On Paintballing vs. 1st-Person Shooters
I may offend half my readers here if I approach this topic one way, so I'll just present it as a personal preference to start.
I am unlike probably 95% of males in that I very much dislike most 1st-Person Shooters. I find some of them highly disturbing and inappropriate oftentimes due to the excessive violence.
I am not "against violence". Sometimes it has its purposes. I own my fair share of violent movies (though all of them are highly plot-driven or historical). What I dislike is the glorification of violence or violence as entertainment.
I do not believe that violent video games and/or movies cause people to become violent directly, but I do believe it has been clearly shown that such things desensitize people to it. Studies have clearly shown that subjects in tests will react more violently on average to stimuli after having played or watched violent games or movies, etc.
Yet, I love paintballing, and I was trying to figure out why it does not bother me like, say, Doom.
Well, I think that war games have existed for centuries and always will. By that, I mean everything from paintball to lacrosse. I think boys are genetically programmed to be more aggressive, and I think that those who think raising their boys to play with Barbies will somehow make them less aggressive are fooling themselves. It is much better to vent and train such natural aggression in a fun, safe game, is it not? In the animal kingdom anyway, such play seems to be for the purpose of training, so that if real violence is necessary, the animal will not loose its life or the life of its young or pack or whatever.
So then, why do I not like Doom? Is it not a war game?
Well, I see it as yes and no. I think it has to do with the realism of it. When I shoot someone with a paintball, it is little more than a game of tag. When I shoot someone in Doom, they explode and blood flies everywhere on the virtual screen. I hope I never have to shoot someone in real life. And I certainly would not take enjoyment in seeing their blood spurt out of the bullet hole if I ever need do so.
I think it is the supposed entertainment of gore that bothers me. I like movies such as The Last of the Mohicans. It is a very violent film. It includes a lot of gore. But I do not think it glorifies the violence. The violence is there to realistically portray the horrors of war and to move you more when likable characters die. The focus is not on the violence, but on the plot.
In paintball, the focus is on tactics and stealth -- the game aspects of it. Maybe the focus is also that in most modern 1st-person shooters, but so often I have seen guys cheer and laugh at the gory results of shooting their friend on the computer screen.
Maybe I cannot draw the line I am trying to draw it, but those are my thoughts for now....
I am unlike probably 95% of males in that I very much dislike most 1st-Person Shooters. I find some of them highly disturbing and inappropriate oftentimes due to the excessive violence.
I am not "against violence". Sometimes it has its purposes. I own my fair share of violent movies (though all of them are highly plot-driven or historical). What I dislike is the glorification of violence or violence as entertainment.
I do not believe that violent video games and/or movies cause people to become violent directly, but I do believe it has been clearly shown that such things desensitize people to it. Studies have clearly shown that subjects in tests will react more violently on average to stimuli after having played or watched violent games or movies, etc.
Yet, I love paintballing, and I was trying to figure out why it does not bother me like, say, Doom.
Well, I think that war games have existed for centuries and always will. By that, I mean everything from paintball to lacrosse. I think boys are genetically programmed to be more aggressive, and I think that those who think raising their boys to play with Barbies will somehow make them less aggressive are fooling themselves. It is much better to vent and train such natural aggression in a fun, safe game, is it not? In the animal kingdom anyway, such play seems to be for the purpose of training, so that if real violence is necessary, the animal will not loose its life or the life of its young or pack or whatever.
So then, why do I not like Doom? Is it not a war game?
Well, I see it as yes and no. I think it has to do with the realism of it. When I shoot someone with a paintball, it is little more than a game of tag. When I shoot someone in Doom, they explode and blood flies everywhere on the virtual screen. I hope I never have to shoot someone in real life. And I certainly would not take enjoyment in seeing their blood spurt out of the bullet hole if I ever need do so.
I think it is the supposed entertainment of gore that bothers me. I like movies such as The Last of the Mohicans. It is a very violent film. It includes a lot of gore. But I do not think it glorifies the violence. The violence is there to realistically portray the horrors of war and to move you more when likable characters die. The focus is not on the violence, but on the plot.
In paintball, the focus is on tactics and stealth -- the game aspects of it. Maybe the focus is also that in most modern 1st-person shooters, but so often I have seen guys cheer and laugh at the gory results of shooting their friend on the computer screen.
Maybe I cannot draw the line I am trying to draw it, but those are my thoughts for now....