ecoTrain Question Of The Week: Why do you think so many computer games are based on extreme violence? Do you think it is healthy or unhealthy?

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/erikah/zJGVhsRO-EfcLDDAkyqgrWe7KyyRHXzeiP1CJfhMppnSKMZVKJNX5Ea9ZKnAK9AYNst9A5xKQpiPbavTJjooowpANaypMGAbYdiaHU.jpg

[source](https://peakd.com/hive-123046/@ecotrain/ecotrain-question-of-the-week-why-do-you-think-so-many-computer-games-are-based-on-extreme-violence-do-you-think-it-is-healthy) I hope I'm not too late with my entry as this is the last day to participate in @ecotrain's discussion. The question is [Why do you think so many computer games are based on extreme violence? Do you think it is healthy or unhealthy?](https://peakd.com/hive-123046/@ecotrain/ecotrain-question-of-the-week-why-do-you-think-so-many-computer-games-are-based-on-extreme-violence-do-you-think-it-is-healthy) ## Why do you think so many computer games are based on extreme violence? To answer the question I invite you to take a trip with me back in time to see how life was back in those days. Violence has always been part of our life, starting from the beginning, till these days, just in different forms. Bronze age, iron age, medieval times, just to name a few periods but if you want to be honest, there were always fights, battles, wars. People were always living in fear, forced to defend their homes, families, homesteads. I'm not saying it was normal, but it was part of their life. Kids had to learn how to handle an axe, a knife at a very young age partly to help around the house and with the animals, partly to be prepared to defend themselves. Their life was nothing like the life of our kids nowadays.

[source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator) Even sports events were full of violence. Think about gladiators, who had to fight other gladiators, animals and criminals and their only chance was to win in order to stay alive. All these fights happened in the arena, in front of thousands of viewers. Each fight was a big event and death was accepted, I could say normal. Later empires were built by fighting, subjugating other people, taking all they had. These were face to face fights with whatever weapons they had back in those times. Nowadays violence is punishable by law and most of the countries are not in war. However, people are prone to violence, it is in our blood I believe, even though not everyone is violent. People like to fight, some are limiting themselves to fighting non violent wars with their business competitors, others are choosing to blow some steam in sport activities, but there are quite a few people who choose to fight throughout computer games. People always want what they can't get, that's human nature. You can't go out and fight the first person that comes your way with a sward or a gun but you can certainly do it online, comfortably in your home, without being arrested for killing another person or whatever you are fighting against, dragons, monsters, etc.. Being powerful, the most powerful is important to many. Being powerful in real life is not something everyone can accomplish, so the virtual world is perfect for getting some power. And as we know, power is addictive, highly addictive. ## Do you think it is healthy or unhealthy? This is a very good question and the answer is not just a yes or no. In my opinion extreme violence is never good and it's unhealthy either.

[source](https://billmullins.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/video-game-addiction-true-or-false/) These video games are build in a way to cause addiction after some time. Developers make sure you have to log in and play every day in order to be able to maintain the level you've previously accomplished. Online games are especially addictive as you play with other players around the world and ranking is what makes you famous. Who doesn't want to be among the best in the world? The problem is the more time you spend playing video games, the more you detach yourself from the real world. In order to stay awake, you exaggerate on caffeine, energy drinks, maybe alcohol and other substances, not to mention the damage sleeping disorder does to your body. After a time you don't even know it's night or day as you lose track of time. Incentivizing games is also a factor when it comes to addiction. Let's look at the games we have on Steem/Hive. I'm not going to name them as don't have the intention to advertise them but we all know what kind of games we had/have. You can invest your crypto, buy new packs and also sell them. It's a game but also a way to make or lose money. How many are playing games on Hive? Hands up! The other way to get addicted (not necessarily to the game) is by streaming, posting your game/fight. You can certainly do that on Hive and I see those posts every day, some getting a bunch of autovotes, overpaid posts that have not much value. The biggest problem of all is when you are lost in the game and can't distinguish between virtual world and reality. Losing in the game can also cause you to be violent in real life. Kids are the most affected. There's a young age when you can't distinguish between right or wrong and many kids become victims of violent games. There should be an age limit and even if it is, I'm not sure it is respected in every case. Age limit can be falsified and the damage is done in no time. Parents are not helping either, it's easier to sit down the kid in front of the TV or buy them a video game to shut them up instead of teaching them something useful. Modern times, modern solutions. I still think one that has a balanced life can distinguish between right and wrong, no matter how violent the game is and can balance their time spent gaming. The problem is the other category, those who can't do that. One thing is for sure, this violent video gaming won't stop anytime soon, there are world championships, tournaments organized all the time and soon gaming will be present at the Olympics. At the end of the day it's up to you which way you want to go, just like with the rest of the addictive substances. You either take them or not. If you're an addict, you can always ask for help. There are gaming rehab centers. Regarding Hive, I just hope developers will be interested in creating more games, different ones. We could use games we can learn from, a good geography game for example or general knowledge. I'm playing a geography game on my android phone to help me learn and all I can say it has helped me a lot so far. It's not a waste of time but as any other game, you need to be present every day to benefit from free things they are giving out. However, I'm not addicted and make sure never to become one.
Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/hive-123046/@erikah/ecotrain-question-of-the-week-why-do-you-think-so-many-computer-games-are-based-on-extreme-violence-do-you-think-it-is-healthy