RE: (TFT) Violence discussion

["rsmith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

>   David Michael Grouchy II wrote:
>
>     Now consider the average modern American child.  
>They have viewed hundreds of hours of violent acts 
>on the screen.  More than any elite soldier would see 
>in multiple lifetimes.  And without benefit of a single 
>de-briefing session.  All these dark and bloody images 
>churn around in their memory.  It is no wonder that 
>table top fighting games are increasing in popularity.  
>As a people we are learning to debrief ourselves.  A 
>group of friends sitting around the kitchen table 
>dealing with these violent memories one at a time.  
>Recognizing them for what they are and moving on.


	I am not disturbed by violence in literature
and the media.  What does distress me is the fact that
very little violence on TV or in the Movies is put into
a social context.

	Consider, in great literature there is violence
galore, but the books look at the causes / and the
consequences of violence.  How does violence affect
people?  Also the violence is usually of 
short duration.

	In TV and movies, the violence is (often) socially 
unmotivated, and little time is spent seeing the results
and effects of violence.  Violence is exciting because
it 'films well'.

	Computer and video games are worst.  There the
violence is constant, unrelenting.  It is socially 
unmotivated.  There is no exploration of the effects
of violence on the survivors (often because there ARE
no survivors).  The other thing is that in a computer
game the violence is DONE BY the player.  At least in
a movie you can say, "I didn't do that deed, the 
character on the screen did."


	It should be understood that I've spent a good
deal of my professional career building computer games,
and I am dismayed by the lack of real ideas in the 
hobby I have chosen as my life's work.  This is a 
large part why I am now spending more of my time 
teaching.

	All this is just a long winded way to say I agree
with David.  I can think of many things more corrosive
to society than war games.


	Rick
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