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Videogames won the war on crime
Greeting, sentient lifeforms. What is your take on this article:
Catharsis: why Doom won the war on crime
The rational person asks “Is anybody being harmed?”
The puritan asks “Is somebody I don’t like having a good time?”
I’m a skeptic when it comes to the theory that digital zombies being shot leads to real-life violence....
Fact: games are getting more popular, more violent and/or realistic. Fact: the violent crime rate is still dropping, and it’s been dropping ever since around the time Doom came out.
Why is this? Well, before Doom, young men would go outside, join other young men, and together try to ignore one billion years of evolution urging them to kill everything male, impregnate everything female, and steal anything that might help them achieve the above….Today, young men are inside, playing games that let them live out their caveman instincts, shooting, looting and….Drinking hot coffee. In short, it’s catharsis.
For a century or so we’ve had the prison industry try their approach: take criminals and young men who get mistaken for criminals, then put them together in a building where there’s nothing to do but build muscles, join gangs, and learn how to commit crimes. How’s that been working out? We got a crime rate that rose, until Doom. Doom does the opposite: it takes the same young men, keeps them inside and alone, with no exercise. We’ve got no gangs, we’ve got no muscles, and let’s face it: after you’ve gibbed a bunch of imps with berserk strength, real-life crime looks pretty boring.
It’s enough to make me wonder if these anti-game activists are funded by the prison industry
The rational person asks “Is anybody being harmed?”
The puritan asks “Is somebody I don’t like having a good time?”
I’m a skeptic when it comes to the theory that digital zombies being shot leads to real-life violence....
Fact: games are getting more popular, more violent and/or realistic. Fact: the violent crime rate is still dropping, and it’s been dropping ever since around the time Doom came out.
Why is this? Well, before Doom, young men would go outside, join other young men, and together try to ignore one billion years of evolution urging them to kill everything male, impregnate everything female, and steal anything that might help them achieve the above….Today, young men are inside, playing games that let them live out their caveman instincts, shooting, looting and….Drinking hot coffee. In short, it’s catharsis.
For a century or so we’ve had the prison industry try their approach: take criminals and young men who get mistaken for criminals, then put them together in a building where there’s nothing to do but build muscles, join gangs, and learn how to commit crimes. How’s that been working out? We got a crime rate that rose, until Doom. Doom does the opposite: it takes the same young men, keeps them inside and alone, with no exercise. We’ve got no gangs, we’ve got no muscles, and let’s face it: after you’ve gibbed a bunch of imps with berserk strength, real-life crime looks pretty boring.
It’s enough to make me wonder if these anti-game activists are funded by the prison industry
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