dr_wags

I am very pleased that Sony will release new umds. I love watching them when I travel and taking my PSP camping and watching a movie at the end of the day. I hope they can manage to release from many different studios. I just got a umd copy of Batman Begins and I'd love to pair that with a copy of the Dark Knight.

IMO Sony is rocking on the PSP. Fanboys seem so pessimistic and have such unrealistic expectations. I love my PSP and I will definitely buy more umds (especially those at a reasonable price).

Resident Evil 5 for PSP -- now that would be sooooo cool!

It is amusing how so many of you say that I'm suggesting that GTA is turning you into criminals or serial killers when I have repeatedly denied that assertion. My point has been that GTA impairs your ethical reasoning and diminishes the likelihood that you will exhibit compassion and humane tendencies in everyday situations. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will be a criminal. It simply means that you are more likely to be an amoral punk.

I do agree that the discussion is getting dull though.

Arrivederci

I have read your posts and I am responding specifically to what you write.

Although there are "websites where you can see deaths, accidents and mutilations that are actually legal to view and far more disturbing than any video game or movie and as for porn that's even easier to see" these also do not portray the long term horror of crime.

Real life experiences can also desensitive a person to the horror of criminal behavior. That is why cycles of abuse are observed within families.

You seem to wear desensitization as a badge of honor. To me, desensitization is like shoving a stick through your eye and up into your brain. You seem to think desensitization is adaptive. My point is that you are crippling yourself.

If you have been desensitized to violence through movies and videogames that glorify crime then your eyes have not opened to the depravity of the world. The horror of murder and sexual slavery is experienced more through long-term repercussions than the immediate events portrayed in movies and videogames. As posted previously, GTA does not portray children very much in its fictional world. However, prostitutes and pedestrians do have children and other family members that would be devasted by their senseless slaughter. This isn't part of the equation of GTA because then people might not find it so entertaining to commit imaginary crimes.

Games like GTA are not cathartic. Spending hours and hours shooting prostitutes and running over innocent pedestrians activates the chemistry of aggression and dampens moral reasoning. While this will not turn you into a serial killer, it will make you less ethically discerning and make it less likely that you will exhibit moral courage when a situation calls for it.

I agree with DigitalSpirit in that there is a ton of depravity in the world. I have seen it and experienced the repurcussions of people acting on their darkest instincts.

We all have choices in how to respond to this world of depravity. You can consider what is right and what is wrong, fight for what is right and reject what is wrong. Or, you can wallow in your pigpen of depravity. You can be a little Caligula, acting out your darkest desires hour and hour on GTA. That is your choice.

In all likelihood this latter choice will not turn you into a serial killer. However, it will diminish your sense of morality and ultimately your potential to be humane. Most of the responses I've heard indicate that ethics and morality are not important to GTA fanboys. That does not suprise me in the least.

What I hear from many of you is it's the parents fault and corporations should cater to our basest instincts in order to make a profit.

Both parents have to work more than ever just to generate enough income to survive and all the while the media is selling the most morally repungnant garbage. So let's blame the parents -- those terrible parents who don't care about their kids, right?

Political correctness means rejecting portrayals of women as whores who deserve no better than death after they have sold their bodies for sex. Wow, I'm sorry if I've been pussified -- I guess I better lighten up. Maybe if I played some GTA and ran over some innocent pedestrians I'd be a more balanced person. Right!

I think so many of you live in a bizzaro world of moral relativism and apathy. It is a shame.

Tucker's comment support's my argument.

Why don't more people feel a sense of indignation that our government is corrupt and fighting a phony wars on terror?

People, especially young people, have dulled their sense of morality and justice through games like GTA and movies like Hostel.

Perhaps it was true the religion was the opiate of the masses, in the past. Today, MTV and GTA are the opiates of the masses. Keep telling yourself that it is just a game or just a silly television show. When you spend more time on that game and television show then you do actually engaging in real life where people truly suffer because of crime then you are not just playing a game. You are truly influencing your own sense of right and wrong.

I don't want to censor anything. I'm just sharing my opinion in the hopes that some of you will become a little more enlightened. Many of the opinions I've seen others post are as polarized as any right-wing extremist that believe that all video games are evil. I'm not saying that. But I do believe that some videogames have the potential to be destructive and GTA fits the bill.

I have read the research literature on this topic and frankly the results are mixed. However, there is not enough research to draw any strong conclusion one way or the other. Does that mean I can't rationally draw a conclusion about the effects of GTA? Of course not. We all have mental models of what is right and what is wrong (i.e., morality). Spending hours and hours engaged in imagining that you a vicious criminal is bound to affect your sense of morality and justice. If you find yourself laughing at the Ladies of Liberty City video then I think you have a problem. If you enjoy playing GTA so you can run over innocent pedesrians then I think you have a problem. That is only my opinion and you can feel free to ignore it but it doesn't make my opinion any less valid.

I'm not saying that playing violent videogames causes people to be violent. I enjoy playing Call of Duty and imagining I am storming the beaches of Normandy. That is not going to cause me to join the marines.

What I am saying that is you must seriously question yourself if you find it entertaining to imagine you are killing prostitutes and innocent pedestrians. Although the act of imagining you are doing these morally impugnant acts will not directly cause you to act in such a manner it will affect your sense of morality. It will make you feel less indignation toward real criminal behavior and real injustice.

Is having a sense of moral outrage toward criminal behavior and injustice important? Perhaps it isn't to you but I think it should be.