Mars, Aries, and friends

Mars, Aries, and friends

Are war games violent in nature? Do they influence our inner violence? The recent example is Cho, who killed 32 people in his school. He said it was due to the games he played. So, do games actually make us killers, or will it help us understand what true violence is like?

WoW (World of Warcraft) is a popular MMORPG, with over 11 million players in it. The game creates an engaging fantasy world, where players explore and battle in the world. Players usually play games because of boredom or to find purpose in life, an answer to nihilism. However, after playing, they still realize WoW is still meaningless too. Yet by playing, they subconsciously are affirming their own existence, in a virtual reality. They engage in wars, theft and even scamming in WoW. Morality comes into question. Does competition in games make us more vulnerable to becoming a heartless person? Personally, I believe there is some influence to a certain extent. However, most people can control this outburst of behaviour, since reality is still different from the virtual world. It is those who let violence overcome their rationality then they will be killers in real life.

War, the manifestation of our animal-like soul put to play. The urge and hunger to end your enemy regardless of how innocent he is to you. Is this part of the cruel cycle of nature? The subconscious mind acts up without us knowing. The subconscious mind records everything that we have experienced. We experienced violence hence we become the manifestation of violence ourselves. Idealogy is illogical, but because of the extreme absurdity of the idea that people believes in it. Extreme idea means extreme promise for the greater good. The irrational idea of war overwrites the rational part of us, brainwashing us to go end each other’s life. War coexists with Love. Lovers do quarrel. War is also bred from nature and nurture. Imagination plants the seeds of war. The enemy is the illusion of the mind. Thoughts transcend into actions. The stronger the belief, the more we are driven to act.

In relation to Games Design, I think war questions the human morality. If games are able to reach beyond the notion of play and have the player think what they are playing games for, it will give a whole new meaning to just plainly playing games and that is games teach players to think for themselves.