Violence and Games

In class, the idea of violent actions and video games was briefly mentioned. It is a common idea that violent games, television and movies influence the people, usually youth, watching to be violent as well. However it truly depends on the age and mind set of the person playing or watching. If a person is mature enough they should be able to realize that the violence they act out in a game is purely fictional, that it is unacceptable in real life. That is piratically why violent games are so popular, because they allow consumers to do what is other wise forbidden in society. So if a player or viewer can comprehend that what they are seeing is purely fictional it should not lead to any excess of violence. Instead violent games have been said to act as a sort of therapy for some. When someone finds themselves in frustrating circumstances they can go home and take their anger out on a game instead of on another person.

Catch and Release

Kheel mentions that “to remove the consumption of the flesh from the hunting experience renders the narrative meaningless” but what about fishing? Fishing is, without doubt, a form of hunting. Often times though, many fishers simply enjoy just catching and then releasing the fish, not keeping it as food to consume and yet they still get a great amount of enjoyment from the activity. It is very arguable that you cannot 'catch and release' animals such as deer because unlike the hook that catches the fish, the bullet is much more life threatening and harmful. However, there can still be pleasure and enjoyment found in hunting animals, just as fishing, that does not come from simply being able to consume what you caught.