"X is acting like Voldemort. Voldemort level evil. Literally 1984." What are you a child?

If someone brags about reading for status but only reads fiction, their knowledge is useless in practice. Fiction can be great, but treat it like junk food, enjoyable but not real world wisdom

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

I'm honestly split. On one hand, it's only a game. On the other, wanting to ruin the lives of characters for fun actually is being immature, even if there are no real-world consequences. Really, it's hard to distinguish the impulse to be "the bad guy" and the impulse to be an edgelord. They do purposefully transgressive activities that most teenagers find thrilling and glamorous, along with some adults. Like this Playstation commercial!

Really, as the world gets worse and worse, playing as the edgelord who conquers a whole town gets less and less appealing. It doesn't seem so transgressive anymore when the news reports on more and more taboos being broken. The question becomes less "How can I have fun?" and more "How can I mentally heal myself?". Of course, with someone still playing Lex Luthor, it would seem that they are being unearnest and purposeless, or lack the desire to help others to the point where they'd scoff at at least emulating helping others.

I do understand the worry that these people are just emulating Joe Lieberman in regards to Mortal Kombat. But these are entirely different people. They aren't going to someday go "and now you can't show real firearms!", or worry more about a gamer's individual habits than the economic system they live in.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    For me I enjoy playing evil because it's something different. Not because I unironically think it's cool, or because I don't "get it", or because I'm secretly a psychopath or whatever. But because the experience of playing an evil character is different than that of a good character fundamentally. Sometimes I want that different experience just to mix things up and keep things interesting. Otherwise I'll get bored doing the same heroic shtick every time.

  • source
  • parent