MEDIA STUDIES II: GAMEPLAY

What is real, and what is pretend, class?

I read a report a few years ago looking at the correlation between the increase of violence and violent crimes in the younger generations and the rise of games that promote these ideologies. The game being questioned in particular was Grand Theft Auto V. The idea was that these games normalised themes such murder, drug abuse, rape and robbery and therefore presented the young, impressionable teens with a distorted world view wherein they thought they were invincible.

It was an interesting idea, and really one that merited a little digging. So that’s what I did. I started my own research, and found a lot of evidence to back it up. There is some credence to the idea that increased exposure to violent games does work certain parts of the brain harder than others, and therefore someone who plays these games a lot does react different to someone who does not play these games, in general. It’s an interesting link but it comes to entirely the wrong conclusion.

My opinion is this: games such as Grand Theft Auto, in general, aren’t used as a simulation for future plans. Most people do not shoot 40 mobsters in the head on a game and decide that means they have to shoot 40 people in the head in real life. It’s just not true. Most of them use gaming as an escape. Whether it be a stress relief from a bad day at work, or to get away from a troubled home life, the truth is gaming does represent something real to these people, whether it’s violent crime games or something as innocent as Geometry Dash.

The exception to this rule is when people start to blur the line between fact and fiction. You see, the rise in violent crimes by people who happen to play these games is not a direct correlation to the game – no, that is just a coincidence. The rise in violent crime is influenced by the increase in mental health issues in youngsters, coupled with the austerity-led cuts on support for those suffering with their mental health.

People who are unable to tell what is real from what is not aren’t necessarily violent people, but if they can’t tell if they’re in Liberty City or London then they aren’t going to be able to tell what they are doing is wrong.

I can’t tell if Gameboy falls into this category. A man obsessed with gaming, who seems to almost channel the world of gaming through himself, unable to tell if the world around him is real. He’s playing make believe in a world where lives aren’t infinite and the goings-on aren’t just a story written by a developer in his bedroom.

His problem is that treating the world like a game means you don’t take anything at face value. Fail a job interview? Restart from save point. Missed the bus? Speed boost to catch it up. The real world doesn’t work like that Gameboy, and it’s time you realised that.

The time for playing pretend is done.

Game over.