The Brains

Welcome to America (rated M for mature), where violence can be found on your television, movie screen, or any sort of device capable of playing video games. In the past decade or so, there has been a lot of backlash against the entertainment industry and their distribution of such violent material. Ratings have been put in place, such as the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) for video games and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) for movies, but that doesn't seem to be enough. Underage kids are still getting their hands on violent material that is clearly marked and meant for adults. Not only that, developers do their best to only market their products to adults. Parents and law makers are constantly worried about the effect this has on their children, which leads to blame for horrible incidents like Virginia Tech on video game developers.

It is important to keep in mind the psychology that is involved here. The human brain is a very intelligent machine, that isn't always used properly but when it does it can be a useful tool. In particular, pattern recognition. Basically, your brain recognizes a certain input, let's say a man staggering down a dark street outside of a bar, and then determines a corresponding output, "Oh, that guy is probably drunk." A fear of parents is probably that their children's brains are learning these new patterns, such as a woman standing on the side of the street who is scantily clad, "She's probably a hooker, I should go pick her up in my car", or there is a man with a gun, "I should get a gun, yell some obscenity at him, and then shoot him." You see, they are a little ridiculous but you get the point.

About a month ago I mentioned in a post about [zombies] that this pattern recognition could be used for good...sort of. The increase in fascination with the living dead in the past decade has also increased our exposure to them, in particular how our brains perceive them. Seeing that stumbling guy outside of a bar with a bunch of other stumbling people such as a small girl and a priest, would at one point in time confuse our brains, not being able to recognize what is going on. Now, with the overflow of zombie stimuli, I suggest that we should be able to recognize this situation as three zombies trudging down the street. This acknowledgement by our brains could remove fear and instead add instinct, allowing us to react quicker if there ever were to be a zombie outbreak. Of course, this is all a little ridiculous since this application deals with zombies. In the case of violence, parents obviously don't want this happening.

Unfortunately, the way they plan on going about this is not necessarily the right way, nor the best way. Targeting the companies that make the game, like Epic Games or Rockstar, is going to the source, but not the source of the problem. Distributers like GameStop, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy are responsible for making sure that those who purchase mature rated video games (and it should be the same case with rated R films) are checked for IDs. Even further, when I worked for GameStop in the past and was ringing up GTA: San Andreas for a mother who was buying it for her 11 year old son (this happened more than once), I would be sure to tell her, "You do realize you can kill cops, have sex, take drugs, and steal cars in this game?" She would nod as if it was no big deal and proceed to hand the game to her kid. WTF. I don't understand things like that.

Now, I don't subscribe to the whole "video games are responsible" mantra that a growing number of concerned parents and law makers prescribe to when it comes to violence. I know where the line is because I'm an adult (even if it only says so on my ID), and for some bizarre reason I'm capable of separating video games from the real world. I'm not saying a lot of people can't do this, in fact many can. That's why we love them, because they are an escape from the real world. I honestly don't want to bring some of the aspects of video games into my daily life like eating mushrooms, killing turtles, or having no peripheral vision. My point is, younger people are still learning this stuff, especially kids, we probably shouldn't be introducing them to video games in this way. That's why we have these ratings systems in place.

This is Cliffy B. Don't you just want to hug him?

In many ways, the world appears to be more desensitized to violence, maybe not in actuality, but it does seem to be available anywhere. While my friends and I may go see a violent film like 300, scream and rejoice when Leonidas does his thing, it doesn't mean we support it, let alone would be emotionally prepared if such a thing happened to us in real life. This makes me believe that there are subtle layers to pattern recognition that we are just not attuned to. For example, in a video game, I can quickly understand that's a bad guy, he's pointing a gun at me, shoot him. In real life, I honestly don't know how I would react to holding a real gun, let alone having a gun pointed at me. I probably wouldn't be as calm and collected as any number of video game characters. It may even be the same case if there were a real zombie outbreak too, I don't know (and I hope to never have to).

I've also heard arguments for violent video games fueling people's destructive tendencies. Well, they clearly have to already have some destructive tendency, even if its not easily noticeable. I mean, postmen go postal for a reason. If we could see the early warnings, I'm sure we could stop it right? Same here. So, if someone is slightly off kilter, maybe they shouldn't be playing Gears of War or GTA.

Here's what I'm offering. Leave Cliff Bleszinski and Epic Games alone folks. Bulletstorm (which I will be picking up later this week) is meant for adults, not for kids. So parents, if you're kid is playing this game and you don't want them to you know what to do, be a parent. Take it away, ground them, figure out how they got it...just do whatever parents are supposed to do. The game is crude, rude, and violent, and it says so on the box. Don't call Cliffy B an S.O.B because he made that game, he's just doing what anyone else in the entertainment industry is trying to do, entertain. Be an S.O.B. (Savior Of Brains, which applies during the zombie apocalypse as well) if you think you need to be and give your kid a Wii with Super Mario Galaxy to play instead. It's just as fun, and there's no blood or swearing or mentioning the killing of private parts. See, we're all good now.

After all of this, many people may tell me I'm wrong, other's may side with me, and still others may shrug it off and just go on with their lives. If I am wrong, I have no idea why but I'd be willing to accept it if it were explained to me...and beat me in Reach.

Play responsibly.

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