🚀 go-pugleaf

eds...@u.washington.edu (Ed Suominen) writes:

| Now that the catharsis effect has been disproven by the science of
| Psychology,

*bzzt*.  *Some* of the claims have certainly been disproven, but some of them
seem to still be supported by evidence.

| and it has been shown that violent role-playing only feeds the acceptance of
| real violence, why are we doing violent role-playing?

*bzzt*.  Better define "role-playing" in this situation.  There is a very clear
distinction between games and real-life.  Even four-year-olds realize it.

| Witness the streets of America today, and note how similiar it is to the
| violence on TV.

It goes both ways.  Witness the streets of Chicago in the 1920s.  That took
place 30 years before the premiere of "The Untouchables."  TV reflects reality
far better than reality affects television.  (By the way, "The Untouchables" is
still one of the top five most violent shows ever aired.)

| And now we need a game where you can personally shoot a high-caliber pistol
| at an "enemy" and watch the blood spurt out? Or hack away with a chainsaw or
| stab with a bloody knife?

Just as bad as a game of search-and-destroy (Battleship), or drive-your-
opponents-to-economic-ruin (Monopoly), or any of a bazillion other game
pretenses.  Personally, I find the greed and ruthlessness inherent in Monopoly
about as disturbing as the violence in the Mortal Kombat video game.  But the
point is, they're both *games*.  Not reality.  It's not like, say, any war,
where you can personally shoot a high-caliber pistol at a REAL PERSON and watch
the blood spurt out.

| What if this game were set in Nazi Germany, and your job was to push Jews
| into ovens?  To throw little Jewish babies in the air and shoot them? To take
| pot-shots at little jewish boys for kicks? It would *only* be role-playing?

But it's not.  DOOM is based on a fantastic premise using weird and hostile
alien beings, not a historical premise against nonhostile or defenseless
people.  You're really reaching here, to an embarrassing degree.  I'm a little
embarrassed to admit that you're at the same university.

| Maybe we need "JFK Assasin", "Crucifixion of Slaves in Ancient Rome", "The
| Spanish Inquisition", or "Lynch Mob!" in living 3D color.

Again, you're reaching.  Sorry.  I just don't buy it.

							---Ken