CONTENTION: Murder simulators condition people - especially children - to kill. It desensitizes them to violence and the ramifications thereof.
RESPONSE: The more accurate the depiction of violence, the more satisfying the experience is for the participant. Angry emotions dwell within all of us, and many seek to satisfy those emotional needs through entertainment. If anything, truly accurate digital carnage gives us a good foundation upon which to imagine the horror of such in reality.
I would rather that than be without outlets for rage and frustration, leaving us to simmer and the emotions to build up. We all need to dispel tensions, to satisfy primal facets of our psyches. Without this opportunity, the emotional machine that we all are may break down - the very event critics of free-expression purportedly wish to avoid.
What is more harmful: mass-murder in fantasy or mass-murder in reality?
I am far more worried about those who learn to kill in the various branches of our militaries than I am about those who enjoy themselves with a smile online or in a warm living room. These two circumstances are circumstances of entirely different magnitude.
Gratuity...
CONTENTION: Violence in games (and film) is gratuitous and totally unnecessary.
RESPONSE: No individual has the right to make his or her personal morality the morality of the rest of us. Our freedoms are contingent on the requirement that they do not infringe upon the freedoms of others. Some people are not comfortable with tolerating different opinions. In an echo of the re-animated medieval past of Mankind, certain elements of the population are power-brokers seeking nothing less than to homogenize and control us.
If I produce a piece of art, it is not for you to say my production is wrong. Likewise, if I appreciate a piece of art, it is not for you to say that my appreciation is unacceptable. It's my art, or my opinion, which I thought I had a right to - just as you do.
Feel free to disagree, and to state in no uncertain terms that you do, but do not try to force your definition of 'gratuitous' upon me or anybody else. Say your peace and evolve.
Abandon Hope...
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