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Comment by DrDreams | Hacker News Reader

They don't just reflect it, they reflect it, distort it and magnify it.

Video games produce versions of the violence in society which are unrealistic, in which everyone can get up off the floor after being shot by being reloaded and start again.

Video games produces thousands of times as many violent events as in real life.

The amount of resources (money and time devoted) in creating and playing video games rivals the amount of time and energy people spend practicing at making real life into a safe experience. Much more than a distraction, they are the centerpiece, a devotion to delusional destruction.

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Video games produces thousands of times as many violent events as in real life.

Extraordinary claims...

But seriously, back this up with some evidence.

Compare the amount of violence today with the amount of violence a century ago. Oh yeah, that's also not citing any evidence.

Violence today is much lower and much less prevalent as a part of daily life than it was a century ago.

Of course, this greatly depends on where you are. Arizona was still wild west, gold mines still hung folks they accused of stealing ore (Vulture Mine) Wars were still being waged between native peoples as well as banditos and cowboys holding up banks, transports, and the likes. Tombstone and the O.K. Corral was just over 100 years ago. And back then, media really wasn't an issue since the average person in these parts was 100% illiterate.

Not to mention in the past 50 years, violence and violent crime in the US is at a near all-time low compared to the 1970's or 1990's.

Also explain how more peaceful societies, such as the Dutch, or the Norwegians, consume more of our violent video games than we do?

I played video games from ages ~8-19, and I probably killed a few hundred thousand animals, people, soldiers, knights, Nazis, medieval soldiers and archers, spaceships, aliens, etc. Very few people in history can even claim responsibility for that many deaths, let alone committing them. But millions of people have played video games more than me.

Yes, but I hope that it didn't entice you to murder which was the intent behind the original post. :)

And yes the amount of violent activity in games far outweigh that in real life but there is another huge difference. Games are not real and even the most naive of us have a very clear differentiation: there is no respawn in real life.

If video game kills count, regular old make-believe kills should count too. And I've never met a little boy who didn't have hundreds of those. It's not as historically exceptional as you might think!

What if the theory that playing violent games allow an outlet for potentially violent people?

What if Hilter had civilization 5 to play and "conquer" the world?

And honestly I find violent movies more distributing than violent games.

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