warcrow on 22/4/2009 at 19:48
Ask yourself: Can video games be uniquely therapeutic when compared to other entertainment mediums? No other medium matches the catharsis of interaction.
Let’s take the extremely intense button-mashing sequence near the end of Metal Gear Solid 4. You must help the protagonist—Snake—pull his dilapidated body through a fiery corridor before he’s burnt to a crisp. As the clock ticks away, you must furiously mash away to assist him in his agonizingly slow progression to safety. One sweaty hand reaches forward slowly clutching the floor as a leg bends slightly to help push him forward a few inches. Bit by bit the screen glow an ominous red reminding you that death is imminent. Once I completed that particular experience and lived, I dropped my controller to the ground in need of a break! It felt like I ran a mental marathon dealing with all the emotions the sequence evoked. Nervousness, dread, anguish, excitement, and then finally relief were all there and all because of game play. No words or touching dialog to take me here and yet I felt exactly what the game wanted me to feel.
Can video games go the other direction? How about actually consoling the loss of a loved one? According to one man--who’s brother was unfortunately killed in Iraq--they can:
Quote:
I was fighting back too. Not from some watered-down, digitalized version of patriotism. I was inflicting retribution on the people and the ideas that had hurt Luis, working through my grief and my rage. It wasn't the real thing; I don't think I could survive twenty-four hours of patrolling the physical, flesh-and-blood Baghdad. But Call of Duty 4 was as close as I could get. By the time I'd reached the end, I felt a visceral sense of relief and satisfaction. And part of me thought: "This one's for you, buddy. Hooah."
"(
http://virtualitycontinuum.blogspot.com/2008/06/ill-cry-when-im-done-killing.html) I'll Cry When I'm Done Killing" is an interesting read and I highly recommend it. There is more (
http://eat-games.blogspot.com/) here for those that are interested.
heretic on 22/4/2009 at 20:30
Ahah..I predict great things from this thread.
My 2 bits:
Whatever works...works, I guess.
Seems like killing tons of virtual terrorists/ETC would only deal with a limited spectrum of emotion out of the many which might go along with such experiences though, being limited mostly to revenge and anger...but if expressing those can clear the path to eventual acceptance and some semblance of closure and true healing then who are we to judge?
At the very least, there are certainly more destructive ways to deal with such things.
DaBeast on 22/4/2009 at 20:49
Angry dude venting his frustrations on pixel ragheads.....not quite what I'd call constructive.
The old Japanese rape game excuse of "at least they aren't doing it in real life" comes to mind.
Sulphur on 22/4/2009 at 20:55
I'm inclined to agree. It doesn't seem like a very constructive way of dealing with his grief, because shooting your pixellated demons on a screen isn't going to help you come to terms with them in the long run -- IMO, of course.
demagogue on 22/4/2009 at 21:38
I'd say generally speaking, I think the idea of dealing with feelings in games, even as a kind of political expression or therapy or even ritual, has a lot of great potential. I think more games should be set in real world political situations dealing seriously with real world conflicts, especially ones that generate a lot of emotion and disagreements.
Where I part with that blog entry -- it's an old complaint -- is that I don't think just shooting bad guys alone, even ones you have personal issues with, is really offering the kind of engagement that you really need. The game should really embed you into the whole world of the issue ... In this case, it should really go to lengths to put you in Iraq as it is, or situations where the deep dissagreements between the liberal West and radical Islam really square off. My complaint here isn't that he took things too far with the game, but not far enough.
If the depth of the interaction is merely a matter of which textures and uv skins the architecture and bad guys have, it's not really engaging the issue, and the very real emotions it generates, at its roots.
gunsmoke on 22/4/2009 at 21:58
I sometimes get fired up and blow off a little steam w/headshots for a few minutes. Sometimes, I go on a walk, or dig in my garden. What he's describing just sounds like blind hatred, ignorance, and racism.
mothra on 22/4/2009 at 22:29
when games touch upon themes I lived through in real life they have a far greater impact on me. but not in a way that I relive them or actually deal with them in a way that helps me. it just "reminds" me or shows me that I still have not truly forgotten them, which is a good thing I guess. it's life that makes me. games don't shape me, movies don't shape me, they reassure, remind, confirm, contradict me, let me dream sometimes of having taken another approach. but they never "healed". I leave that to the caring words of a friend or the way time reshapes my memories sometimes into something more true and sincere that the acutal moments I had to live through extreme emotions. I can't let off steam in games, I just like to play "pretend" or get the feeling of accomplishment when reaching a goal. When I got real life problems/experience of loss and get those "why me/how can I even cope with that" feelings I don't wanna play a game. I either shut myself off from everything or leave my "routine" which means my apartment, the city, my work to regain strength and perspective and try to humble myself instead of making my pain the center of all things. I could never be that guy. that's why I don't even begin to try to understand him. that's just miles away from me.
june gloom on 22/4/2009 at 23:36
While playing shootan gaems can be cathartic, I don't think that's generally what most developers shoot for. They make the games for the same reason people make movies, write novels, or draw comic books- to tell a story.
gunsmoke on 23/4/2009 at 00:39
I agree, though they also can just generally express themselves. Art, vision, writing, music, sound, etc.
Scots Taffer on 23/4/2009 at 02:07
I only play games to vent my frustrations of my deep seated prejudices that cannot be aired in public by violently murdering those of other creeds and colours.
