[syndicate] Re: Re: 2 Reviews: Untitled Game and Ego Image Shooter

[Michael Watson]

your article (http://www.opensorcery.net/lara2.html) was an interesting
read. i just get disturbed by the violence. when the guy in the next cube
screams "i just fucked you up!" i get a little shocked. it is interesting to
me that you as woman like to explore such a violently male world. 


>yes, and recently in wired there was an article about white supremicist
sites distributing racist mods of castle wolfenstein etc.   quite disturbing
amount of downloads. http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,50523,00.html
>

oh my god! it is worse than i thought. i do not wish to censor it but it
disturbs me. 

>violence in games is one of those ultra big topics that needs to broken
down into much smaller pieces: 
>
>-all games are not for kids.
clearly

>
>-scapegoating games> censorship
>back when columbine high school attack happened the american press was
blaming computer games--and whenever there are outbreaks of RL violence
people the press turn their eyes toward action movies and games--a dangerous
precedent  of scapegoating  for other societal problems(legal guns,
bullying) that could lead to censorship. 
>

i trace the beginning of the high school shootings to the "jeremy" video by
pearl jam. lead singer eddie vedder does too. images artists produce have
consequences although there is no hard evidence linking violent images to
violent acts. the mentally disturbed are probably susceptible (john
hinkley/taxi driver/reagan assination attempt -- director martin scorcese
rejects any culpability and i agree with him).

i wonder if the latest trend in suicide in america has anything to do with
video games? you get a bunch of guns and then start shooting at the cops
(over their heads if you are not a murderer). the cops will happily oblige
you by riddling you full of bullet holes. 

>-reality games trend(convergence)
>has been a potentially disturbing trend toward "realistic" games that
converge "real" military situations with game play.  also related to the
increasing popularity of reality tv shows like survivor. am currently
developing a collaborative project with some other game mod artists--a kind
of protest of increasing military "realism" of games--more later.
>

isn't coordinated military participation the logical extension of the
current anarchy of violence? violent video games are a training ground for
the military as any gulf war tank fire control operator will tell you. we
now have remotely operated flying drones shooting missles at people in
afghanistan. there is no reason we can't send an army of remotely operated
tanks against saddam hussein. i can't, in our current moral universe, see
anything wrong with this.


>-virtual violence = queer love
>have made the argument in the past, borrowed from queer theory readings of
horror films by people like judith halberstam, that in fantasy dream spaces
like games and actions movies, transgression of bodily boundaries, pixelated
blood explosions etc transform the abject disgust at real life violent
situations to pleasure in virtual "bleeding" of boundaries. plus power ride
of bad-ass female avatars can be joyous.
>see "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons?"

why not have a reallife fuck?. "Gods and Monsters" was an incredible movie. 

i am just mad because i suck at these games

michael