM), I kept thinking what a great topic there was for a research paper.

      As you read it, where do you think a source needs to be cited?

      And based on what Soi has written, what is the topic of the research paper, or of the essay version?

      Delete

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