Early sidenote: The judges on X-Factor (particularly Simon) were so damn catty, it was uncomfortable to watch. I'm just glad Simon kept Melanie, and the brunette Bieber twins and the crazy Memphis dude went home. On to the topic (that got longer than I expected).
No this isn't something deep and profound, you should know better if you're reading my blog lol. In class yesterday morning, we were asked to read our papers out loud, in order to see hear whether what we had written sounded right or not, and after class, the conversation about games like Saint's Row and Grand Theft Auto popped into my head the same way. Throughout the conversation, all I could do was laugh at how absolutely, certifiably crazy it sounded to describe the things you can do in the games lol. Hearing, "You can sleep with hookers and run over elderly people" while most of the girls looked as if they were thinking "Why on Earth would you want to do that?" was hilarious to me, but it made me think of how crazy it sounds to other people and why they'd be against them.
My currently 9 year old niece loves Saint's Row 2, but when I saw her throw a policewoman into a burning car without even trying, it freaked me out and I stopped letting her play it until I came to terms with it. I had to remember that me and my older nephews and nieces grew up on Mortal Kombat and Doom, and we have yet to try to rip someone's spine out like they do in those games, so I trust in my smart little nieces and nephew to know better than to be influenced by those games as long as they're taught right. My little niece and nephew however do live in a place where it's cute for little boys to want to act "gangsta" and try to rub on girls booties at 5 years old, or the ass shaking little girls get taught at 4 years old but that's an entirely different issue. Well, that's all I've got for now, bye! ; )
Sidenote: Oh, and for the record, my 9 year old niece will kick your butt in Smackdown Vs. Raw 2011, and soon, my 4 year old niece will too. She's already asking how to pick up the steel stairs lol.
PS for Ms. Swan in response to my post before this one: Disgaea 4 is a really hard one to explain, it's a strategy RPG (think chess with characters and magic) about goofy demons fighting amongst one another in the netherworld, and in this one a vampire with an obsession with sardines leads a fight against the "Corrupterment", the government of the underworld to restore the balance of good and evil. I play it mostly for the silly story. Here is the website if your really curious. Aren't they the cutest looking demons ever?
I want to be Miss Etna as she causes riots. The more I learn about these video games, the more I see how they can be appealing. I keep thinking about how they promote embracing risk. So many of our social institutions use fear of failure to control us. However, video games allow us to try all of the things that we would like to do in the real world. Even when we fall down, we have multiple lives and an opportunity for mastery. Pink's theories on motivation would also say that video games provide incredible opportunities to be autonomous as we work towards a set of goals (or purposes).
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I actually used to like playing Grand Theft Auto, and thought it was kind of funny to see what all you could do in these video games. I don't really like all the fighting games and such I actually tried to play Black Ops this summer with my nephews, and they beat the crap out of me I could not control my person. I think that the newer generation of kids are going to be very dangerous, and know how to really hurt someone ha just through all violent video games and violent movies.
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