Wanna know why I love video games? Because you can do things that you can’t do in the real world. For example, model a hypothetical economy and see what happens. No need to theorize on what people would do because a seemingly impossible scenario can now have a model.
Even when taking the side of the protestors of violent video games, no longer does a person’s desire to kill and be angry have to be pent up. For better or worse, video games are a release for that. It also does wonders for the imagination and I’ve been one to say that video games are a way to find out what kind of person you really are. When placed in an environment where consequences are temporary and not a matter of life and death you can find out a lot about people. Are they are glory seeker in the heart of battle or the kind of person who would help a teammate if in trouble. Since I’m playing through Deus Ex right now I’ve learned something about myself that in retrospect I always suspected. I don’t like killing, even in the virtual world where I used stun guns and my fist to knock people out and only have shot at people shooting at me. But I have zero qualms about passively letting hacked robots and turrets murder everyone. I felt a twinge bad but I didn’t see it so it doesn’t bother me a whole lot. While it was kind of interesting seeing that side of me, I can’t say that I haven’t noticed it before. Afterall, I love my UCAV in Ghost Recon, and in Conduit 2 I loved the Widow Maker Turret with the automatic shooting upgrade.
