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Comment by happa | Hacker News Reader

It depends. In most games, you kill NPCs in self-defense or because the game specifically asks you to in order to make progress in the story. If you keep killing non-threatening NPCs only because simulated violence against innocent people gives you pleasure, there is a chance that you are a disturbed individual who needs help.

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Oh boy... this argument is decades old at this point it makes no sense... are you saying people who run over pedestrians on GTA just for the fun of it or punch other people or beings in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat are all psychos, correlating with faulty and dangerous members of society? You can resort to data to see the truth for yourself on this. Anecdotal but I've came across disturbing people who would preach morality and ethics to other people more than anything else.

> this argument is decades old at this point it makes no sense.

I've seen politicians try to revive it in this decade already even

>are you saying people who run over pedestrians on GTA just for the fun of it or punch other people or beings in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat are all psychos

Pretty sure he said not all, but there is a chance some are. Which seems sensible.

Hi, disturbed individual who needs help here.

One of the most fun parts in the original GTA was driving over pedestrians, especially those pink groups, trying to get them all at once.

So either you are one of the older generation (born before '75), or you must be one of the most boring people I've seen.

I would encourage you to load up the original gta, drive over some pedestrians, feel the fun, and join us disturbed psychopaths that need help.

Most wifebeaters think everyone beats their wife, and those who don’t like it just need to get over it. Never played gta, and zero interest in such forms of “entertainment.” Normal people don’t play shooter games, sorry.

The original gta was not a shooter game. Also, "normal" boys play computer games, including shooters. Maybe look at the statistics first and see if you are in the normal or abnormal group.

Any source you have that makes the link between wifebeaters and gamers?

> If you keep killing non-threatening NPCs only because simulated violence against innocent people gives you pleasure, there is a chance that you are a disturbed individual who needs help.

Sigh. Until I see a peer-reviewed study that shows otherwise - this is just the specter of Senator Lieberman once again leering its head back up.

I'm pretty sure God of War's point was that if you kept playing it, you were kinda fucked up.

And yet they kept making more of them. They made it obvious at the end when all the Greek Gods were dead and the Greek world was basically destroyed by the actions of Kratos. Plenty of deaths of innocent's here.

No, It doesn’t depend. This is a ridiculous take. Of course fictional violence doesn’t harm you. Disturbed people cause harm. Media doesn’t create disturbed people.

> Media doesn’t create disturbed people.

Debatable. More importantly, it certainly can induce already disturbed people to act where they otherwise would not have.

How is that more important? I vehemently disagree with your supposition. Banning books does more harm than good.

We aren't banning books here. This is more akin to an author declining to write a certain kind of book, or a video game studio declining to create a certain kind of game.

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