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Quick note on the title:
I apologize if it's too blunt or tactless, to the point where anyone finds it overly simplistic or offensive. My intention was just to get the general idea across without exceeding the word limit. If you have a suggestion for a better title, please let me know.
Quoting from It's Time to Reboot the Debate Over Violent Videogames
Main post:
VR porn is one of those things most gamers like to make fun of, but perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to judge. After all, we were often deemed psychopaths by older generations for not only playing, but deriving great enjoyment, from senseless, brutal slaughter, in the likes of Doom and GTA.
However during recent years studies have begun to suggest that not only is there no correlation between playing violent video games and psychopathic behavior, they may in fact even have the opposite effect, by providing a harmless outlet for some of our innate violent tendencies.
As such, with VR becoming increasingly popular, perhaps a different approach to combating rape and any other form of sexual misconduct should be more seriously considered, one based on the technological advances in realistic simulation made over the past decade.
This subject seems incredibly relevant to our forum, as it brings together areas of discussion this community is passionate about, and puts the focus on how the medium of videogames can be a force for social change and justice in the real world.
Does anyone know of a recent study that has attempted to look into this hypothesis?
I do seem to remember a study based on VR that tried a different approach: men were put in a simulation where they were followed around by NPCs who were physically larger than them, perhaps also being cat-called on occasion (my memory is hazy on that part) in order to see the world through the eyes of a woman. I remember thinking this was an important study.
Other studies have taken this kind of approach in order to try and provide a first-hand account of suffering from depression and other mental issues. Some games were even made based on this idea, I believe.
This is to say VR can be used not only as a power-fantasy, putting the player in the shoes of the aggressor, with the intention of providing an outlet for harmful behavior, but also as a tool to teach empathy, by putting the player in the shoes of the other side.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as any other ideas you have for how the virtual medium can be used to combat endemic social issues by providing an outlet for harmful behavior, or by helping increase awareness of people's different perspectives and experiences in society, or anything else you believe can promote empathy and understanding in our real-world relations.
Thank you for reading!
I apologize if it's too blunt or tactless, to the point where anyone finds it overly simplistic or offensive. My intention was just to get the general idea across without exceeding the word limit. If you have a suggestion for a better title, please let me know.
Quoting from It's Time to Reboot the Debate Over Violent Videogames
Christopher J. Ferguson on visiting the White House:
"Old people tend to think that the youth of today are much worse than they were in their generation. So I think that Joe Biden had gotten some version of that narrative from somebody, and repeated it, and to his chagrin, I actually had a graph with me that I could hand around that showed exactly the opposite. So in that situation I actually stopped him and informed him that he was mistaken. Probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I happened to have this graph that beautifully demonstrated this massive decline in youth violence that's happened since 1993. I hope that was something that was insightful to him, and may have reined in the Obama administration's focus on videogames in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012."
Main post:
VR porn is one of those things most gamers like to make fun of, but perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to judge. After all, we were often deemed psychopaths by older generations for not only playing, but deriving great enjoyment, from senseless, brutal slaughter, in the likes of Doom and GTA.
However during recent years studies have begun to suggest that not only is there no correlation between playing violent video games and psychopathic behavior, they may in fact even have the opposite effect, by providing a harmless outlet for some of our innate violent tendencies.
As such, with VR becoming increasingly popular, perhaps a different approach to combating rape and any other form of sexual misconduct should be more seriously considered, one based on the technological advances in realistic simulation made over the past decade.
This subject seems incredibly relevant to our forum, as it brings together areas of discussion this community is passionate about, and puts the focus on how the medium of videogames can be a force for social change and justice in the real world.
Does anyone know of a recent study that has attempted to look into this hypothesis?
I do seem to remember a study based on VR that tried a different approach: men were put in a simulation where they were followed around by NPCs who were physically larger than them, perhaps also being cat-called on occasion (my memory is hazy on that part) in order to see the world through the eyes of a woman. I remember thinking this was an important study.
Other studies have taken this kind of approach in order to try and provide a first-hand account of suffering from depression and other mental issues. Some games were even made based on this idea, I believe.
This is to say VR can be used not only as a power-fantasy, putting the player in the shoes of the aggressor, with the intention of providing an outlet for harmful behavior, but also as a tool to teach empathy, by putting the player in the shoes of the other side.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as any other ideas you have for how the virtual medium can be used to combat endemic social issues by providing an outlet for harmful behavior, or by helping increase awareness of people's different perspectives and experiences in society, or anything else you believe can promote empathy and understanding in our real-world relations.
Thank you for reading!
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