Games

Games. Do they affect how we perceive life, and if so in what ways? I remember playing a lot of chess at one time, and when I was on a roll, the diagonal a bishop could travel to take an unprotected pawn would pop into my head while I was changing lanes on the highway. I used to dream about knights leaping rooks to take the queen, and chessboards swimming sideways, like angelfish in a fifty gallon aquarium. And I couldn’t wait to get my hands on another book about how to be a better chess player. Although I doubt that there exists a game player in cyberspace who can’t wait to get his or her hands on a book that will explain how to be a better cyber–killer, I do think that after hours on end of gunning down cyber opponents, the player would be prone to seeing bodies shot to hell in the minds eye at every other stop light. I also think that people who spend a lot of time shoot’n ‘em up on a computer screen, dream a lot about shoot’n ‘em up when they’re asleep. Unless of course, I’m the only person on this planet who flashes on, and dreams about things I’m totally immersed in.

A good source recently told me that there’s no way to measure whether video games contribute to violence, or desensitize us to it, so I haven’t bothered looking into studies on the subject any further –– especially since I also heard recently on a national TV news program the ridiculous statement that smoking three cigarettes a day will cause 70% of the damage to a human body as smoking 2 packs a day. Studies… who can trust them? So, when it comes to cyber games, I prefer to believe what my eyes tell me and let that be the basis for my own conclusions.

We live in an extremely competitive and violent society. In the white–washed news that shows us little of what goes on out there, it takes something “newsworthy,” a synonym for “marketable,” to occur before we get a glimpse of our reality. For instance, the young girl who got her head kicked around like a soccer ball when she was on the ground in that bus terminal. Now that was marketable, yet violence of this kind goes on undocumented and unnoticed in every city in our country every day. Young people have always been prone to aggression, and anyone who knew me when I was younger knows that I have no room to point a finger. However, I’m not pointing a finger, not at our youth anyway; and although I have strong feelings about the effects of computer games, I haven’t really come to a definitive conclusion yet, because I’m still wondering.

I’m wondering if our games have become so competitive and violent because they are just a reflection of who we are. I’m wondering whether instead of being an outlet for aggression, they actually help to perpetuate our competitive violent nature. I’m wondering whether the moguls who are raping our society have recognized competitive violent computer games as a wonderful way to appease the masses, much like the gladiatorial games were used in ancient Rome. And, of course, I’m wondering whether competitive violent computer games actually do contribute to our competitive violent nature. About the only thing I never find myself wondering about is whether competitive violent computer games promote a collective sense of empathy and cooperation.