Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Zuljaras It's all tried and true, the argument that videos games cause violence is nonsense. Before it was video games it was TV. Before it was TV, it was radio and comic books, before that it was mass printed books, before that it was teaching peasants to read... Nothing but excuses.

People make their own choices. There is always a choice. There is no such thing as brainwashing, hypnosis, mind control, or "hardened because you played too many video games".

A politician probably got ahold of CoD and saw the “No Russian” level. Cain killed Abel over a game of minesweeper.
Interestingly (albeit tragic) enough, 7 killed and 46 injured by guns in Chicago over the same weekend and there’s no coverage. 1/4 of mass shooters are actually diagnosed pre/post with mental illness. People need to accept that there are bad people that do bad things and don’t value others the same way.
@Zuljaras On point right there, was discussing that with my coworker yesterday. All those horror movies and action movies don’t get treated the same way. Mass Effect comes out and gets national coverage as a “sex simulator”, but no one rails as much on something like Shades of Grey.

Some people are just terrible.

Some people diagnosed with mental disorders is B.S @HobbitGamer. I was diagnosed with mental health problems when i was a teenager and the Dr.s tried to put me on meds because when they asked me if i ever got depressed and or really happy sometimes and do i ever get figgity and bored at school i answered yes. It is now on my permanent medical records that i have mental health problems. So if you've ever been depressed, really happy and bored with something which 99.99% of people have and tell a physiatrist you will be considered someone with mental health problems and they will probably try to put you on meds. And thank goodness my parents didn't put me on their recommended meds. Because like the commercials for these drugs say now but was unknown 20+ years ago they can cause serious health risks and cause suicidal thoughts. Not saying a lot of people don't have legitimate mental health problems a shouldn't see a Dr. / be on meds just that some are just kids that are kinda sad sometimes because people are making fun of them and really happy because they got their first car/kiss from a girl and find home ec boring.

Edit: And physiatrist won't get paid by insurance companies (U.S) unless they diagnose you with a mental health problem. And thanks to them i've been considered a manic depressive with a hypertensive disorder for 20+ years now and can not buy a gun. And it's cost me getting a couple of jobs even though in my 40+ years alive i've never been on meds, threatened or been in a physical fight with anyone..

@everyone Yeah, it's sad that some politicians with an apparent chip on their shoulder obviously have to point at video games again, as if any person with more than two brain cells couldn't tell the difference between fact and fiction. I've played just about every COD and Medal of Honor ever made, and quite a few other shooters, some of which have some pretty gruesome weapons and kill methods (looking at you, Gears of War chainsaw gun), but never in my life have I ever felt the need to reproduce those scenes in real life.

Mental issues aside, most of these perpetrators are loners, idiots, psychos, or people estranged from society and friends and family, for any number of reasons. It's never a sane person, and the times that it's actually a well-educated person, can probably also be counted on the fingers of one hand. They say that one of the shooters, the one in Dayton, was apparently bullied a lot, so that may have been a contributing factor to him lashing out this way.

Then again: I've been on that side of the stick in my childhood and younger years as well, and I never turned into a psycho either. The most psychotic thing I've ever done, is to adopt a fictional megalomaniac's name and visage for my online alter-ego, so it's pretty clear to me that this can never be the largest part of the equation, only a contributing factor in the life of a probably already quite disturbed/unstable individual.

Far as I'm concerned, the answer to the mass shootings is pretty clear: take away the means or access to the means for certain groups of people. Don't just hand out guns in the local supermarket to any random idiot. Do more background checks, verify that the person is able and sane enough to handle a weapon while still taking into account all the responsibilities that come with it.

But even better would be to change the right to bear arms, although gun lovers/defenders and the idiots over at the NRA will probably never stand for that, unfortunately.

Having said all that, I can already hear some people tentatively (or vehemently) saying: "but people are getting shot all around the world, so that's not the solution", and obviously, if someone wants to do harm, he or she can still get a gun somewhere, somehow, but the number of incidents and the number of victims clearly pale in comparison to the insane amount of incidents in America (and I say America, because mass shootings and disproportionate gun violence also occur in South America), so no, there is absolutely no valid comparison anywhere else in the world.

Analysts are already saying/predicting, that the next shooting will happen before the end of the month, and the number of incidents is now already almost as much as last year, while there's still several months to go before this year can go into the books, so it'll probably end with a very sad all-time high of shooting incidents.

And while the people keep protesting and crying out for change, politicians keep spouting their bog standard apologetic and supposedly reactionary sentences, but nothing effective will be done. We KNOW something must be done, and in no small measure either, because you don't use a band aid to fix a gaping wound, but we also know that it'll never happen...

People will cry out, people will grieve, politicians will spout their meaningless drivel, and ultimately, it'll all blow over, until the next incident occurs, and then the whole merry-go-round will happen again. And again, and again, without anyone ever even getting a shade of an inch closer to a positive outcome.

It's the proverbial stalemate, and that's a very sad conclusion to have to come to.

I choose to become Anti-Mature to keep my body safe and stay away from All disgusting 18+ stuffs.
They are Poison for me and have NO benefits or any fun whatsoever.
I saw them as a cruelty as hell.
I will never allow something like that disturbing my life.

I do exactly the same but with cute, girlie and kiddie games instead of "disgusting 18+ stuffs"!

@BacklogBlues "Mental health" is, IMO a complete joke and a farce. And that's my polite comments. The problem is we all know there's people who ARE unstable, and their brains don't function properly, and do need help....there's people where that's visibly obvious. There's no doubt there's people that's not visibly obvious. But they would be a very very very tiny portion of society. And the science just isn't there to really filter it out very well (of course anyone in the industry will go into a lecture about how great the science is and that while it's not perfect it's so good and they help so many people (based on their own definitions and criteria that have been drilled into their head....much like every religion that has ever existed does...they can't even conceive that there's anything wrong with their viewpoint because they view their viewpoint as based on data and therefore infallible.) ) Much like every religion that has ever existed does....)

So they more or less base "metal health" now on anything other than the pre-defined concept of "normal", which is generally a pre-defined concept of "ideal conditions." As such, NORMAL human reactions to external conditions and stimuli that causes brain activity not matching "normal" (because the stimuli do not match the pre-defined "normal") are treated as a disease. Anyone behaving as though their life is imperfect is "ill" and needs treatment and drugs to return to (everyone else's "normal"....which is of course also false since "everyone else's normal" was also generated by the drugs.) In the current mental health industry, if everyone around you dies horribly, and you're depressed and affected by that, a normal response that can and should affect you forever, you're defined as "ill" and you need drugs to be able to "function normally" (i.e. act oblivious to that reality.) - they "treat" normal emotional response as illness because a robotic engineered human society is now "normal." Anyone who's own "normal" is incompatible with the (artificial) society built around them, is deemed "ill" and drugged to conform to societal normal, etc. It's an Orwellian horror. And then the people with actual malfunctioning brains are categorized in the same group with the masses with normally functioning emotional states reacting to their conditions, and get lumped into an effectively "untreatable" category compared to the "majority" of cases....and everything stagnates in the realm of actual brain conditions.

Of course, I'm to the point I view the majority of science as little more than a disguised religion, praying daily to Saint Data, and the Holy Peer Review (as long as said peers all have the same enforced starting view) with little to no ability to actually doubt the structure of their own systems, beyond minor platitudes of "well of course it's not perfect, and there's room to improve, but....it's been making great strides!" At this point I view most scientists and bishops as two flavors of the same hubris as reality floats somewhere beneath their noses. (And the chorus of scientists/science students defending the Church in 3...2...1..)

@NEStalgia
I want to add with my story.
Normal peoples by general will react scared if they see or watch Horror movies / games.
But not for my case.
I will react very aggresive and really angry if my body sense any sign of Horror movies / games (even just only sound, no watching).
That was because it already really insulting and attacking my brain long time ago.
My brain felt terrorized very bad with those nightmares and my body reacted by a retaliation and drove me angry with aggresive behaviour as my defend / retaliation.
And until today, i still condemn and curse to death every single Horror stuffs except something like Yokai Watch (Cute spooky with no harmful purposes)

I do think it’s ridiculous that there are tests, registries, and such before you can legally drive a vehicle on a road, but no such requirements for firearms.
Would it really be that much of an ‘inconvenience’ for those purchasing a firearm to attend a safety class? I know, that doesn’t solve all problems, and people still drive a car without a license too. But so long as the means and motives for harm exist, the emphasis should be on risk mitigation.
The murder at a shooting in May acquired his weapon because two states didn’t have databases that were linked. But if I were pulled over by an officer in Georgia and I had a suspended license in Florida, that would show up. There are common sense reforms that can be made that still preserve the right of individuals, once people put their emotions aside and want to make improvements. Some things just don’t make sense.

Is anyone planning on trying out DC Online? I think it drops on eShop today.

While we’re at it, let’s maybe examine why everyone seems to have some level of internet related PTSD, and maybe it seems to be stronger in younger people who have never existed without it. I’m almost certain it’s unhealthy to know every single horrible thing that happens in the world every day, and I’m positive that idiots should not be given forum to connect and become emboldened with other idiots.

Edit - By “we” I mean people in general.

(Cough)

@ThanosReXXX It's not guns, it's not "certain individuals" or any of those lame excuses. I've said before and I'll continue to say, the violence problem here is a violence problem, not a gun problem. And the violence problem is a symptom, not a cause. And solving it can not be done by treating the symptom. The problem is the cause is one fundamental to the structure of the society, economy, and way of life here. The only way to "fix" it is to fundamentally rewrite the culture, economy, and way of life. Speaking of natural emotional response....what does any animal do when cornered and trapped, with their existence in jeopardy? They attack. Relentlessly. Adrenaline fueled viscous attacks. Why is it when it happens here we instead blame guns, illness, or anything except the actual problem?

Associating this with my above comment, based on the reality of life in this location and time, I would say "mass violence" isn't "metal illness"...it's in fact "natural human response to a given set of conditions." Sure you can drug people to be incapable of responding naturally to their conditions...but you'll always miss a few...and then the drugs themselves have that percentage risk of fueling that response more intensely... Fixing that means fixing the problematic conditions - a pressure cooker, high risk, winner takes all, loser becomes an 'un-person' way of life is in the majority of cases the direct cause (with a smaller percentage being truly visibly unstable people that no doubt have malfunctioning brains not related to external stimuli, but that's not the majority of the cases, no matter how much society likes to craft that image for each attack.) The continuous stress threatening one's entire future existence can be endured up to a point, provided one has the resources and emotional condition to do so. But when people are worn down to a certain point...they're going to react (of course a lot of the statistics specifically regarding guns leave out the fact that a lot of the gun violence is tied to drug cartels/gangs...that's a whole other thing of faction wars and black market international business....the violence rate among the populace is actually much higher (!!) than the gun specific violence numbers...) The problem is the US is probably the most extreme case of that way of life, and entire populations by zip code of "un-persons." And as a result, we have the most extreme number of people reacting in a (naturally) violent manner to it. And then we act surprised, act like we don't understand why, and try to blame access to specific objects as the cause....solve that one simple trick(TM) and the problem will go away...that's the ticket!

The reality is EVERYONE could be the one that does it. Absolutely EVERYONE (disclaimer: everyone not drugged to be immune to the effects of external stimuli, minus the ones that are drugged to be immune but react with the drugs and have the opposite effect of being more likely to.) If put in the right/wrong conditions, it could be the soccer mom, it could be the 13 year old, it could be the friendly former factory worker, it could be you, you may say it couldn't be you, but it could be...you haven't been pushed to that point, but you could be in the right/wrong conditions....it could be anyone that does it. But that's not a fun narrative with a simple solution to point fingers and blame something that "must be those other people, not me and anyone I know! We should label, categorize, and isolate those people! We should ban any object they might be able to use from everyone so they can't get it! We should ban violent video games, that must make them violent....because I don't play them and I'm not violent!" Instead it's an uncomfortable narrative that says that the fundamental system you are comfortable with is disastrously broken, and you might be the one benefiting from the instability (for now.) )

And that narrative will never be told here. Ever. The people that would tell it, the people that would change it, are the people benefiting the most from it continuing. This winner takes all works great for them...they're all the winners! Even if they push their narratives...even if they ban all guns, label and isolate all the "ill" (a.k.a. the losers.) It solves nothing. The system will inherently produce more "losers." It will keep on exactly as it has been, and the "violence" problem will not change. Ever.

@HobbitGamer - Is that the old mmo set in the DCU? I didn’t realize it’s coming to Switch, but I’d consider it just to mess around a bit. I’ve never played it or any other mmo, but I’d consider it. Did you play it?

@Anti-Matter I think that's probably the real key difference that got lost somewhere along the way of politically indoctrinated scientists. Failure to separate "normal for society" versus "normal based on instinct." A reaction of fear/apprehension to the sights of horror content is hard-wired into the brain as a risk/threat condition...(images of injury/death/decay/attack/threat that can't be defended against) it's an instinct driven response. So in your case, reacting in a different way is definitely not a natural response - though in your case you're aware of the conditions that lead to that response. I think that's probably the key difference that the industry (at least here) forgot. Not acting according to the norms of instinct and innate behavior versus not acting according to cultural societal expectation. In the age of drugs, we've veered hard toward the latter now that we have god-like powers to control human response via drugs, where the former represents an actual problematic response.

IMO It's totally normal @Anti-Matter. It's the fight or flight response all humans have. It just sounds like you have the fight response which is higher levels of adrenaline, anger, and aggression among other things. Which is normal as it is one of the natural responses. However if you lose control and uncontrollable punch and kick at electronics or people and things that is not normal for an adult. But like i said it's just my opinion .

Looks like Former Nintendo Head man Reggie was discussing the same topic of do video games cause gun violence today too. Just hours after the decisions here started.

I need to just move to Japan.

@BacklogBlues I think the more interesting thing about Reggie's post is how the heck is Korea the #1 video game market by revenue?!?! And by a wide margin?!? Are all the MMO/MOBA PC whales THAT massive in spending to eclipse all console and mobile spending in the US and China?!? It's not even a populous country! I thought Moon was just doing the political posturing thing with all the video game curfew stuff, but, man, they really do have a serious addiction problem there on a national level.....

Edit: I also like how the responses to his post are a collection of FE3H memes followed by endless Reggie memes....

@bimmy-lee Yep, that’s the one. I’ve not given it a go yet, and the only MMO I really played was Star Trek Online on XB1(Uber awesome btw). I’ll probably play it just to be Batman for awhile, then get bored.

I will NEVER EVER want to play MMO games anymore. Period.
It sucks 100%.
I have experienced that 10 years ago before i completely changed my mind.
I found Offline games from Handhelds / consoles were more interesting than any MMO games.
Keep moving forward consoles / handheld games, keep destroying all the MMO domination !