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Someone here is an extreme gorefan…

HAHAHA!!!
Not that much...but I find it amusing.
Really I was trying to make fun of Dead or Alive Beach Ball and Lugaru at the same time...

Gore, the thing that is really rather misunderstod; some people ignore it, dismissing it as the little red pixels on your screen that it really is, others relish it, bringing up their wild side, and about 5%-15% of them are changed in any way

Well, something like that, at least I know I dismiss gore as if it is normal for the occasional severed head to go flying past your window

Maybe they shouldn't be questioning whether video games are making people violent (which is bullshit), but whether or not video games are making people emotionally indifferent (which there is certain evidence to suggest).

Yes, though hopefully most people would know the difference between severed heads flying across your screen and being hit in the face by a real severed head

BunnyWithStick wrote:Yes, though hopefully most people would know the difference between severed heads flying across your screen and being hit in the face by a real severed head

Knowing that it isn't real doesn't keep you from being desensitized.

Personally, I blame movies rather than video games. I can't really comment since I am completely desensitized, but I feel like watching a graphic movie like Lord of War is much more "damaging" than kicking a stripper in GTA or stabbing someone in Lugaru.

Jeff wrote:Personally, I blame movies rather than video games. I can't really comment since I am completely desensitized, but I feel like watching a graphic movie like Lord of War is much more "damaging" than kicking a stripper in GTA or stabbing someone in Lugaru.

I agree, however the argument could be made that games cause more desensitization. since most of the violence in a game is perpetrated by the player him/herself.

In my opinion, the graphic games and movies show how desensitized the target audience already was when the product was made.

So... The desensitization (?) took place before the product even came out and will not grow significantly because you're playing it - you bought it, so you already are desensitized.

Games usually do not make us reach a border. In my life, I just had a few games that made me say 'wait a second... isn't that almost too much?' until I got used to it. Resident Evil 2 was such a game, the Hitman series was another one (because it's so insanely merciless), SoF on the other hand wasn't such a game, as well as Doom 3.

It's kind of a vicious circle if you see it in large numbers of consumers. You reach a certain 'dullness', a game fits, you buy it, increase your 'dullness' a little bit, reach the level for a gorier game etc. The big mass though doesn't have 'slowdowns' in dullness growth, it's basically a linear function for obvious reasons.

Knowing that it isn't real doesn't keep you from being desensitized.

Yes it does.

I grew up on violent videogames. The Chainsaw in Doom was only the beginning. I enjoyed video game violence. I saw my brother play Phantasmagoria when I was young -- FMV of twisted, psychotic and explicit violence. It gave me bad dreams, but overall I was okay.

Then one day, in the middle of Animaniacs, the channel interrupted the show with a breaking news story of some guy staked out on the freeway. In front of a live camera, the guy laid out a tarp that said something along the lines of "Don't trust HMOs", then went into his truck, grabbed a shotgun, and blew his own head off.

The cameras, being live, did not cut away.

I saw a man die on live television. I was stunned and shocked and sickened, and I literally felt physically ill.
And I remember all I could think was that I had no idea the human body had so much blood in it.

I had nightmares for weeks, and I felt sick every time I remembered that guy.

And here I was supposed to be 'jaded'.

Ok...

Yes, that definately does put some perspective into the difference between real and on-screen, and it'll stay that way until someone develops a to-the-exact-colour and to-the-exact-shape virtual reality headset that you don't realise you're wearing, etc

Vib Rib wrote:Knowing that it isn't real doesn't keep you from being desensitized.

Yes it does.

I grew up on violent videogames. The Chainsaw in Doom was only the beginning. I enjoyed video game violence. I saw my brother play Phantasmagoria when I was young -- FMV of twisted, psychotic and explicit violence. It gave me bad dreams, but overall I was okay.

Then one day, in the middle of Animaniacs, the channel interrupted the show with a breaking news story of some guy staked out on the freeway. In front of a live camera, the guy laid out a tarp that said something along the lines of "Don't trust HMOs", then went into his truck, grabbed a shotgun, and blew his own head off.

The cameras, being live, did not cut away.

I saw a man die on live television. I was stunned and shocked and sickened, and I literally felt physically ill.
And I remember all I could think was that I had no idea the human body had so much blood in it.

I had nightmares for weeks, and I felt sick every time I remembered that guy.

And here I was supposed to be 'jaded'.

Or perhaps you would have been even more disturbed by seeing that if you hadn't already been somewhat numbed by violent images in movies and games.

What's wrong with being desensitized anyways?

zip wrote:Or perhaps you would have been even more disturbed by seeing that if you hadn't already been somewhat numbed by violent images in movies and games.

Perhaps.

But I doubt it.

Alert: Even the topic-starter isn't noticing that this is beginning to go off topic