Hey folks- before we start, I should mention that today's subject matter is pretty grim and results in some
graphic depictions of violence and other unpleasantness in the video. I know it's all cartoons and such, but- you know. Still. Okay, do the thing--
Rage.
Goddesses sing the rage of Peleus's son, Achilles- murderous, doomed-
that cost the Achaeans countless losses; hurling down to the house of death so many sturdy souls.
These are the first words of the western tradition;
this is how we open the Iliad, the book which serves as a bedrock of Western culture and
defined the society that defined the West down to today.
It's foundational- seminal. A book of great meaning and great worth.
It's a cultural touchstone- a work without which Western literature as we understand it would not exist- and yet, it's about rage.
It's about anger, and violence; about destruction- wrath.
In its lines we see the brutal struggle of personal combat, and have painted for us a picture of its visceral result.
We are witness up close and personal to the slaughter of men and the extremities of war.
And yet again, I will say without equivocation, it is a classic- and more than that, it's necessary.
Rage, frustration, anger- these are a primal part of who we are.
They are, without a doubt, part of being human. Denying that- denying them, only makes them worse.
Instead, we need to understand and to channel them- and sometimes, we need an outlet for them.
And that's why I've never been against violent video games.
I will be the first to say that some games approach violence in a more interesting and nuanced way than others-
and I'll also be the first to say that I don't want games to be limited to being only about violence.
But I also think it's good that we have violent games.
It helps us channel our emotions, come to catharsis, understand who we are, and sometimes enact our rage in a space where we hurt nobody.
Many of us have had an experience where we were left frustrated or angry-
and instead of going out and just hitting somebody, we played a game.
We tore it up in a multiplayer match or we blasted our way through a tough level- and at the end of it-
that rage had evened out.
It wasn't gone, but we were able to better deal with it- to control it.
Perhaps even to turn it toward a productive end.
That's a powerful thing.
It's valuable- it's something we shouldn't just toss aside.
And beyond even this, games can serve not only as an outlet for our rage
but also to help us to understand it.
When James was young, Earthbound was one of the first things that really made him think about these angry, violent feelings-
and what they do to the world.
Pacifist runs in games like Skyrim or World of Warcraft-
or the Pacifism achievement in Geometry Wars-
help us to understand that there are alternatives to violence.
And games like Deus Ex or the Metal Gear series even encourage that we find a way to do the least harm.
Violence in games has value-
and games themselves can help us understand and channel what can be an incredibly destructive part of being human.
And this is doubly true for children- so long as they're not simply being left with violent games as a babysitter-
but rather, playing with a sibling or a parent; who can talk about these emotions and these actions with them.
But now, I want to talk about the game 'Hatred'.
I think 'Hatred' is going to be a terrible game.
Not only because I doubt it's actually going to be well-made, but also because 'Hatred', the game, is not about rage.
It's actually not even about violence, really.
'Hatred' -as it's been advertised-
is about sadism.
And sadism is not the same thing as anger.
Not even close.
I wouldn't even call it a universal human trait.
There's no way to channel sadism productively.
It's simply about harm, and the joy in /doing/ harm.
I usually don't like to make categorically dismissive statements like this, but
I think games that are exclusively about indulging in sadism do not have redeeming value.
By definition, they can't even teach us or make us think more deeply about the subject-
because as soon as you start to question these sadistic acts,
or think about the horror and the suffering you're inflicting,
the experience ceases to be about sadistic pleasure.
It becomes an experience about understanding the nature of sadism.
And maybe you could build something of value from that,
but a game that's just about the thrill of sadism-
I see no value there.
I'm not even sure if such games can serve as an outlet for sadistic urges.
I mean- anger can be internal.
It can be focused at the world rather than an individual, and it can be expressed in ways that do no harm.
A sadistic experience, though, is, by definition, about hurting a person.
A real person.
Can a game really provide an outlet for that?
I'm not entirely convinced a game about sadism will offer much more than titillation for the full-blown sadist.
Like-- okay.
Compare these sorts of games to your standard violent game- and I don't mean the
cartoony sort of violence that's purposefully abstracted to discourage you from thinking of the violence
in realistic terms.
I mean your standard violent game-
where the rage and the reality of the violence are front-and-center.
Visceral.
Even in those games, you're usually fighting for a cause.
The end isn't simply the thrill of violence itself, but at least the veneer of saving the world.
Freeing your people or defending your country.
In sadism games, though, the goal of violence is the hurt it causes.
It's about creating pain and fear.
There's no redeeming purpose.
There's no question of whether anything justifies this sort of harm- because the harm is an end in itself.
Now understand- this doesn't mean that these games have no right to be made.
Every game, even the most debased, has a right to be expressed.
But-
that doesn't mean we have to give them a megaphone.
It doesn't mean we have to reward them financially-
and it doesn't mean that stores operated by private companies are obligated to carry them.
There's a reason that much of our culture is founded on a work exploring questions of violence and rage.
It's an essential part of who we are.
And without understanding this part of ourselves, we can never become a society.
We can never become a community.
There's nothing wrong with this, and violence as an expression of anger-
as well as violence in the name of a cause-
are incredibly important things for us to consider in the world today.
The question of "When is violence in the name of a cause actually a lie we tell ourselves
in order to act out the violence of misdirected anger?"
That's one of the defining questions of the twentieth and twenty-first century-
if not of human existence.
And these are things that video games let us explore.
They help us to understand and wrestle with this emotion, as art has since the beginning of recorded history.
And they help us channel, and express, and dissipate this emotion when we need to.
They provide catharsis, as art always has.
I would never say, "You shouldn't get this game just because it's violent." but
sadism isn't violence.
Sadism is cruelty.
And if you're excited about a game that's purely about the thrill of sadism,
I would probably ask you,
"Why?"
Because the only joy in a sadistic game is the joy found in hurting other people, and-
maybe I'm wrong, but-
I don't think that's a joy for most of us.
See you next week.