#also god the attitude that “fan service has always existed in anime so why are you so upset by it” just really reveals how much some people

[kacievvbbbb]

Let me just be clear I am not shitting on the show I geniunely believe it is an amazing story. And I am mostly talking about the anime I have not read the manga so I do not know how many of these things apply.

But yeah before we begin;

****trigger warning : Contains mild spoilers for Fire Force season 1 and discussion of sexual violence and abuse****

Fire Force fans that complain about people being put off by the "fan service" or angry that this makes the show not as popular really just show how much they do not care about women.

Because you are basically saying you don't care about the consistent sexual

Because the "fan service" in Fire Force is so drastically different that the sexual posing, the constantly bouncing half exposed giant boobs, or even the ass and boob shots which while sexualizing, annoying and have their own problems are relatively easy to gloss over. The sexualization in Fire Force is pervasive and bordering on harassment ad sexual violence.

Because while Tamaki's luck leacher is played as a gag most of the time it is also something that is shown to actively hinder her life. Not just in fights too, it practically led to her ostracization from society at an extremely young age. It is something we see and are told has such a negative affect on not only how the people that she worked with view her but on her mental health as well. And for fans to just regulate it to an annoyance that distracts from cool fights is so geniunely disgusting. especially when we are talking about a character that is canonically still a teenager and a minor.

But it's not even just that, at least that gag gets addressed by the fandom and has story consequences. The thing that really kills me and irritates me (and I'm talking about the anime because I haven't read the manga so i don't know if this happens there as well) is how no female character( except Maki whose running joke is how unfeminine she is which is whole nother discussion) can enter a single fight without ending up practically naked at the end of it. It's so disconcerting because this never happens to any of them men. They can take whatever kind of beating and their clothes will still be compeltely intact. But the women enter any kind of fight and if they dont comeletly lose their jacket it's in complete scraps.

like this is tamaki at the end of a fight

even worse cause she was getting completely beat up by this dude she really looked up too. And people use these images like they are sexy and cute. Hell it was used on a happy birthday post for her. And find Tamaki just lucky leecher right? Wrong

Here is Iris, a character that is supposed to be a nun at the end of a not even that serious fight.And that is arrow a woman who is literally supposed to be highly trained and had a bunch of men fighting with her whose outfits had not a rip in them.

and this is Shinra (main character) after a fight that completely pushes him to his limits and he was taking hit after hit.

His fit completely intact.

That arrow pic is the one all these youtubers have as their reaction video thumbnail. Like that just doesn't look like sexual violence. Like I don't understand how anyone can look at that picture, especually knowing the context of the absolutely horrible abuse she is facing in it, and not immediately feel icky.

And that's the thing in almost all the fights with female characters especially if they are losing (which when your Tamaki is often) they are posed in such ways that combined with their "artfully" postioned nudity looks a lot like sexual violence.

I'm sorry like look at this. How does this not just read as sexual violence to you. And maybe in this particular case you could make an argument that it was supposed to be implied because the bird man in the pic was supposed to be mentally manipulating her and it was all just generally really fucked up and abusive. But none of it was explicitly or even outside of this fight, implied to be sexual. It was just in the context of this fight and this and some other posing that felt so sexually violent. That i was honestly so disturbed when I watched it (which admittedly worked cause you were supposed to be disturbed by the levels of manipulation this woman suffered under).

but yeah for fans to not even acknowledge how disturbing this is how uncomfortable this is not only for the female character or the female fanbase but just anyone who might be sensitive to sexual harm or abuse. For alot of these pics to be used as sexy images like we don't know that the context is horrific violence because that's the thing all these pictures I used where taking from moments that these characters where experiencing not just tremendous overwhelming physical violence but also mental abuse and attacks. The least horrific fight here is Iris' but it was still mentally devastating for her as it was being done by someone she considered a sister. To divorce any of these pictures from their context and put them in thumbnails to catch perverted eyes is so genuinely disgusting I can't even fathom it. To not even recognize the sexually violent undertones of the image is genuinely baffling to me.

And I'm not saying all this to shit on fire force or discourage anyone from watching it because I do genuinely think that it has such an amazing story. And such an great representation they have loads of black characters that aren't stereotypically drawn (hell they even have a nigerian which i can't tell you really tickled my nigerian heart) and honestly despite what my post might lead you to believe the female character are so well thought out and incredibly nuanced and diverse. It honeslty does female characters alot better than shows that don't have this problem. Hell even with Tamaki's lucky leecher and the exploration of the deeper trauma of it was so artfully done that it almost made up for the amount of times I had to see this girls panties. The explorations of the different kinds of abuse and societal neglect or religious trauma and abuse, of living in uncertain times where you could die at any moment is so poignant and honestly so well done I've fully never seen in anime some of the ways that the aftermath of abuse is explored like was done in this show, trauma and recovery is not one and done in this show it is continueosly acknowledged and built upon. Hell one of my favorite episodes of the series is an exploration of how trauma can lead to the strangest coping mechanisms and soothing.

The show is genuinely compelling enough for me to push through all this to see the story unfold. Because again just to be clear while the posing looks very sexual no actual sexual violence occurs. And I will be going back to watch season 3 whenever it decides comes out. But it does lead me to just ask why? Why all the heavy sexualization, was there a fear that the show couldn't stand on it's own? It's one of the only animes I've ever seen where the amount of fan service actually hindered it's popularity. it was made by the same mangaka that did soul eater which Ive heard has it's fair share of fan service but wasn't hindered by it on the same level. Which gives me hope that atleast some people felt it but couldn't put their finger on exactly why it unsettled them. (because honestly besides Tamaki and the odd shower conversation scene outside of these fights the female characters aren't really sexualized one or two of them where a revealing outfit but it's just that a revealing out. which is what makes the sexualization in the midst of violence so fucking weird it's just ahhhhh) the show also occasionally falls prey to the MC saving all the damsels in distress because he's usually the one that does MC things to swoop in and save them. Especially with Tamaki but she will then use this not wanting to be saved anymore to try and get stronger. And she honestly goes out there and gets the teacher that taught the boys to teach her and she gets a training montage which I've never seen a female character "i have to get stronger like them" ever get before. so that's neat. It is also the first time I have ever really seen where a majority of the most powerful characters are female. Where there are a good number of powerful female character really who have agency both good and bad.

But yeah anyway I wasn't sharing this to discourage anyone from watching the show and honestly I'd recommend anyone that can stomach it (to reiterate there is no actual explicit sexual violence) to give it a shot, the story really is worth watching, and honestly if it wasn't for all this ick it'd have been one of my faves but only if you can stomach it. But yeah this was mostly me wanting to let people know what they were really getting into with the show and to share the thoughts I've had but never really been able to put into words since i watched the show. And my frustation with fans (mostly male fans) that say we are overreacting or just refuse to get it. But also fans that try to reduce the sexualization of a major character (who just so also happens to be a minor) to just an annoyance during your cool fight.

[allthevmff]

Funeral Masses for Aaron Echolls: Viewing Hours 4 to 6

by iateyourheart

xx

Reporter 1: We're here outside of the Neptune County Jail where the body of actor Aaron Echolls was discovered this morning. The star of such films as In Pursuit of Happiness was awaiting trial for the murder of Lilly Kane, daughter of software mogul, Jake Kane. The official cause of death has not yet been revealed...

xx

  The worst part of all of this crap, has to be the look on their faces. It's a rather piss poor attempt at sympathy that's more than likely fueled by good manners than any honest-to-god trace of the aforementioned emotion. Despite the maximum sadness factor, you appreciate the effort they put into the lie.

And, yeah, you get it. Honestly, you do.

Aaron Echolls may have been god's biggest misuse of human cells, but the man was still your father; a bit of respect is still required in situations such as these, whether the not-so dearly departed truly deserves it.

You understand where they're coming from. Why they would feel the need to offer you condolences and ask how you're doing. Seriously. You understand completely.

But, you don't for a second let this rare sign of maturity keep you from being annoyed as fuck by all of these forced, insincere pleasantries. You weren't fucking born yesterday and you know the breaking news blurb on the death of that part-time actor, full-time sociopath lifted a weight off of many-a-shoulder. Somewhere, church bells were probably ringing, and little forest creatures with wide anime expressions were probably hopping around singing with glee.

You may understand where they're coming from, but you just wish people would cut the shit already and be honest.

So, when you breeze into the hotel room and find Veronica and Duncan cozily snuggled up like the walking embodiment of teen-dream puppy love that they are, and they grace you with uncomfortable looks and fumbled words "How are you holding up?", you're armed with a plan.

Well, not so much a plan as it is a statement. There's no doubt your feelings are going to be conveyed quite nicely:

Duncan says nothing and Veronica gives you a look that smells of righteous indignation when you flop down in between them with a bottle of Boonesfarm in your hand. Deliciously ghetto, but gets you wasted all the same.

"Flip it to CNN," you order as you go to work on unscrewing the top of the Blue Hawaiian flavored alcohol.

"What the hell are you doing?" Veronica's giving you the eye. She disapproves already. That's ashame, really, cause you planned on sharing.

There's a sigh from Duncan, but he complies, and the moment you hear the reporter mention dear ole' daddy's name, you take a big swig from the bottle.

"Celebrating," you tell her after a particularly hard swallow. "Here's to..." you begin hoisting the bottle in the air with mock dramatics, "here's to aneurysms. Nature's little miracles."

  xx

Tonight, on The Insider – the emotional interview with the daughter of Aaron Echolls, you don't want to miss.

:video clip:

Pat O'Brien: Had your father lived, do you believe he would have been acquitted of murder charges?

Trina Echolls: Oh, definitely. Definitely. I, know he was innocent. There was just so much misinformation about him before he died...

Pat O'Brien: The claims of abuse...

Trina Echolls: Right. It's all nonsense, Pat. My dad was a good man; he couldn't hurt a fly let alone his own children!

:end video clip:

xx

  "To my beloved daughter, Trina, I bequeath all of my personal effects in the house..."

A snort. "Good luck collecting that."

"Totaling two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In addition, I also leave you a total of five million dollars. To my son, Logan..."

This should be good.

"...I leave a total of five million as well..."

Your face scrunches; hell, you were expecting a little more than a measly five mill – five million doesn't exactly say "Sorry I murdered your girlfriend, son".

"That's it? What about my trust fund?"

A sour expression forms on Barry's face and he makes a show of clearing his throat and ruffling papers. "Not to be touched until you're twenty-one. Both of your parents made that fact very clear."

"And, uh, how exactly am I supposed to collect all of my share?" Trina speaks up suddenly. "Half of it is char grilled thanks to him."

Obviously, your sis missed that memo on the fire that claimed casa-de Echolls; the one that points out the fact that the arsonists backs were considerably wet in nature. You, however, fake shock complete with your hand on your chest and a gasp. It has the desired affect and Trina narrows her brown eyes while mumbling something that's either a threat or a curse – most likely both. She can be so incredibly easy sometimes.

"You'll have to take that up with the insurance company. Although, I think there were a few items of Aaron's that survived the fire..." Barry's sifting through papers again and you take the opportunity to clean your fingernails with his letter opener. "Ah, yes," he says when he's found what he was searching for, "Three of Aaron's awards were recovered: two Golden Globes and a Blockbuster award. They now belong to you."

You can't help but smile,

"No fair! Clearly, dad liked the you best!"

  xx

Reporter 2: Funeral services for Aaron Echolls get underway today at St. Francis Catholic Church...

xx

  "You, know, I don't understand this at all."

It's amazing, the amount of strangers who show up at the church. Fans with your father's face adorning their T-shirts. Reporters with their cameras and questions.

"What is with this attitude, son?"

Only five people Aaron actually knew in life came to his funeral. Trina's flavor of the month, counted just as much as the flask you hid away in your pocket. And when your grandmother disappeared back into the comfort of her limo, and Conner Larkin walked outside to take questions, and Barry decided to head to the cemetery, and Trina's date grew tired of the bleak atmosphere and whisked her away, you were the only one left.

All alone. With him.

"Where I stand, you should be thanking me."

The grin on your father's face is enough to turn your stomach so hard you fear you might collapse. His head cocks to the side on that pillow of eternal rest and those cold eyes burn into yours.

"Thanking you?" your voice is shaky. You grip the side of the casket for support.

"For taking Lilly off your hands," he tells you simply. "She didn't exactly love you, you know."

Your mouth fills up with blood and at that point, you think it's best to remove your teeth from the meat of your cheek. "Shut up."

"I was only trying to protect you, Logan. It's just like you to take a piece of ass and try and turn her into a housewife." He tsks. "Once a whore, always a whore."

"You know shit about Lilly."

"C'mon, you've seen the tapes." Aaron chuckles and you feel a sudden urge to vomit. "For all intents and purposes, I think I knew her pretty well. I did you a favor, boy."

"You murdered my girlfriend, and you fucking got away with it! Do you really think I'm gonna mourn you? Shed one tear because you got to die in your sleep all quick and painless?" You glower, your hand gripping the casket's side so tightly your knuckles are white as sheets. "I should've bashed your head in while I had the chance. Or set you on fire."

"Oh, so is that what all of this hostility is all about? Veronica Mars?" His laugh echoes in your ears. "I hear she's dating Duncan again. Don't 'cha wish she would have stayed in that refrigerator just a few minutes longer?"

Aaron's casket rattles violently when you kick it. Your right foot feels as if it's been broken in two, but on a scale of one-to-ten measuring how much your very existence sucks beyond the telling of it, physical pain doesn't even register.

"Logan?"

It's her concerned voice that pulls you back to reality.

  xx

:video clip:

Conner Larkin: All I ask is that you show the Echolls family the respect they deserve during this difficult time.

:end video clip:

xx

  You fractured your right foot. Way to go, brain trust.

Veronica sits, arms folded, watching you greedily gulp down the pain killers the nurse handed you. She patiently waits until the two of you are alone again,

"Did it make you feel any better?"

The question's sincere; you're just too slow to stop your mouth from spitting out the first dickhead-ish sentence that comes to mind.

"Right as rain," you snicker. "Grey skies clearing up. I'm putting on my happy face."

"Logan, I'm..." she starts and stops at the sound of your hollow laughter.

"Don't even think about telling me you're sorry, Veronica. If you feel that bad – pick out a Hallmark card and let Snoopy say it for you, cause I've heard enough 'sorrys' to last a lifetime."

She stares at you for a minute before wordlessly sitting down on the end of the hospital bed. "I'm sorry he never paid for what he did," she says quietly and you know that will be the last you ever hear of it from her lips. Veronica Mars isn't exactly the queen of overstating emotion and you'd likely drop fucking dead of shock if she did it more than once.

The pills are kicking in and to say that you feel good at the moment would be an understatement.

You fall asleep with your fingers entwined with hers.

  xx

Tonight on The Insider... Brad and Angelina, could wedding bells be just around the corner?

xx

  Giving you a cane is like giving a wino a bottle of Old English. You're quick to use it to test the limits of your fellow man; you poke waitresses, jab unsuspecting children, and get out of hours of tedious homework. When your temporary cripple status doesn't work, you kindly remind everyone you're an orphan.

An orphan with a bum foot.

Dick thinks it's hilarious. Duncan merely shakes his head and smiles at your antics. Veronica says that maybe you've been watching those House dvd's a little too much.

After your episode at the church, everyone suggests you go and see a shrink. Talk things out. Get some closure.

"Batter, up?"

You've got your own ideas on the matter.

Cane in hand, you hobble up to the makeshift plate and throw Veronica a smile over your shoulder as you fix the goggles over your eyes.

"I still don't think it's fair that you get first up," she pouts.

"Hey, when your daddy kills your girlfriend, then you can get first bat," you sardonically tell her.

She grins. "Pinky swear?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

Never one to pass up an opportunity for the dramatic, you point your cane out toward the sky as if you were the Great Bambino himself, and with one fluid motion, you bring the oak crashing down.

The Blockbuster Award for Favorite Actor in a Romantic Comedy shatters into a million, tiny pieces.

You'll do this closure thing in your own, special way.

via AO3 works tagged 'Veronica Mars - All Media Types' https://ift.tt/2K1PYik April 3, 2019 at 04:50AM

[trendingnewsb]

How Violent Video Games Might Be Screwing With Your Brain

I’ve been committing war crimes in video games since the goddamned Carter era. In a game last night, I used a combination of a flamethrower and a trained bear to kill a man who I think was just trying to change a tire on his car. I’m typing this on a solid gold computer I bought with money made from distributing violent media. I’m not here to take anyone’s fun away.

But, to boil my point down to Tweet length:

I don’t think violent video games make kids do violence in real life. The evidence for that is weak to nonexistent. I do think violent video games can make some people into raging, intolerant jerks via a process that is rarely talked about. I think that assertion is supported by both data and common sense. Let’s see if you agree!

6

Moral Crusaders Get It Wrong

The always-weird experiments that “prove” a connection between violent video games and aggression seem to all involve having some kids kill shit on a screen, then testing them to see if they’ll harm somebody in real life, like playing a loud noise to punish another kid. Sure enough, the ones playing violent games were (immediately after) harsher on their peers.

Even if you’re not a trained Mad Scientist, you know why that’s a weak-ass connection. At best, that seems to happen for the same reason pro athletes get into shoving matches after a play, even though they wouldn’t do the same while, say, in line at a breakfast buffet. They’re keyed up, on edge. Let them calm down, and they’re fine.

Now, in the above-linked study, the scientists seemed surprised to find that they got the same reaction from cartoonish games and more “realistic” ones (I put the sarcasm quotes there because Street Fighter was one of their “realistic” games). Sure enough, a later study found no change in subjects based on how realistic a game’s violence was.

That right there is crucial to my theory: Games simulating violence don’t translate to real-world violence because they’re not actually simulating that at all. The sensations of real-world violence — genuine physical fear, shaking, cold sweat — just aren’t there. Games train you for that about as well as watching IT trains you fight sewer clowns.

I think lots of you would prefer to just stop reading here. Games are healthy and harmless and that’s that, goddammit. But …

5

Game Defenders Get It Wrong Too

The knee-jerk response to critics has always been, “Of course games don’t train you to be violent, or sexist, or anything else. It’s just a game, it’s imaginary!” But those exact same people will applaud articles about how games teach kids problem-solving, improve hand-eye coordination, and even help them learn social skills. Which makes sense. If you spend several hours a day doing something, it’s going to change you. Your brain is built to adapt to whatever it’s repeatedly asked to do — “They’re just games” is therefore a nonsense defense.

And obviously software can train you to do things in the real world — that’s how we teach pilots how to fly (at first). And we know that storytelling media can change your attitudes and worldview. You learned in elementary school about how Uncle Tom’s Cabin took the abolitionist movement mainstream, and how The Jungle caused such widespread outrage that the public demanded companies put fewer severed human fingers in their hamburgers.

Movies, shows, and songs invent catchphrases and fashion trends, and set beauty standards. They also make us think we understand subjects we don’t. To this day, parents teach kids to be terrified of strangers when it’s friends, family, and acquaintances who are most likely to harm them because on TV, the danger is always some predator snatching them off the street. And as I pointed out years ago, the Jaws franchise had horrific consequences for real sharks.

In fact, if somebody else wants to argue that war-based games make players more willing to support war in an abstract way (more willing to vote for it, root for it on TV, whatever), they’re free to make that case. If they want to point out that these games feed our weird gun fetish and make assault rifles seem like super cool toys, others have already made that point in a very eloquent way. But I’m talking about something different …

4

They Don’t Teach Violence — They Teach Us That Obstacles Should Be Easy To Eliminate

One key finding in studies is that video games (violent or otherwise) reduce impulse control in some kids, and lower their ability to tolerate frustration. You can read more about that here, or here, or here, or in any number of other articles if you just Google those terms. It seems to be worse for kids who play tons of games, and it may be worse when those games are violent. Please note that it’s really hard to study this — a human life is full of variables.

Since I am not a professional scienceman, I am going to use my own experiences as a lifelong gamer and rage monster to explain what I think is going on. The addictive loop that makes video games so appealing — and so much more appealing to people with a certain personality type — can be summed up thusly:

A) Here is a thing that is blocking your progress

B) Click a series of buttons to make it disappear

C) Here is a satisfying animation to celebrate your success

Over and over again, for hours at a time, across days, months and years. Hundreds of thousands of repetitions etched into the brain. Problems, button presses, solutions. This is training the brain, altering it. It has to be. It would be weird if it wasn’t.

So if “violent” video games are worse for us, it isn’t because of the violence. It’s because they’re all based around that incredibly satisfying mechanic of quickly eliminating obstacles, one after another (as opposed to games based around complex puzzle-solving, teamwork, memorization, etc). It’s not about tapping into our natural urge to kill; it’s about tapping into our natural urge to fix problems by eliminating them.

It’s a power fantasy, but not in the way moral crusaders insist. It doesn’t train us to want to slit the throat of anyone opposing us. It trains us to want and expect anything opposing us to vanish if we simply apply enough effort to the task. That’s what happened to me, anyway.

3

The Real World Does Not Work That Way

My patience with shitty people is so thin that it can no longer be considered to exist in three dimensions. My world is full of people expressing horrible, wrong opinions on various social media channels I apparently can’t quit, customer service workers who seem annoyed that I’m doing business with them, fellow drivers who seem to worship some kind of dark god of chaos, and voters who apparently just want to see the world burn. I do not handle it well.

When something doesn’t function — whether it’s a system, a human being, or my air conditioner — I lose my shit. I want the obstacles to go away. I don’t want to shoot them with a railgun or attack them with my Far Cry 5 bear. I haven’t been in a fight since I was eight — real violence would make me sick. I just want them gone. Not managed, not ameliorated, but gone. And I want to be told what simple sequence of actions I need to take to make that happen.

My ability to remain calm and analyze problems, or to patiently wait for long-term solutions to take their course, is dogshit. If those circuits even exist in me, they’re fried. The stress of unresolved problems is unbearable. It doesn’t make me violent, but it does make me irritable, rash, and impulsive. When I’m in those moods, that’s when I want most to retreat into games — a world in which nothing can oppose me for long. I think it’s been like that for as long as I’ve been playing.

“But wait,” you say, “why would this translate from the game world to the real world if violence doesn’t? Ha! I have defeated your entire point by noticing this inconsistency, even though you wrote this question and put it into the mouth of an imaginary interlocutor.”

Thanks for asking. The reason is …

2

Everyday Interaction Has Been Gamified

The entire appeal of social media is that it turns interaction with your social circle into a game. Your baby photos get a score in the form of likes, and the restaurant that screws up your order can get hit with a bad Yelp review, lowering their score. People who piss you off can be blocked, vanishing from your field of view as neatly as the victims of my Far Cry murder bear (his name is Cheeseburger, and he’s diabetic). When I order something on Amazon, I can watch the delivery progress on a little graphic meter, observing them failing me one step at a time. If I’m unhappy with the product, the one-star review feels as good as a headshot.

Read Next

13 Myths About Society Too Many People Believe

There is virtually no difference between eliminating an annoying person in a video game and doing it via social media, email, or text. A series of button presses makes them go away. Now compare this to the “game violence becomes real violence” argument: I’ve fired an AR-15 in many games and I’ve fired one in real life. There’s no connection whatsoever between the two experiences — the input from all five senses is completely different. The noise, the smell, the recoil, the muscle control of trying to keep the sights on the target — firing one in combat would be exactly as alien an experience for someone with 10,000 hours in Call Of Duty as it would be for someone who’d only seen that gun in a photo.

You can see this in action when watching harassment campaigns by gamers. I am far from the first person to notice this. The reason attacks from gamers tend to be so much more fierce and sustained than those from other groups (comics fans or whatever) isn’t that video games trained them to be violent or hateful — it’s that they applied gaming logic to the harassment. The annoying voices, the female critics, the evil opposing army must be eliminated, and doing so is just a matter of finding the correct combination of buttons to make them disappear. If typing “WE KNOW WHERE YOUR FAMILY LIVES, WHORE” makes the target delete their Twitter, well, target eliminated. It’s all just shit occurring on a screen.

Now look around and watch the way people gamify political discussions online. Think about all the scorekeeping — posting a meme to trigger the libs, counting the retweets, celebrating that your favorite pundit has more subscribers than the guy he trash-talks, driving up the Patreon dollar amounts for somebody the other side hates. Then there’s the broader, eliminationist tendency that now seems baked into the culture. The goal is not to change minds or make incremental progress toward improvement, it’s to make the bad people vanish. Get them banned, get them fired, shut down their speaking engagement, declare victory.

After all, in a game, you’re not trying to convert the enemy, or integrate them, or live with them, or compromise with them, even though virtually all problems in the real world are solved this way. You can sit there on your phone and play that biggest, dumbest game known as Reality 2018. Hey, I wonder if a study has found that heavy smartphone users also have lower tolerance for negative emotions in real life? It sure did.

1

Certain People Are More Vulnerable To This

Long before reading this part, someone has already linked to this article using the headline, “Writer Blames Video Games For Turning Him Into An Asshole.”

This is a knee-jerk reflex to criticism in 2018, to boil it down to an exaggerated, wrong version that can be easily dismissed. You know, so we don’t have to think about it anymore, so we can make the uncomfortable thing vanish from our world. This is, in fact, the biggest change to my industry in the Trump era: Now, people share content almost entirely based on whether it helps their side win. Controlling the flow of information is another way to gamify the world — Reddit would be boring if it was just a list of links, it’s those scores that keep people addicted. Downvote the bullshit, upvote the comments debunking the bullshit.

Of course I don’t think video games invented short tempers or intolerance, and who knows what kind of person I’d be if I was born into a different era. My belief is only that game mechanics make these traits worse in people who are already susceptible … which I now believe is a huge fucking chunk of the population.

Look at it like gambling. Some people’s brains react strongly to risk-taking, and those people are the ones who get addicted to gambling, which makes them even more addicted to risk-taking. They’re only a minority, but we still study the effects and warn people.

For someone like me, who had anger management problems as a kid (and is from a family of males who all have them), games hit me in a different way from the start — that’s why they’ve always been a soothing retreat. In a game, an enemy that takes two hours to beat is considered brutally difficult. An enemy that takes 20 hours to beat is borderline glitched. Now you turn off the game and step out into the real world, where you can pour your whole being into fighting problems that won’t even show a scratch after 50,000 hours. Bad people show up in your life, and 60 years later, they’re being obnoxious at your funeral.

My fear, then, is that games and the gamification of social interaction hurt our overall level of tolerance. That as a society, this trains us to be so impatient with problems that instead of seeing them through to a resolution, we are satisfied with solutions that make them merely disappear from our screens.

“Hey, we got the bad guy banned from Twitter! We win! On to the next target.”

“But he just switched platforms, and his fans are still brainwashed-“

“On to the next target.“

Games are great at giving you novelty to create an artificial sense of progression, showing you something new and different to fight down every hallway. We try to force real life to conform. Here’s a new outrage, here’s our response, here’s the somewhat satisfying resolution (the perpetrator of said outrage has been suitably dragged, maybe some headlines about lost sponsors or something), and then on to the next one. Last year’s controversies are boring. Do we still have troops in Afghanistan? Is Flint’s water safe to drink? Did the DACA thing get resolved? What happened with all of those refugees that used to be in the news every day?

It doesn’t matter. We’ve moved on to the next level, because many of us aren’t doing this to save the world — we’re doing it to keep ourselves entertained. Up-vote the stuff we disagree with, snark at the stuff we don’t, watch the Likes accumulate, and convince ourselves we won. It’s all game, something to kill time.

Aside from the data linked at the top about how heavy gamers lose impulse control and frustration tolerance, it is likely impossible to test my theory about the wider implications on culture. What I’d like to do is at least talk about it, rather than let the conversation be dominated by confused old men who think video game mass shootings train kids for real ones. We know that’s not true. My thing might still be.

David Wong is the Executive Editor at Cracked, follow him on Twitter or on Facebook or on YouTube or on Instagram.

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