[jchw]

Film was scary too at one point. And before that, books. The media became more sophisticated over time, and the moral panics always followed. Yes, this “new” media is interactive and immersive, but there has never been that much compelling evidence that increased immersion actually changes matters that much.

I think VR may be an interesting test case in the near future as it is immersive enough to potentially be more traumatic and more unsettling... but that still doesn’t mean playing GTA or Doom increases your odds of going on a shooting spree.

The fact that you can make potentially more impactful stories using more modern media seems neutral to me. But to be frank, you really desperately do not need modern technology and fancy graphics to make an incredibly emotional, impactful game. Just look at indie games like Undertale and Celeste.

[TedDoesntTalk]

> Film was scary too at one point.

And there have been many film-inspired murders. the mass shooting inspired by the Dark Night. John Hinckley’s assassination attempt on Reagan ( inspired by Taxi Driver ).

John Lennon’s murder was inspired by The Catcher in the Rye!

Here’s a link to some:

https://www.newsweek.com/nine-horrible-real-life-crimes-were...

And remember, not all such incidents are famous. So doubtless there are more.

There are sick people in the world who are indeed influenced by all sorts of media.

this was the key idea behind A Clockwork Orange.

Whether such media influences “healthy” people is another question.

[jchw]

Here’s my stance: if we can’t show a meaningful and strong correlation, it doesn’t matter. People have a personal responsibility to follow the law. Consumption of such material needs to be so dangerous that it justifies compromising speech rights, and as of now, decades past the original video game violence debates, we’re still not even sure it does anything.

People can be “inspired” by a film or a game to do something illegal, but it’s impossible for us to tell if they were simply likely to do it anyway, so individual cases don’t say very much.