Two students were telling me today about a new video game they'd played and how it "crossed a line" for them. This game, Modern Warfare 2, includes an incredibly graphic and realistic scene of terrorism. What really got to my students was the fact that the game wouldn't let them run through the scene; players are forced to walk through and watch others kill people around them. One of the kids kept saying, "There was blood everywhere."My students are not sensitive -- they have grown up on Grand Theft Auto and the like. It was really interesting to hear them explain why this scene crossed the line.
2 comments:
They're sensitive, Julie. They understand the difference between playing a game and being marched down a hallway.
They definitely wondered if the game designers were trying to teach them a lesson. But in the end I think they, and most other players, went along with the mission of (SPOILER ALERT) gunning down civilians in a busy Russian airport.
It would be an interesting PhD thesis to see how many players complete the mission! I'm sure someone's already working on it.
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