Week 11: Ambivalence, Conflict, Violence

Violent video games have always been viewed negatively because of the influence that may make individuals to be violent in real life. For the longest time, people have speculated that they are the reason why violence in kids, teens, and even adults to increase. One of the reason behind this is the interaction they have within the game such as endorsing violent behaviours. However, there are many people who disagree since they view violent video games as an outlet of something that they cannot do in real life. My personal experience with interactions that I could not do as easily in video games is very positive. One of the things is talking about having people understand what I truly like within the video game without judgment which is very nice. Although certain communities can be toxic, people’s experience can vary. Another is immersing yourself into an environment that you may not be able to do like in real life due to finance and etc. Even though you are just staring at a monitor screen, it is still quite an experience with advanced graphics these days, it is unique and pretty to look at. Not only that, depending on the game you play, you can become someone that you are not, using abilities and skills to guide through the videogame. These experiences help players to do things that they can never do in reality. You cannot teleport around in real life, but you can achieve those things in a video game and I think that is the unique part of being inside an imaginative world. When we talk about these things, we cannot forget about the moral choices we are given when playing videogames. We tend to make choices that we may not be making in the real world because of how hidden we are to others. Our identities are not revealed unless we choose to do so. However, players are still human and we feel what kind of choices we make towards others, such as altruistic behaviours can feel rewarding for many of us because those are the human thing to do. However, we can also choose to ignore those around us, making others feel isolated or even bully in certain way because of how videogames protects our identity. These moral values determine what kind of people we might be dealing with online, and can sometimes be annoying in general. Hence the communities within the videogame world. Social structures are constructed where genuine or non-genuine people are divided among the world, being able to tell the difference between them almost right away. We humans may be moral as we want to be, but that morality boundaries can easily be broken within the game world society and that can divide as well as create communities.

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