Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

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Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Hello loved ones!
Sorry for this negative topic. Don't take it to heart,
but at the same time, please discern.

Our recently joined member Omnisense's website jogged my memory, that "gee once weren't you following a case like that too?",
in regards to James Holmes.

MASS MURDER AND MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAMES (MMORPG)

Well, some of the people I don't enjoy very much (on the Internet), some former friends, seem very happy about the verdict of the Holmes trial and are anxious for the sentence to be delivered/commenced. Regarding that, I'd like to say, everyone has hangups, but really, gloating over the result of a trial isn't a very endearing human trait. It's actually very primitive and indicative of sociopathy. Sociopaths gloat over other people's trials because they think they themselves are too smart to get caught. Not so.

Image

A better idea is trying to understand what went wrong, because even dealing with the delicate science of the mind,
there remains the ghost of cause and effect, probability, tendency, and catalyst.

I did a Google search on recent articles dealing with James Holmes' break with reality correlating strongly to his World of Warcraft addiction.
There was nothing new released on that subject since 2012, according to the search.

Either there is no interest, it's a dead topic, or Blizzard Entertainment paid off the press, just like other big money organizations (BMGF is a good example of an organization caught red handed bribing the press, as described by Seattle Times).

Image

I would like to discuss the actual chemistry at play,
when we are chanced by a potential mass murderer (can we call it a Snapper?) whose latent condition is exacerbated by violent video games.
Namely, the issue of whether the person would ultimately have killed without the catalyst of violent video games.

What does the word mean, at its root?
What is its essence?

VIDEO
vid·e·o
ˈvidēˌō/
noun
noun: video; plural noun: videos

1.
the recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images.
GAME
game
ɡām/
noun
noun: game; plural noun: games

1.
a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.
VIDEO GAME
vid·e·o game
noun
noun: video game; plural noun: video games; noun: videogame; plural noun: videogames

a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a television screen or other display screen.
BRAINWASH
brain·wash
ˈbrānˌwôSH,ˈbrānˌwäSH/
verb
gerund or present participle: brainwashing

make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure.
"the organization could brainwash young people"
DOPAMINE
do·pa·mine
ˈdōpəˌmēn/
nounBiochemistry
noun: dopamine

a compound present in the body as a neurotransmitter and a precursor of other substances including epinephrine.
SEROTONIN
ser·o·to·nin
ˌsirəˈtōnən,ˌserəˈtōnən/
nounBiochemistry
noun: serotonin; plural noun: serotonins

a compound present in blood platelets and serum that constricts the blood vessels and acts as a neurotransmitter.
ADDICTION
ad·dic·tion
əˈdikSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: addiction; plural noun: addictions

the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.
"he committed the theft to finance his drug addiction"
SIMULATOR
sim·u·la·tor
ˈsimyəˌlādər/
noun
noun: simulator; plural noun: simulators

a machine with a similar set of controls designed to provide a realistic imitation of the operation of a vehicle, aircraft, or other complex system, used for training purposes.

VIOLENCE
vi·o·lence
ˈvī(ə)ləns/
noun
noun: violence

behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
TERMINAL
ter·mi·nal
ˈtərmənl/
adjective
adjective: terminal

1.
of, forming, or situated at the end or extremity of something.
"a terminal date"
synonyms: final, last, concluding, closing, end
"a terminal bonus may be payable when a policy matures"
of or forming a transportation terminal.
"terminal platforms"
Zoology
situated at, forming, or denoting the end of a part or series of parts furthest from the center of the body.
Botany
(of a flower, inflorescence, etc.) borne at the end of a stem or branch.
2.
(of a disease) predicted to lead to death, especially slowly; incurable.
"terminal cancer"
TERMINAL ILLNESS
Terminal illness is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma.


http://www.recoveryranch.com/articles/g ... th-issues/
Video Game Addiction

Video game addiction—although not officially recognized by the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM-5)—is known to share many traits with drug and alcohol addiction. Gaming increases the size of the reward center in the brain, meaning that gamers get a huge dopamine boost when playing. Dopamine is central to many addictions, including cocaine dependence and compulsive gambling, so the fact that it’s implicated in gaming adds a great deal of weight to the idea of video game addiction. Like drug addicts, video game addicts continue to play despite abundant negative consequences and often destroy their careers and relationships because of the time they dedicate to the habit.
http://kotaku.com/5903501/the-life-of-a ... f-warcraft
Blizzard appears to be deleting threads and conversations about Breivik that pop up on the World of Warcraft forum. One thread asking if anybody had ever interacted with Breivik was immediately deleted.
Image

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... paths.html
Researchers tested the men for levels of a substance called 5-HIAA, which is produced during the breakdown of the chemical serotonin.

They also tested for another substance called HVA which is produced during the metabolism of dopamine.

Dopamine influences aggressive impulses and serotonin regulates dopamine.

The study found that psychopathic traits were significantly linked with higher levels of HVA and lower levels of 5-HIAA.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z3hAuxgv8b
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Image

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/12/ ... deo-games/
'Training simulation:' Mass killers often share obsession with violent video games

By Mike JaccarinoPublished September 12, 2013

James Holmes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Eagan_Holmes

Before WoW:
Image

After WoW:
Image
James Eagan Holmes (born December 13, 1987) is an American convicted on multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in relation to carrying out the 2012 Aurora shooting that killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012.[5]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... orado.html

The classmate told the Daily Mail: 'James was obsessed with computer games and was always playing role-playing games.

'I can’t remember which one but it was something like World of Warcraft, one of those where you compete against people on the internet.

'He did not have much of a life apart from that and doing his work. James seemed like he wanted to be in the game and be one of the characters.

'It seemed that being online was more important to him than real life. He must have lost his sense of reality, how else can you shoot dozens of people you don’t know?'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z3hAvy1bMG
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=15524

Aurora Shooter Obsessed with World of Warcraft Video Game
Posted on July 25, 2012 by SBrinkmann

Just two weeks after posting a blog on this site about the dangers of role-playing video games such as World of Warcraft, the man accused of killing 12 people in a murderous rampage at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado is said to have been obsessed with similar games.


According to the Daily Mail, a former classmate of accused Aurora shooter James Holmes, said that among other reasons why Holmes might have snapped before going on the July 20 shooting spree is that he lost touch with reality from too many hours spent in role-playing video games. - See more at: http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=155 ... BzfAL.dpuf

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/1 ... addictive/
A quiet killer: Why video games are so addictive
Mez Breeze by Mez Breeze Tweet — 12 Jan '13, 05:00pm in Insider
In an article in The American Journal of Psychiatry, author Jerald Block outlines the following set of criteria to help define game addiction:

excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives
withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible
tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use
negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.
[youtube][/youtube]


remember, no cell phones in the court room :(
Image

Game Companies Selling "Fun Failure" According to Journalists and Doctors:
It is generally accepted that a successful game contains the key elements of a sense of fiero (intense satisfaction in achieving an aim) [and] a feeling of ‘fun failure’ when one nearly achieves that key aim (leading to one trying again and again), and clear feedback in how one is progressing.

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/1 ... addictive/


Are game companies inciting addictive behaviour?


Attentional bias may partially explain why gamers willingly spend enormous amounts of time pursuing in-game goals that may seem juvenile or escapist to non-gamers. But do the companies that design the games also need to shoulder their fair share of responsibility for providing vehicles for such addictive, or compulsive, behaviours?

Andrea Phillips agrees that some game developers do deliberately create games that encourage excessive behaviours, where “it’s common for a game design spec to talk about making a game ‘more addictive’ in positive terms, as shorthand for ‘highly engaging and fun to play’.”
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Forgot to include:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_21401804/c ... -respected
CU psychiatrist who treated James Holmes is highly respected, liked
By Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/26/2012 12:01:00 AM MDT37 Comments | Updated: 3 years ago

The university immediately disabled her online biography and refused to comment about her, citing the gag order. It hired an attorney to represent her.

Even limited data found on the Web about Fenton made news, including an agenda from a May 30 presentation to the psychiatry department called "World of Warcraft: The Use of Archetypes in Psychotherapy" — a discussion that Fenton participated in about a multiplayer role-playing video game that Holmes had reportedly played.

Later, after open-records requests from The Post, CU released limited information about Fenton, including employment agreements and her yearly performance evaluations for 2010 and 2011 that rated her as "outstanding" and that she "far exceeds performance expectations."

Why and when Fenton began to see Holmes have not been publicly discussed. According to a CBS report, Holmes also was seen by three mental health professionals at the campus clinic.

Prosecutors say sometime in the spring, Holmes began to struggle in the rigorous neuroscience graduate program on the Anschutz campus — failing in his labs, prompting a professor to suggest another vocation. On June 7, he performed poorly on his oral exams. That day, he bought the second of two Glock pistols he would bring to the Century Aurora 16 on July 20.

The prosecution clearly is laying out its courtroom strategy: Holmes reacted to his academic failure with the shooting.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390479,00.asp
Norwegian Retailers Pull Violent Games in Wake of Mass Murder

By Damon Poeter
August 4, 2011 04:10pm EST
1 Comment

At least two retail chains have pulled titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft from their shelves as Norway reels from Anders Breivik's deadly rampage.

Among the titles Coop is removing from its shelves are Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: World at War Platinum, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Classic, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Counter-Strike Source, World of Warcraft, and Homefront.

It was not clear if the removal of the games by Coop and Platekompaniet would be permanent or temporary, and no timeline was given for their return to store shelves.

"At the moment it's [appropriate] for us to take them down," Stokke said. "I wouldn't be surprised if others do the same. We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance."
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Grace Shin's Biology 202 Paper on Violent Video Games and Aggression in Humans

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723
Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression
SerendipUpdate's picture
Submitted by SerendipUpdate on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 3:59pm

Biology 202

Biology 202
2003 Second Web Paper
On Serendip

Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression
Grace Shin

There is a huge hype surrounding the launch of every new game system - Game Cube, XBox, and Sony Playstation 2 being just few of the latest. Affecting children age 4 all the way to 45 year-old adults, these video games have called for concern in our society regarding issues such as addiction, depression, and even aggression related to the playing of video games. A recent study of children in their early teens found that almost a third played video games daily, and that 7% played for at least 30 hours a week. (1) What is more, some of these games being played like Mortal Combat, Marvel Vs. Capcom, and Doom are very interactive in the violence of slaughtering the opponent. The video game industries even put signs like "Real-life violence" and "Violence level - not recommended for children under age of 12" on their box covers, arcade fronts, and even on the game CDs themselves.

In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007 bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For example, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats. Other games such as Unreal Tournament and Half-Life are gorier. In these games when characters get shot a large spray of blood covers the walls and floor near the character, and on the occasions when explosives are used, the characters burst into small but recognizable body parts. In spite of the violence, the violent video games are also the more popular games on the market. (2) When video games first came out, indeed they were addictive... however, there seems to be a strong correlation now between the violent nature of games these days and the aggressive tendencies in game players.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves. Although nothing is for certain as to why these boys did what they did, we do know that Harris and Klebold both enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-'em-up video game Doom, a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Internet hate groups, found in its archives a copy of Harris' web site with a version of Doom. He had customized it so that there were two shooters, each with extra weapons and unlimited ammunition, and the other people in the game could not fight back. For a class project, Harris and Klebold made a videotape that was similar to their customized version of Doom. In the video, Harris and Klebold were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. They acted out their videotaped performance in real life less than a year later... (3)

Everyone deals with stress and frustrations differently. However when action is taken upon the frustration and stress, and the action is taken out in anger and aggression, the results may be very harmful to both the aggressor and the person being aggressed against, mentally, emotionally, and even physically. Aggression is action, i.e. attacking someone or a group with an intent to harm someone. It can be a verbal attack--insults, threats, sarcasm, or attributing nasty motives to them--or a physical punishment or restriction. Direct behavioral signs include being overly critical, fault finding, name-calling, accusing someone of having immoral or despicable traits or motives, nagging, whining, sarcasm, prejudice, and/or flashes of temper. (4) The crime and abuse rate in the United States has soared in the past decade. More and more children suffer from and are being treated for anger management than ever before. Now, one can't help but to wonder if these violent video games are even playing a slight part in the current statistics. I believe they do.

Calvert and Tan (5) compared the effects of playing versus observing violent video games on young adults' arousal levels, hostile feelings, and aggressive thoughts. Results indicated that college students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game do. A study by Irwin and Gross (6) sought to identify effects of playing an "aggressive" versus "nonaggressive" video game on second-grade boys identified as impulsive or reflective. Boys who had played the aggressive game, compared to those who had played the nonaggressive game, displayed more verbal and physical aggression to inanimate objects and playmates during a subsequent free play session. Moreover, these differences were not related to the boys' impulsive or reflective traits. Thirdly, Kirsh (7) also investigated the effects of playing a violent versus a nonviolent video game. After playing these games, third- and fourth-graders were asked questions about a hypothetical story. On three of six questions, the children who had played the violent game responded more negatively about the harmful actions of a story character than did the other children. These results suggest that playing violent video games may make children more likely to attribute hostile intentions to others.

In another study by Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. & Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., violent video games were considered to be more harmful in increasing aggression than violent movies or television shows due to their interactive and engrossing nature. (8) The two studies showed that aggressive young men were especially vulnerable to violent games and that even brief exposure to violent games can temporarily increase aggressive behavior in all types of participants.
The first study was conducted with 227 college students with aggressive behavior records in the past and who completed a measure of trait aggressiveness. They were also reported to have habits of playing video games. It was found that students, who reported playing more violent video games in junior and high school, engaged in more aggressive behavior. In addition, the time spent playing video games in the past were associated with lower academic grades in college, which is a source of frustration for many students, a potential cause for anger and aggression as discussed in the previous paragraph.

In the second study, 210 college students were allowed to play Wolfenstein 3D, an extremely violent game, or Myst, a nonviolent game. After a short time, it was found that the students who played the violent game punished an opponent for a longer period of time compared to the students who played the non violent game. Dr. Anderson concluded by saying, "Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. It the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts." Despite the fact that this study was for a short term effect, longer term effects are likely to be possible as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that can become more and more accessible for the real-life conflict that may arise. (9)

The U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop once claimed that arcade and home video games are among the top three causes of family. Although there have been studies that have found video game violence to have little negative effects on their players, there are also many studies that have found a positive correlation between negative behavior, such as aggression, and video and computer game violence. Thus, in order to totally assess the effects of game violence on its users, the limiting conditions under which there are effects must be taken into account, which include age, gender, and class/level of education. (10) However, violent games do affect children, as the studies show, especially early teens, and I feel that there needs to be a stricter regulation regarding the availability of these games to young children.


References

1) BBC News Web site in UK.

2) Game Research Website, covering the art, the business, and the science of computer games.

3) American Psychological Association, Article on the main study discussed in this paper.

4) Mental Help Net, Psychological Self-Help. This site has a lot of interesting links to mental illnesses and just understanding personalities.

5) Calvert, Sandra L., & Tan, Siu-Lan. (1994). Impact of virtual reality on young adults' physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts: Interaction versus observation. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 125-139. PS 527 971.

6) Irwin, A. Roland, & Gross, Alan M. (1995). Cognitive tempo, violent video games, and aggressive behavior in young boys. Journal of Family Violence, 10(3), 337-350.

7) Kirsh, Steven J. (1997, April). Seeing the world through "Mortal Kombat" colored glasses: Violent video games and hostile attribution bias. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC.

8) SelfhelpMagazine. Article under teen help. It is a great library of various mental disorders and personal growth topics!

9) American Psychological Association.

10) Internet Impact This paper is a collaborative essay consisting of research and policy recommendations on the impact of the Internet in society.

Also:
A guy's perspective on video games and violence:

http://theweek.com/articles/451967/true ... -into-jerk
It's true: Violent video games turn you into a jerk
Jack Flanagan
January 30, 2014

Media-driven panics about what video games are "doing to our children" are scoffed at by gamers and most technology journalists. But are these haughty dismissals justified? Because studies are now coming thick and fast that find the minds of young people playing video games are affected by what they play. And not always for the best.

In a study titled Remain Calm, Be Kind, a quote from US general Colin Powell, researchers Whitaker and Bushman made the point that, of all media, video games are the most perfectly architected to change our state of mind. They're active: Gamers are indirectly doing things that they'd otherwise imagine or witness in books or film respectively.

They call this "managing our mood states," implying that aggressive actions make us feel short-tempered, while slower-paced games will cause us to feel relaxed.

They set out to demonstrate this. There is a wealth of information that ties aggressive video games to anti-social behaviour. But they wanted to complete the circle: To show that "nice" games make for nicer people too. If we had this information, it would suggest that the link between game and gamer is a strong one and can be both positive and negative.

They gave participants a selection of games to play — violent, neutral and relaxing — and then asked them to compete against each other in competitive games. Those who played high-stakes gaming like Resident Evil were more competitive than those that played less intense games like fishing.

Nice games make you nicer

The second part was asking the participants to help sharpen pencils. They didn't know that the experiment wasn't over, so they'd be acting entirely genuinely. They found that significantly more "relaxing" gamers helped out with this trivial task than violent ones, and summarized by saying that this was the first study to ever establish that nice video games make you a nicer person.

So far, so good. We already know that violent video games make violent people. They also apparently tend to push people into more "dangerous lifestyles": Drugs, wild sex. Not the typical image of your average gamer, granted. But the question is why and how these things happen. A relationship between video games and real-life violence is not damning evidence in itself.

In another study, a group of researchers looked at reactions to faces in pain for gamers, while they lay in fMRI machines. An fMRI machine works by detecting the movement of blood around the brain, and thus what areas are being used at what times (it stands for "functional" Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

What the researchers wanted to know was how the processing of emotions was affected by a lot of video gaming, so they watched the action happening in the frontal lobes of the brains as their subjects looked at the pictures.

They found that the gamers — who all play Counter-Strike, a Call of Duty-type war game — responded less to images of real violence than non-gamers. Images of accidents and disfigured faces did not trigger the same neuro-chemical reactions as for other people.

The researchers concluded by saying players of violent games have better top-down control of their emotions. Put more plainly: They lack empathy.

A lack of empathy?

That certainly echoes the worries of parent and teacher groups. Although, two caveats spring to mind: Gamers might well not react to disfigured faces as much, but that might not mean they lack empathy. A lot of people began to lose touch with the image of starving children in NSPCCC adverts — which doesn't make them monsters, they've just seen the image a few times before.

And the second thing to bear in mind is that fMRI has "worked" on a dead fish. That's not to discredit the study, but it does put the results in slight perspective.

There is a hook in the study, though: The idea of BIS, our Behavioural Inhibition System. This system allows us to react better in uncertain — often violent — situations. In a war zone, when bullets are flying over your head and have been for several weeks, the last thing you want is the constant recognition of the brutality of warfare.

Similarly, in war games, to be surprised by every act of violence will get you killed. We inhibit these typically empathetic behaviors because, frankly, we have to.

The study goes on to suggest that maybe that's how we can classify those who play first-person shooters: By a "habituated" BIS circuit, or a lack of empathy to the point it isn't mandatory. They found that the part of the brain associated with empathy, the lateral prefrontal cortex, are used less in experienced gamers.

This might be active inhibition of empathy for the sake of winning the game. In-game situations are often made more intense by pleas for mercy or kindness which frequently have to be ignored.

Immersive vs non-immersive

What does this mean outside of the game? It's not like fictional violence is the invention of video games. Why, German folk tales have been preaching the virtue of a messy punishment for centuries. And then there's the bible — which has been mandatory reading for billions of people.

But video games differ from these media crucially because we're not just being asked to listen and take part passively. Even as storytellers, we are playing the part of a narrator, not a performer. In video games we — everyone — is an actor. And we have to follow the script we're given.

There's another study, Virtually Numbed, published this year, which tasked video gamers with an endurance test. They had to pick up paperclips out of a bucket of ice cold water either after reporting that they were acid gamers or actually playing a video game. Instead of looking at good vs bad, though, the researchers were interested in immersive vs non-immersive.

The researchers wanted to see what the effect was of putting yourself in the place of an automaton — i.e., a video game character that did not display emotions. They found that those people who did this were more tolerant to pain than those that didn't. They tested the hypothesis with other experiments and the conclusion was that players act similar in real life to the robotic avatars they play.

It's not just searching for good vs evil, or picking up the traits of characters you enjoy playing as. The mere act of pretending to be a virtual character can change self-perception — even down to the way we perceive physical sensation. Video games can, rather quickly, change you.

There's another paper, from 2009, with the ominous title More Than Just a Game that does literally think about "the children." Because childhood and the teenage years are such important parts of growing up, it's important to see what they're interacting with during that time.

Video games mean trouble

The researchers took a dim view of video games. In fact, they found video games correlated with everything from drug use to poor romantic relationships. And while some of this is unsubstantiated, plenty of it is backed by their evidence, in the form of university questionnaires, and the decade of research that's come before them.

"Video games mean trouble" is the message that seems to come through in all of this. It's jumping the gun, sure, given what we know now about the benefits of relaxing video games. But while some video games have a positive effect on mood, the ones that do, such as Endless Ocean, make up a negligible market share compared to big sellers such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, both of which are stacked with blood and death.

The psychology of all this isn't uplifting: Violent video games are linked to real-world violence, and we should stop pretending otherwise. That link is blurred, but in terms of neurochemistry there is now research that confirms that the brains of gamers change depending on what they do in-game.

In the game Knights of the Old Republic, a classic Star Wars spin-off, gamers can select whether to act like the "good" Jedi or the "evil" Sith. Sitting at your console, it might be hard to believe that what you do next might actually impact who you become in the real world. But it turns out the Dark Side is very real.
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
User avatar
Naga_Fireball
Posts: 2012
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Some stuff people might find surprising:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/29/ja ... -shooting/
James Holmes’ mother gives emotional testimony in sentencing trial
Published July 29, 2015

Death sentences must be unanimous. While the jury has already decided that Holmes was legally sane at the time of the attack, his defense is hoping at least one juror will agree that his mental illness reduces his moral culpability so much that he deserves a life sentence instead.
How the heck do they figure he was legally sane?
Oh my gosh.

Also:
Arlene Holmes broke down at the start of her testimony, telling jurors sitting in court every day has been “very difficult and painful and tragic.”

Holmes added that her son's campus psychiatrist never told her that he had homicidal thoughts when she called in June 2012 and revealed that he was quitting therapy and dropping out of school.
So we have not only corporations such as Blizzard Entertainment deleting topics regarding Holmes and Brievik,
we have educational edifices and medical offices who also deny culpability.

Personally I believe there is enough research evidence to show that a mental breakdown can be hastened/exacerbated/caused by exposure to violent media. Of course there will be naysayers, but they are flying in the face of logic.

James's breakdown was quite sudden.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jam ... ts-n399691
Asked by a defense lawyer why, Robert Holmes responded, "Well, he's my son and, you know, we always got along pretty well and he was actually an excellent kid."


http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/james- ... 201550354/
James Holmes has been convicted in the deaths of 12 people and the attempted murder of 70 others. Jurors are now in the sentencing phase of the trial, as Holmes’ lawyers present testimony from Holmes’ family members and friends in an effort to spare him the death penalty. Last week, the jury found that there were “aggravating factors” in Holmes’ shooting massacre, meaning that they will consider capital punishment.

Much of the day was spent reviewing family photos and videos, showing a relatively normal family life in which James Holmes loved playing soccer and took to playing video games like World of Warcraft.


It's odd how Brievik and Holmes both suffered personality erosion in Warcraft, used it to hide the planning stage of their crimes.
Yet the jury is ruling that Holmes is legally sane? That the death penalty will be considered?

Hope he isn't executed before a real doctor/scientist can take a look at how his brain resembles that of a drug addict more than a schizophrenic.
Interesting how juries are influenced and bought off in USA.

In the Oslo situation, wasn't it pretty clear Brievik was crazy?
Although the court was influenced by politics: the doctors says as much:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_ ... ng_Breivik
Court-appointed psychiatrists
Day 37–38 (14–15 June)

Court-appointed psychiatrists Husby and Sørheim acknowledge no competence on terrorism and explain that they have evaluated Breivik without putting him into a political context. Without this context, the language he uses becomes incomprehensible (neologisms), his lack of remorse towards the victims becomes lack of empathy, his long period of isolation and preparation becomes inadequate functioning, and his explanations of why he carried out the operation become delusions and fantasies about violence. In this manner, his political ideology and the way he sees himself in the context of this ideology becomes evidence of paranoid schizophrenia.

The defense says that they would understand the psychotic evaluation if Breivik had been talking about invaders from Mars, but find it difficult to understand how thoughts about a possible future Muslim invasion of Europe should be seen as a strong indication of schizophrenia. When asked what makes Breivik different from a "normal" terrorist, Husby and Sørheim say that they have no knowledge of how terrorists think, and find such comparative analysis not relevant to the mandate for their evaluation[citation needed].



Watch out for vamps and shills who will be all over this issue with their Octopus Ink,
obscuring any objective effort to understand.
Verdict and sentencing

On 24 August 2012, beginning approximately 10AM CEST, the court formally began to read the verdict against Anders Behring Breivik. Breivik was adjudged sane and sentenced to containment—a special form of a prison sentence that can be extended indefinitely—with a time frame of 21 years and a minimum time of 10 years, the maximum penalty in Norway.[4]

Explaining why the court found Breivik to be sane, the court stated that "many people share Breivik's conspiracy theory, including the Eurabia theory. The court finds that very few people, however, share Breivik's idea that the alleged "Islamization" should be fought with terror."[84]

When asked by the judge whether he accepted the verdict and sentence, Breivik announced that he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court, and would therefore neither accept nor appeal. His attempt at addressing other "militant nationalists" in Norway and Europe was interrupted by the judge. Lacking a formal acceptance of the sentence, the judge formally interpreted this as taking a two-week contemplation period, but Breivik's attorney said there would be no appeal from the defense.[85] At a press conference after the verdict, the prosecuting attorneys announced that they would not appeal either.[86]
Commentary on the proceedings

Some news outlets in the United States have expressed wonder at apparent concessions being given to the defendant. Both the fact that he is allowed five full days to give his testimony, elaborating on his ideology, as well as court-room interactions where both the prosecutors and counsel for the aggrieved shook the defendant's hand at the beginning of the proceedings baffled some commentators but to others showed that the Norwegian court system is capable of respecting all people.[87][88]
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
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Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Michael Crichton was a wise man when he wasn't having a tantrum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Man
The Terminal Man is a novel by Michael Crichton about the dangers of mind control. It was published in April 1972, and also serialized in Playboy in March, April, and May 1972. In 1974, it was made into a film of the same name.


Image

The events in the novel take place between March 9 and March 13, 1971. Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson, a computer scientist (specializing in artificial intelligence) in his middle thirties, is described as suffering from psychomotor epilepsy[2] following a car crash he had endured in 1969. He often has seizures followed by blackouts, and then wakes up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. During his seizures, he severely beats two people; the day before his admission, he had been arrested after attacking a third, a gas-station attendant. He is a prime candidate for an operation to implant electrodes and minicomputer in his brain to control the seizures, which will be performed in the Neuro-Psychiatric Service of University Hospital. Two NPS surgeons, John Ellis and Robert Morris, are to perform the surgery, which is unprecedented for the time. In modern medicine, such a device would be called a brain pacemaker.

The ramifications of the procedure are questioned by the NPS's staff psychiatrist, Janet Ross, and later by her former teacher, an emeritus professor named Manon, at the lecture about the surgery. Manon raises concerns that Benson is psychotic (pointing to Benson's belief that machines are in hostile competition against humans and that machines will ultimately take over the world) and notes that the crimes he commits during the blackouts will not be curtailed. Ellis admits that what they are doing is not a cure, simply a way to stimulate the brain when the computer senses a seizure coming on. It would prevent a seizure but not cure his personality disorder. Ellis rationalizes his approach by pointing out that he is not convinced that not operating on Benson will do him any favors; Benson's condition threatens his life and those of others, has already undermined his legal status three times, and is worsening. Despite the concerns voiced, the team decides to go ahead with the operation.

The operation implants forty electrodes in Benson's brain, controlled by a small computer that is powered by a plutonium power pack in his shoulder. Benson must wear a dogtag that says to call University Hospital if he is injured, as his atomic power pack may emit radiation. While he is recovering, a woman identifying herself by the name of Angela Black gives Morris a black wig for Benson, whose head was shaved prior to the operation.

Morris goes back to his normal work, where he interviews a man who volunteers to have electrodes put into his mind to stimulate pleasure. Morris refuses him, but realizes that people like Benson could potentially become addicts. He recalls a Norwegian man with schizophrenia, who was allowed to stimulate himself as much as he wanted, and did so much that it actually gave him brain damage.

Roger A. McPherson, head of the Neuro-Psychiatric Service, interviews Benson, who is still convinced that machines are conspiring to take over the world. McPherson realizes Manon and Ross were right and orders nurses to administer Thorazine to Benson.

After resting for a day, Benson goes through "interfacing." The forty electrodes in his brain are activated by computer technicians Gerhard and Richards, one by one, to see which ones would stop a seizure. Each produces different results. One of the electrodes stimulates a sexual pleasure. Ross asks Gerhard to monitor Benson every ten minutes.

Gerhard shows his findings to Ross, who realizes that the seizures are getting more frequent. She explains that Benson is learning to initiate seizures involuntarily because the result of these seizures is a shock of pleasure, which leads to him having more frequent seizures. Ross checks on Benson, and discovers that, due to the clerical error of the nurses not having been able to read McPherson's signature, Benson has not been receiving his Thorazine. She then finds out that Benson, using the black wig and disguising himself as an orderly, has evaded the police officer assigned to guard him and escaped from the hospital.

Ross goes to Benson's house, but instead finds two girls who say he has a gun and blueprints for the basement of University Hospital, where the computer mainframe is located. Ellis searches at a strip club where Benson, who is fascinated with all things sexual, spends a lot of time, but fails to find him. Morris goes to the firm where Benson is employed, and there meets Benson's boss who tells him that Benson disliked University Hospital because of its ultra-modern computer system, an upgraded IBM System/360 which the hospital had obtained during "Watershed Week," a week in July 1969 during which the total information-handling capacity of all the world's computers exceeded that of all the world's human brains.

Ross is contacted by Los Angeles Police Captain of Detectives John Anders, a homicide detective who had found Benson's dogtag at the murder scene of Angela Black. (She proves to have been a dancer with the real name of Doris Blankfurt.) After answering questions at the police station, Ross goes home. Benson arrives at her house, and has a seizure, which causes him to attack Ross. Just before losing consciousness herself, Ross manages to turn on her microwave oven. The microwave radiation disrupts the atomic pacemaker in Benson's shoulder, and he flees. After switching clothes to hide the bruises on her neck, Ross goes back to the hospital and goes to sleep.

When Blankfurt/Black is brought back to the hospital for autopsy, pathologists find a book of matches that have the name of an airport hotel. Morris goes to this airport hotel, where he remembers that Benson had first been arrested for assault and battery, and a bartender says he saw Benson an hour ago leaving with a mechanic identified as "Joe," who took him to the hangar. Morris goes to this hangar and finds Joe severely beaten. He is in turn attacked by Benson, who smashes the lower part of his face in with a steel pipe and then flees.

Ross, back at the hospital, is awakened by Gerhard. She has a call from Benson. When Anders traces the call, he realizes that Benson is inside the hospital. Gerhard's and Richards's computers begin to malfunction, as if somebody was disturbing the mainframe. Anders and Ross go down into the basement in search of Benson. Anders locates Benson and has a brief firefight, injuring and disarming Benson before becoming lost in the maze of corridors. Benson goes back to the computer room to finish shutting down the computer mainframe and finds Ross. After Ross picks up Benson's gun, Benson returns to the computer and goes to steal the gun from Ross. After an intense, tearful internal struggle, Ross finally shoots and kills Benson unintentionally.

Worth the comparison! <3
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Thanks to anyone who read about this issue.

One criticism might be, focus on the killer rather than the many victims.
Although the thread deals with elements of mind control/co opting of humans.

I have not had the chance to read much detail about the Oslo victims.
However today I did read brief description of the Aurora theater victims and saw their photos.
It would bring a tear to the eye of anyone without a stone heart.
I actually thought it was at least as sad as the stories about the Boston incident.
Of course the Tsarnevs were dealing with a very different form of indoctrination.
They had a different means than Holmes. A shooter makes the conscious choice to continue to engage.
There's a big difference then, if we consider that, between say, the Enola Gay WWII bomber pilots and a modern drone pilot.
That the modern man has the chance to stop but is less likely to take it on a moral basis.


It shows the weakness and brittleness of the people of our times.
Compared to the rich personalities of the past, we are pastel echoes, many modern people.
There isn't much there to break!!

Hence the importance of healing.

...

That said,
here's a question that Omniverse and Jiminii might ponder --
in the same way that a human may control a virtual avatar,
might artificial intelligence someday evolve to the point where the virtual intelligence is controlling the human avatar?

We see that concept illustrated in the Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell.
An AI sentience takes harbor in a synthetic body, then seeks out a human with which to merge.
Image
Image

We have even stranger things going on in the space CGI drama film Avatar.
A quadruplegic soldier is put into a dream reading device on a strange planet that's being mined for a silly floating metal called Unobtainium, right?
His consciousness is transferred to a body resembling that of the natives, although it escapes me how that bit is accomplished.
Ultimately the bond between the two bodies is compromised by corporate meddlers, and the natives look to the Gaia tree thingy to heal the protagonist and bring him back to life in his avatar body... sigh. heh. And the news said people acted strangely after seeing that film.
That there were suicides as a result of Avatar. :(

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... -real.html
Avatar fans suicidal because planet Pandora is not real
Fans of Avatar have been left feeling blue by the realisation that the utopian planet Pandora is not real, with some saying they are plagued by suicidal thoughts.
Image




By Heidi Blake

7:00AM GMT 13 Jan 2010

CommentsComment

The futuristic blockbuster from director James Cameron tells the story of a corporation trying to mine for a rare mineral on the planet Pandora after Earth's resources have been depleted.

The humans clash with the natives – a peaceful race of blue-skinned creatures called the Na'vi who live in harmony with nature.

Fans of the film have flooded the internet to express their distress at realising they will never be able to visit the utopian planet.

On one website, Avatar Forums, the topic "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible" has more than 1,000 posts.

Ivar Hill, a 17-year-old fan from Sweden, wrote on a similar site: “When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed grey. It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning … It just seems so meaningless. I still don’t really see any reason to keep doing things at all. I live in a dying world.”


http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/ ... vie.blues/
Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues
By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN
January 11, 2010 8:06 a.m. EST

Image
Image from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange:
Image

see also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawnm ... %28film%29

(a film about a man who... becomes an AI?)
Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. One of the chimps escapes using the warfare tactics he was being trained for. Dr. Angelo is generally a pacifist, who would rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without applying it for military purposes.

Jobe Smith, a local greenskeeper with an intellectual disability, lives in the garden shed owned by the local priest, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen's brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. Father McKeen punishes the challenged Jobe with a belt whenever he fails to complete his chores.

Dr. Angelo realizes he needs a human subject to work with, and he spots Jobe mowing his lawn. Peter Parkette, Dr. Angelo's young neighbor, is friends with Jobe. Dr. Angelo invites both of them over to play some virtual reality games. Learning more about Jobe, Angelo persuades him to participate in his experiments, letting him know it will make him smarter. Jobe agrees and begins the program. Dr. Angelo makes it a point to redesign all the intelligence-boosting treatments without the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments.

Jobe soon becomes smarter, for example, learning Latin in only two hours. Meanwhile Jobe also begins a sexual relationship with a young rich widow, Marnie. However, Jobe begins to display telepathic abilities and have hallucinations. He continues training at the lab, until an accident makes Dr. Angelo shut the program down. The project director, Sebastian Timms, employed by a mysterious agency known as The Shop, keeps tabs on the progress of the experiment, and discreetly swaps Dr. Angelo's new medications with the old Project 5 supply (reintroducing the "aggression factors" into the treatment).

Jobe develops telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers and takes Marnie to the lab to make love to her while in virtual reality. Something goes wrong in the simulation when Jobe's virtual avatar becomes violent, attacking her mind directly; Marnie is driven insane, laughing endlessly at nothing.

Jobe's powers continue to grow, but the treatments are also affecting his mental stability, and he decides to exact revenge on those who abused him when he was "dumb": Father McKeen is engulfed in flames, a bully named Jake is put into a catatonic state by a mental "lawnmower man" continually mowing his brain, and a lawnmower invention of Jobe's runs down Harold, Peter's abusive father. Jobe uses his telepathic abilities to make the investigating police attribute it all to "bizarre accidents" in front of Dr. Angelo.

Jobe believes his final stage of evolution is to become "pure energy" in the VSI computer mainframe, and from there reach into all the systems of the world. He promises his "birth" will be signaled by every telephone on the planet ringing simultaneously. The Shop sends a team to capture Jobe, but they are ineffective against his abilities and he scatters their molecules. Jobe uses the lab equipment to enter the mainframe computer, abandoning his body to become a wholly virtual being, leaving his body behind like a husk.

Dr. Angelo remotely infects the VSI computer, encrypting all of the links to the outside world, trapping Jobe in the mainframe. As Jobe searches for an unencrypted network connection, Dr. Angelo primes bombs to destroy the building. Feeling responsible for what has happened to Jobe, Angelo then joins him in virtual reality to try to reason with him. Jobe overpowers and crucifies him, then continues to search for a network connection. Peter runs into the building; Jobe still cares for him and allows Dr. Angelo to go free in order to rescue Peter. Jobe forces a computer-connected lock to open, allowing Peter and Dr. Angelo to escape. Jobe escapes through a back door before the building is destroyed in multiple explosions.

Back at home with Peter, Dr. Angelo and Peter's mother Carla (who has become a romantic interest) are about to leave when their telephone rings, followed by the noise of a second, and then hundreds of telephones ring, all around the globe.

Image

[youtube][/youtube]
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Some others do find the trial unethical at this point, it's quite strange how things are playing out:

http://news.yahoo.com/woman-jailed-outb ... 35971.html


Woman jailed for outburst during Colorado movie massacre trial
Reuters By Keith Coffman
4 hours ago
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - A woman protesting against capital punishment stood up in court on Thursday and shouted "Don't kill him!" before bailiffs tackled her during the penalty phase of James Holmes' mass murder trial in Colorado.

She was ordered jailed for three weeks for her outburst.

The disturbance by spectator Deborah Cave came as the district attorney addressed jurors who will ultimately decide whether Holmes, convicted of fatally shooting 12 people in a movie theater in 2012, will be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

"Don't kill him! He's wrong. It is mental illness!" Caves cried as she climbed over rows of seats toward Holmes, 27, in the crowded courtroom at the Arapahoe County Justice Center on the outskirts of Denver.

She was subdued by two sheriff's deputies and dragged into the hall where she continued to shriek. Holmes registered no visible reaction.

After closing arguments in the penalty proceedings concluded and the jury and defendant had left the courtroom, Judge Carlos Samour ordered Cave brought before him, her hands cuffed to a chain at her waist.

He said he was holding her in contempt of court, noting deputies had cautioned her about how to behave when she attended the trial earlier in the week.

Speaking in her own defense, Cave said she filed a friend-of-the-court motion in 2013 that was denied. She also told the judge she sent a photograph of herself to "Jim" in jail, presumably referring to Holmes, but police returned it. Officials and strangers had harassed her at the court, she said.

"What you did was extremely serious and extremely improper and it is extremely offensive to the authority and dignity of the court," the judge told her.

"It offends me, as a human being, that other human beings kill each other, legally!" Cave shouted back, banging on the podium.

"You can't justify murder with murder!" she yelled as she was led away.

Holmes' mother, Arlene, burst into tears after the woman was removed from court. Cave was also charged with misdemeanor assault stemming from her scuffled with deputies.

The jury has already found Holmes guilty of killing 12 people and wounding 70 during his shooting spree at a midnight screening of the Batman film "A Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

They have also determined that aggravating factors were proved which could justify the death penalty, unless the defense can persuade them that mitigating factors are more important.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Osterman)
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Image
Roman Gladiator


Video Game Addiction Leads Not Only to Loss of Sanity But Also to Loss of Motor Skills

http://www.gamecritics.com/forums/archi ... t-554.html
View Full Version : Are you hot-tempered? Anti-social? Frequently disoriented?
AzuRE Rebirth
07-11-2002, 12:14 PM
If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then according to a study in Japan.....that's because you're a gamer.

A new study on males age 6-26 have concluded that people who play video games on a regular basis (average of 15-25 hrs/week) have a tendency to exhibit loss of coordination and attentiveness, are easily angered and can produce somewhat hastily upset reactions with only small amounts of stimuli, and are more withdrawn from their society. The study was not to put a dark cloud over video games that so many labels have done before (i.e. it causes ignorant kids to kill), but was rather a helpful guide for parents who purchase video games for their children at an early age (6-10).

Now, being one who plays video games on a somewhat regular basis (now that college isn't in session, I find myself with a little more time), I thought I'd analyze the three symptoms that this study suggests and how they may affect me as I've been an avid gamer since the mid-80's.

1. Loss of coordination and attentiveness- Now, I can somewhat agree with attentiveness as well as relate to it. Many a time have I passed up working on an overdue project to play Final Fantasy, but that was more of an elementary school thing. Of course, one could attribute the lack of attentiveness as an adult to work and/or a relationship, perhaps even interaction with family. I, personally, have never experienced a lack of coordination from playing video games with the exception of playing a Virtua Boy for 30 minutes (couldn't see straight for 5 min and had to sit down). But I'm the kind of guy who follows all the health recommendations in the manuals: take 30 min breaks after every hour to stretch, eat, relieve myself, etc and don't play for prolonged times if aches and pains should arrise. Of course, when video games first started, their reasons behind periodical breaks were to prevent console overheating. Nowadays, with self-cooling systems, it's all about the health (Nintendo's manual sporting the inadvertant side effects from too much gaming, such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Dizziness).

2. Causes people to become easily angered- Yeah, I can see this being a gaming-attributed problem. As we've discussed on this board, we've all had many a time when we've wanted to chuck our system through the TV because that last boss was just so damn hard (especially in the early NES days when save files were a rarity, dying on the last boss meant starting the whole game over again). And yes, I too have exhibited a nasty temperment because of failed objectives or being gunned down too quickly. Best thing I tell myself is it's just a video game and I usually go for a walk. Another cause of anger may be from playing it for too long prior to the event that caused the bad juice to flow. When everything that depletes your health by one number/bar causes you to shout and curse, perhaps a break may be best for you.

3. Losing contact with the outside world (anti-social)- This I can only see happening to reclusive gamers, ones who buy a new game and board themselves up for days on end in their room. I did my best to balance being a gamer and being social, and it worked fine in high school. I wasn't Super Ultra Mr. Popular, but I can't take out both my brain AND my soul. Only one or the other, and soul seemed to be the best choice ;) . One could shut themselves off if they were emersed in a vastly addictive game, namely an RPG, that they were driven to complete no matter what the cost and/or result. While I can't personally vouch for this, I don't doubt it does exist.

So, what do you gamers think? Does the doc have a point? Or is this just another excuse to voice the problems with video games? I've told you my side, now it's your turn.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/29/us/james- ... f=obinsite

James Holmes' mother: 'I thought I had a good kid'

By Ann O'Neill, Ana Cabrera and Sara Weisfeldt, CNN

Updated 11:59 PM ET, Wed July 29, 2015
Three dozen witnesses have testified during the so-called mitigation phase, including James Holmes' parents and sister. Jurors could begin their deliberations as soon as Thursday afternoon.

The defense witnesses painted a picture of an exuberant boy, described by one teacher as a "Renaissance child," who grew into a bright but nerdy teen and then a socially withdrawn adult.

Looking back, his mother says, she can see how her son changed as he began adolescence just before the family moved from Northern California to San Diego. Once quick and skilled at soccer,
he became uncoordinated and spent most of his time playing cards and video games.


"He was living on a blue note," she said. She added that she felt guilty about her son "losing his joy."


Interestingly enough, game companies like to say, "our games make you faster, better smarter"
Play them long enough, you start to lose peripheral vision, depth perception, and acquire a fierce dopamine addiction...

It's so easy for the companies to blame other factors, things comorbid
But the truth is compelling, that without the crutch of this Reality Substitute, this electronic drug,
these young men would not have self-isolated (the games are a virtual prison cell!),
and henceforth would have avoided developing the full-blown psychosis.

Going to the therapist isn't going to solve the fundamental issue of the brain chemistry being radically changed.

Without facing video game addiction and brain wear-and-tear as a true medical condition,
doctors are not going to pick up on those radical changes.

And the bribes from the megacorporations are simply too large.
You and I might not be able to buy a judge, but the Telecom company can afford to.
Microsoft can afford to. Vivendi/Blizzard can afford to. I could go on and on.

How many cases like James Holmes before the United States puts reasonable limits on childrens' access to violent video games?
We raise our kids alongside so much propaganda, anti-drugs, anti-anti-vaxx, all that stuff,
yet the government turns a blind eye to the electronic demon/drug addiction consuming so many young men (and women?) across America.

Interestingly enough, while towns in Norway took violent games off their shelves after the Oslo incident,
I am aware of no such conscientiousness being done in the USA.

A sad irony that the "In God We Trust" nation doesn't trust him enough to give up the blood money of income from violent video games.


CONTROLLED THROUGH VIOLENCE


http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/colosseum.html

Image
From A.D. 75 through the present time, the Colosseum in Rome represents a lifestyle that we today are only able to study but never experience. Through my findings in research I have been able to compile facts and descriptions of the way the colosseum impacted the life of the Romans: it allowed their violence to show through their participation in the Colosseum games. These bloody spectacles caused Rome to stand as a symbol of not only strength and power but also violence. Even though Christianity began to diminish the games held in the Colosseum, it is still studied and modeled after today.
Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Naga_Fireball »

Good afternoon dear friends.
It's very difficult looking at a case that's playing out in "real time".
Whatever "real time" means -- those who have opened their minds to Possibility have trouble living in real time...

But there was a recently-made film with a particularly poignant scene --
"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001)

The scene is the Mines of Moria,
where the Fellowship has become sealed into the abandoned dwarven kingdom of Moria,
after their encounter with the creature in the lake outside.

Gandalf has visited Moria in ages past, but darkness and death have rendered the place alien.
The party pauses for a much-needed time of rest and reflection, although the environment is apparently hostile and grim.

However, we viewers do eventually realize, Moria represents the inner shadow self.
It's the darkness. It can be provoked or it can be embraced for what it is.

In the film, unfortunately for Gandalf, the party does not embrace the blessings of the darkness,
i.e. they are unable to maintain grace i.e. silence and stealth, conserving their nervous energies for when they re-emerge into the light.
If they had just been quiet and obedient, like infants before birth, they would have been safely delivered from Moria.

But because they make noise and provoke the terrible things that live in the deep shadows of the mines,
they lose sight of the goal and also lose their brave leader, Gandalf, as he is forced to combat the demon in order to gain safe passage for the remainder of the party.

Prior to this, in the scene where the party is lost in the dark,
and realizes that they are being followed by Gollum,
Frodo and Gandalf have the following conversation:
Frodo: [of Gollum] It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.

Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

The creature outside the mine who seals the party into darkness,
the kraken in the lake, is emotional turbulence or trauma.

The darkness is the time of wandering and suffering from trauma.
The light being looked for is Inner Grace but the party doesn't see this.

Gandalf plays the part of the Moon, demonstrating grace to the group.
They reject it and the Moon (Gandalf) falls.


We see this archetype played out also in the book Dune Messiah,
by Frank Herbert. Paul Muadib foresees the death of his wife, Chani, as the falling of the moon.
She is not resurrected in person but lives on through her gifted daughter Ghanima.



In a way, with trials like this one,
James Holmes who wandered so very far into darkness to which he was not accustomed,
it is up to the observer to find grace,

just like Frodo and Gandalf looking down on Gollum, a ruined creature, in judgment,
and Gandalf instructing Frodo in the ways of grace,

I hope our modern world can find grace before we fall.


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Brotherhood falls asunder at the touch of fire!
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
~William Cowper
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Spiritwind
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Re: Following the Holmes Trial? Some Info About Video Games, Addiction, and Violence

Post by Spiritwind »

I find this topic of considerable interest for several reasons. One of them is personal. I have a good friend who finally, in frustration, took her now ex-husbands gaming equipment and broke it all beyond repair. She wanted him back and figured that was the only way to finally get his attention. My oldest son is quite into them. A number of years ago he was supposed to be working for me and couldn't seem to tear himself away. Since he happened to be using our internet with a booster next door, I smiled to myself and figured out how to get his attention. I simply unplugged the power to the Internet. He was over in minutes. But it seems ridiculous to me that we have to resort to such tactics. It's quite obvious it's addictive.

Although, in my sons defense, he is steadily maturing and becoming a better person, despite his continued interest in playing. He is now a father of two and has really risen to the occasion. We've also had many discussions where he has shared why it is important to him and in what ways he feels he has benefitted. It seems maybe it is a quite complex issue.

This headline got my attention in one of your posts:

Video Game Addiction Leads Not Only to Loss of Sanity But Also to Loss of Motor Skills

The reason is, I know a young man who I briefly worked with recently that was attending college. He told me during a discussion one night that he was writing a paper on how playing video games increases your motor skills.

My biggest argument against them has to do with how I use my time and energy, how we all use our time and energy. My feeling is, the world is careening ever closer to a future that isn't what I want to be part of. So I choose what I focus on very carefully. To me, playing violent video games in any kind of obsessive way, is putting energy into something that is the opposite of life affirming. To me, especially during a crisis (which in reality the world is in), playing any kind of games is escapist behavior that keeps us from collectively coming up with a better future for all life here.

I absolutely do feel their design is all part of the programmers nefarious agenda, and I would not doubt at all that it played a part in what happened to Holmes. People do seem to miss the deeper implications, don't they?
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