User talk:Quizzical/Offensive

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''It is quite possible to depict something without advocating it. Did the roadrunner cartoons advocate people buying zany contraptions from Acme to try to kill roadrunners? Did Star Trek advocate using engaging warp drive whenever you want to travel long distances?''

No, yes, and yes. Since Marshall McLuhan we know that the medium is the message. If you depict something, you spread its idea; even if you say "I don't want that". The zany contraptions are way cool! And, yeah, long distance travel taken for granted means a lot more air travel than is good for us today.

Guild Wars is a game where, to complete objectives, you have to kill a lot. It's the way to get things done. Exterminating a species in a habitat is nothing to Guild Wars player. He doesn't have to think up actual solutions to problems that work as a compromise for both parties. The worls is black and white, and the mission briefing is to be believed, usually. There is no way to form your own opinion; if there was, you could change sides. You are not really expected to use your brain except to better kill. It is this expectation that limits your thinking process while playing that shapes the message of the game; it is extended by the community you are part of (i.e. once you are in a guild, you need to think about social aspects of your game).

What do children do after they've watched you play Guild Wars? What message do you think they take with them? They'll take the fighting and make a game of it; it is where the visual effects of this game are most sparkling, the great artwork elsewhere notwithstanding.

Please don't say there no messages just because you can't see them consciously. -- ◄mendel► 21:28, September 19, 2009 (UTC)
 * So is any book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a game of D&D or any film with violance - Nobody has tried to accuse that reading Lord of the Rings makes people want to kill, and D&D players aren't axe-weilding mainiacs, these things don't make people do crazy things, people make people do crazy things. Random Time  22:31, September 19, 2009 (UTC)

Offense
Offense is triggered by real-life experiences; a game needs to be near one's life to be offensive; you have seen winos in real life, but whne have you last seen a slave? "Grand Theft Auto" is very offensive because many people move in traffic every day, and accidents happen. To get points for making happen what you fear, that is offensive. If you have been offended by people who swore at you, chances are you will be offended by a game that swears at you. -- ◄mendel► 21:28, September 19, 2009 (UTC)


 * So do you think that a game that depicted slavery as normal and good, its defenders as studiously looking out for what's best for society, and any anti-slavery figures as morons wouldn't offend anyone? After all, we haven't seen any of that in real life in living memory.
 * If it's merely depicting traffic accidents that is bad, then why wasn't there any uproar over how evil Frogger was? Does not the context matter?  Quizzical 00:50, September 20, 2009 (UTC)