DB#326 – Games and Reality
In this episode: Soccer euphoria in the Netherlands; computer games and violence: Sony and the Church of England; Manhunt 2 gets banned; smoothies in the morning: soy milk smoothies; Music Man episode 12; Birthday wishes; That Catholic Show #5 is out! Help promote SQPN and catholic podcasting in your local parish bulletin; the Blair Switch project; Yoda and the Saints.
Music in this episode:
Pauline Taylor – Walking in the Beautiful Sunshine
Geoff Smith – So I’m Writing
Adrina Thorpe – Round The Bend
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Hi Fr Roderick,
When I clicked on the listen icon of DB#326 this morning the sound was all muddled and low. It was still the same after several tries. If I have time I will try to listen to it on another computer.
This was happening on the streaming audio via the web mp3 listen: icon.
I don’t know if there is a audio problem with the downloaded mp3 file or not though.
Keep up the good work,
Looking forward to your Simpsons report
Michael C
Try it on another computer, the file sounds fine when I click on it.
Thanks Fr Roderick,
I will do that. I suspected that when I tryed to play That Catholic Show #5 and got no sound when I had no problem before here playing TCS #4.
I’m at a college large computer lab with dozens & dozens of computers so I’ll see if the one next to me will work.
This article of the American Psychology Association might be of interest in the violent game discussion:
Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions by Craig A. Anderson.
I am also not easily provoked into aggression when playing aggressive games, but I’m an adult. Children have much more problems in distinguishing reality and fiction. There’s a lot of psychological research which confirms that.
I can look for some scientific articles on this topic if anyone’s interested. I’ve got access to scientific articles as a psychology student.
Audio Problem solved…
FIRST RULE OF AUDIO/VISUAL EQUIPMENT THAT I FORGOT:
ALWAYS CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT FIRST!
It was the computer lab headphone whose jack only needed to be pushed in part way for clean audio. Some headphones have jacks that when you push them in all the way into a computer will give you muddled or no audio.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Forgiveness is not an occasional act: it is a permanent attitude.
Author: Dr. Martin Luther King
Hi Father,
Well, I used to enjoy playing military style games and, since my conversion, have had to stop playing them. I, like you, realize that this is only a game, and not reality, however I could really feel that this was detrimental to my psyche in that I was allowing all this negativity (the relentless images and intention of, and to do, violence) to just pound on me while under the guise of entertainment. Now I know that maybe not everyone would have the same effect as I had but still… shouldn’t I fill my mind with positive thoughts instead of negative ones? It just seems to add more fuel to the fire of violence in the world.
We need to pray for Mr. Blair’s conversion… all of ours really. We need to be converted daily.
God Bless
Joe M
The Catholic Hack! Podcast
remember the three monkeys??? hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. The kind of violence you describe is disturbing for an adult, but I believe adults can make decisions for themselves. What I have a problem with is some of these kids who have under-developed social skills, and not enough parental supervision to teach them basic fundamentals like morals, and reality vs. fantasy are exposed to this kind of evil programming. This programming gets into their brains and in my opinion, since I believe in these things, opens them up to evil influences that are waiting to prey on their vulnerabilities. Look at Columbine, as an example. I don’t think any game with strong violence should be sold to a teenager or even a young adult who is still developing who they are as a person.
What I think is the biggest problem with violent computer and video games is that the age recommendations isn’t respected. All computer and video games have an age recommendation (at least in Sweden) and I think that if children, parents and store clerks will respect those recommendations much will be won.
I enjoy for example Counter Strike, but since it has a 16 year age recommendation I don’t want to see a 11 year old kid play this game. But let me as an adult choose if I want to play or not!
Like you, Father, I use these games as stress reliefs.