Anybody have any good sources to read concerning this topic?

Good idea, but I havn't seen anything apart from the promotion of violence and its effects. Some good stuff on that at newscientist.co.uk.

Computer games seem to 'simplistic' to be able to be able to brainwash people.

I'd be more worried about that bogus channel one crap played in schools. When I have children, they will not be going to a school in this country, that's for damn sure...

Oh great- just another thing Joseph Leiberman will jump onto. MUST... PLAY...MARIO SUNSHINE.... where did that come from?

After Columbine, there was a lot of talk about the perpetrators being brainwashed by hidden codes in DOOM, since they were both addicted to it.

This was (reportedly, dont know how accurate it was) supported by the fact that at least a couple of programmers for ID software, makers of DOOM were ex CIA.

I played the doom series forever.
I downloaded stuff from doomsdayhq.com...
to be able to play it in open gl at high resolutions and the same for hexen

I have yet to go on a rampage and mow people down because of it.

Anyone ever stop to think maybe those kids did what they did because those other kids treated them like a worthless piece of # for years?

The guys who carried out the Columbine shootings weren't brainwashed by a PC game. It's way more complex than that.

There were dozens of reasons why they did what they did. Fear, anger, revenge, pain, resentment and many more negative emotions contributed to their actions.

You don't gain all of those emotions from a video game. They build up during your life - your daily experiences from the day that you are born.

Leveller explained it so much better than I.

Heh I just get so pissed off when people blame video games, I blame the individuals.

Just like how EverQuest Destroys lifes... lol
I think if it wasnt EQ they'd be blaming drugs or alcohol. I believe it comes down to the individual. NOBODY is responsible for your actions but YOU.

[Edited on 21-5-2003 by Lysergic]

I hate whenever this is brought up. I've been gaming for, i'd say...about 22 years now? And I have yet to perform some horrible, malicious deed. Ok ok...I have spammed a few boards, get booted from chat rooms for being a smart ***, but really....I just like watching people get mad when you push their buttons. Cracks me up something terrible.

My point is...what is so wrong with gaming? Those columbine kids were evil from the start. Gaming does not create evil in the person....the person has to be evil to begin with.

I was watching the local news last night, and they mentioned how this woman blamed the Matrix for her having killed her husband...real nice. She claims that the Matrix exists and that she wanted out. Right.....

Is it the Wachowski brothers' fault? No, it's this woman's fault for being an idiot.

I cant stand how the simple-minded ruin the fun for the rest of us who are big boys and can handle our entertainment. Sheesh.


[Edited on 21-5-2003 by Kai-Raega]

What about children children, like 3 year olds? Reader rabbit told me to burn things! "Find the missing letter! K_ll them all!" "Yay, you've done it, your reward is permission to play with knives!"

[Edited on 21-5-2003 by SmileyMan34]

There isn't any brainwashing in children's video games.

There are too many games, too many different kinds of people using them -- and believe me, research has shown that very few people have personalities that are so plastic that subliminial suggestions can make them conform.

Otherwise, NOBODY would shop at Dollar Store or make their own food at home or drive old cars.

We actually had this happen in our office:

One of my coworkers got a "B*tch Bear" from a friend. This looks just like a Teddy Bear, except it has a frown on his face. It also have an electronic voice box, when you push it, it comes out with phrases like "f*ck you" "your an a$$hole" "f*ckin jerk". It was quite popular in the office for a while, especially when the director would "drop in for a chat" (those familiar with office politics know what Im talking about).

One day, one of the ladies from another department was in the building with her 4 year old daughter, who happened to spot the B*tch Bear, ran up, and began playing with it. As she grabbed it, it let loose with a torrent of filthy phrases. She immediately dropped it and ran back to her mother crying.

Her mother later reported that the little girl threw out all of her teddy bears (apparently quite a few of them), and is now terrified of teddys.

Hey if video games really brainwashed people then I would have been brainwashed a long time ago. I've been playing videogames since 1983.

Dragon made a good point. They recently banned the sale of MA rated games to minors in the DC area.

600 dollar fine for it too.

money.cnn.com...

That reminds me of the famous study, back when you could do those things, where when a small child was shown a white rabbit they would make a loud noise behind him and scare him.

As a result the kid became afraid of rabbits, and eventually afraid of anything white and furry. The conclusion was that somewhere in the world someone is afraid of santa claus without ever really knowing why.

Classic Operant conditioning. But the main issue should be the vast amounts of time people spend glued to the games instead of engaging in productive activity.

Well I played Doom2 like everyday for around 5 years. I turned out okay. Right???


Then again they did brainwash me. Cause why else would I despise evil??????

What is productive activity anymore? Machines can do everything now, I think over the next 100 years, man will shi.ft their energy from work to philosophy and learning...mainly man will be engaged more heavily in research as services and production is handed over to machines.

Boy sometimes, I hope the world is sent back to the "ice age"...who wants to live like what our great great grandchildren have to experience?

They won't even enjoy the stars because everyone will be such smart asses and know which stars are made of what.

At least now there's still that mystic quality of stars being the souls of our ancestors. Though obviously they aren't.

But the feeling is like that.

Games...they just fuzzy your mind. Nothing more.

I think they make you anti-social though so they definately did not help those columbine kids.

[Edited on 21-5-2003 by TheMaster]

Yup. It's easy to do operant conditioning with small children -- but try doing it to your average 10 year old. Not so easy, Grasshopper!

It's a matter of association, and that depends on your cognitive level. When most of us play games, there's an element of "disconnect" in our thinking. We can blend into the fantasy world BUT... at the same time, we know when we come out of it that we do NOT command armies of Anubus like creatures and nobody's building a Pyramid to our glory. Any "programming" inserted in a game (like "go drink Webble's Wonderful Water right NOW!") would be dismissed as game scenario and not incorporated into our minds.

We're also conditioned to ignore ads; their impact on us is less than on (for example) someone who came from a third world country (limited number of items, limited choices, no ads).

Brainwashing doesn't always lead to a malice deed. Actually, I wasn't even thinking along that line when I made this post. I was thinking more along the lines of brainwashing children to conform to their society and to maintain the lie they live in.

I my opinion, some modern day video games are designed to lower the creativity of the player. Which also lowers ones ability to form individual thoughts. Therefore, control continues.