can you really spend too long on computer games..

[Hagar]

Maybe the best term to use would be Morbid curiosity? or a morbid fascination? I wouldn't say i get pleasure from doing these things specifically.

I still don't understand it. I can't help thinking that the ever-increasing graphic violence in games & films is the cause of a lot of problems we're faced with. I've heard all the arguments against this but if you see this sort of thing a few times you get used to it & it's no longer shocking. The next step is actually doing it for real.

[Jimbo]

Your right there Doug...ive heard things on the news about people re-inacting video games...tut tut....
Well i have one game where i feel doing it for real is the best....FS9!....

James

[ATI_7500]

Hm, the best I could get is 18 hours non-stop....have to try harder...

[Scorpiоn]

It's just escapeism.  Same with movies and music.  People have cited movies, games and music as influencing them to their violent actions.  Excuses, in my opinion.  All I'll say is I hope the gaming industry evolves, because whereas maybe 1/3 of all music and movies have violence in them, about 9/10 of games involve stabbing, shooting and otherwise killng people, aliens, dinosaurs (my personal favourite) etc.  Sometimes it just grows tiresome.

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

50 Hours? Meh, I fly non-stop flights in FS for 15-16 hours non-stop...
Cheers all,
Ashar

[-sam-]

Well
I think it very much depends on the game you play. I remember some years ago when I was playing Quake.
Playing this game online is not playing a game.. it

[Hagar]

[quote]Regarding the violence in computer gamesSometimes I really have to wonder.
For example GTA San Andreas as most of you will know it
was in the news because it contains explicit sexual scenes. Everybody was screaming how that can be...
showing LOVE in a computer game. Meanwhile it

[Craig.]

I could see you with long hair doug:)

[-sam-]

I played that game myself.. and it has some other interresting points that make the game worth playing.
I also agree that for most mature people it

[Hagar]

Things have changed so much since my young days. One of the most horrifying films ever made was Hichcock's Psycho. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/
The old film-makers like Hitchcock were very clever & there was no actual violence shown in that film or any other of the old horror classics. The tension & violence was all implied & actually more psychological than visual. The same goes for reading a good book or listening to a radio play, Orson Welles 'War of the Worlds' for example. http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm It's all in your own imagination which can be far more horrifying than anything in real life.

Now the film-makers & game producers compete with each other to show ever-increasing graphic violence in every small detail. "Realism". The consumer demands more & more realism so they do their best to meet the demand. Nobody uses their imagination any more. I sometimes wonder where it will all end. Probably snuff movies where they show real people being killed as entertainment.

[Jimbo]

Hm, the best I could get is 18 hours non-stop....have to try harder...

Not if you want to end up like this guy, so i really wouldn't bother

I'm just only one of the lucky generation, about 10 years ago when i was growing up we never had a games console, i just used to hang about with my friends, get up to mischief as you do..ride bikes...build things and just really explore enjoy ourselfs.
As technology enhances people forget about these great things we used to do, kids are hooked up into video games, and using the internet, exactly the same we are doing now, now for a very small proportion of people, doing things like this restricts us from doing activitys and sport, which i feel is a cause of obesity in todays children, i mean im not nowhere near perfect,maybe because i have Diabetes, but thats no real excuse at all..the point im trying to get accross is that technology has its GOOD points and BAD points.
Its amazing how much we have moved this descussion on isn't it?
Well them are my views on the topic.

James

[beaky]

Take it easy Rottydaddy!
.....hitman 2 is a bloody good game in every aspect, gets you right into the action....especially when you have to assin that man in the large building, only to find its a cardboard cut out..LOL...is very wierd..and all the japanese missions with all the snipers....abosolutly great game. ..."Diana here! lol"...that also reminds me where did i put the case....hitman 1 is addictive asewell...

Cheers for reminding me rotty!

James

I should probably apologize for reminding you...

I haven't played a lot of shooters, but honestly what I really like about Hitman isn't the violence (although my inner 12-year-old is always satisfied by it  ;D); it's the suspense, and the challenge. I like how in order to score big, you have to be quiet and invisible, and harm only the one person you're after. And of course at any moment you may be found out, and things can get hairy very quickly.
And yes, I love Diana's voice. Somebody should create a program that lets you have her say exactly what you want.... or maybe I should go out more...
I don't see any harm per se in movie/game violence, but I guess it creates problems when kids don't have more wholesome social interaction or activities to balance things out. I've heard that lack of exercise by  kids (often due to prolonged PC or TV use, regardless of content) seems to contribute to hostility... exercise is a healthy outlet for instinctive aggression, I guess. And personally, I've found that with games, the frustration factor gets me riled up more than the violence... but I'm an adult, so I don't know... but I do know that as a kid, I watched a lot of mindless shooting, etc. on the tube and it never "made" me want to commit a real act of violence (there were always plenty of other reasons, even for a mild-mannered kid such as myself).
And yes, it's amazing how the bottom line in terms of censorship seems to be: Violence: OK!! Sex (or even innuendo):
No!!!
 

[Bombardier101]

Even so, shooting at aircraft is one thing. Most combat pilots will tell you they don't think of the poor souls inside the aircraft they're aiming at. There's also the chance they will get out. I don't think I could ever get pleasure out of shooting at a human being, even in a game.

Okay, so Hagar doesn't want Nibbio's pilot kill effect!

Impaling old ladies? Kill kids with bazookas? Mass human roadkill? TERRORISM? THAT GAME MUST BE AWFUL!!!!! Whoever made it should be ashamed of themselves, a game like that is horrible!

CFS1/2/3 is good though! I agree with those games...

[Hagar]

Okay, so Hagar doesn't want Nibbio's pilot kill effect!

No I don't. Perish the thought. This sort of thing gives people the wrong idea about combat flight sims. I'm aiming at a target, not another human being. This is not violent in the same way as a personal shooter game. The whole attraction of CFS for me is that I can jump in a Spitfire or any aircraft I wish & get some idea of what it was like for my childhood heroes. This is pure fantasy. Nobody is likely to let me loose in a real Spitfire, let alone one that's armed so I can't do this in real life even if I wanted to.

This has increased my respect for those airmen, including the enemy. They were all much the same, mostly young men mad about flying. If you have the opportunity to talk to a veteran fighter pilot you will find that in most cases they did not hate their opponents & wished them no harm. BoB Spitfire pilot Bob Doe will tell you that he didn't hate Germans, he simply wanted to stop them bombing his Mum's house. Nobody had the right to do that. I'm sure he was not alone in that. On one occasion he could not bring himself to finish off an already doomed aircraft as this would have involved killing the pilot. Instead he flew alongside it & waved him good luck. The enemy pilot waved back & survived to fight again so he actually did wrong. I found another example from the other side only yesterday. This is what happened when Luftwaffe ace Heinz Knoke shot down a P-51D over Germany in April 1944 & got shot down himself in the process. http://www.heinzknokewebsite.com/My-Site/Victory_25.htm

"We have a friendly chat about half an hour. He seems like a decent fellow. There is no suggestion of hatred between us, no reason for it. We have too much in common. We are both pilots, and we have both just narrowly escaped death.

...On the Highway there is a truck waiting for us. Six Yanks from a Fortress are huddled in the back. They look rather gloomy. My Captain and I sit beside them. Although feeling like death myself, I try to cheer up the party with a few jokes.
...We are driven to the Brunswick airfield at Broitzem. There I say farewell to my fellow-sufferers, and we all shake hands.
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I'm not in favour of censorship & there's no going back to how it was in my young days. I still feel that modern children are being regularly subjected to graphic violence from a very early age. Once violent behaviour is regarded as normal more people will be likely to become violent themselves.

[beefhole]

Well, this is a touchy subject... I'll just leave it at yes, I do play violent shooters and enjoy them, but more often than not, it's not the violence that attracts people as much as the other special aspects of the game-in Hitman, you feel like you're in a movie, and you have to come up with clever and cunning ways to get the job done, and there's several different routes you can take to get there.

Yea, GTA:SA is violent-at the same time, it's one of the biggest genre revolutions EVER.  It's a fantastic game-there's an entire, living, breathing world on one PS2 disc.

The sexuality that was recently in the news DID NOT COME WITH THE GAME-this is a common misperception.  It was a user-made mod not approved by Rockstar North(the game's developer).