The title will make sense in a few minutes, I promise.
We as a human race are constantly disappointed in our experiences. A new love interest is never as exciting as in your Marian Keyes book. Going to a formula 1 race is never as exciting as watching it on TV, because you miss half the action. Being a hero is never as glamorous as in the movies. Why is this?
Because media and entertainment has made us blunt. Movies and games are constantly trying to make things more real and more fantastic, and it leaves reality behind. If this relates to something we've never experienced ourselves, it shifts our expectations. A car will not spontaneously explode when hit by a train. You can't empty a pistol in someone's chest and they will still be alive, much less be able to chase you, even through kevlar.
I have two things I want to mention with regards to this, one good and one bad.
The good is shows like Mythbusters. A whole form of entertainment based on debunking the misconceptions.
The bad: People's concept of physics is fundamentally flawed. In many cases it could make truly amazing things seem boring, because in a movie you saw it to be much more impressive, even if it was fake. This is a theory called suspension of disbelief. To quote:
Because of this tendency in people to believe what they see even if it's obviously faked, some lawyers are able to argue that games are harmful to children because of the violence depicted. When playing Postal, you see people rejecting you, the player, because of your deeds.
The end result is the banning of many games in countries with stricter parental control. But the effect is inverted. Because the game is now illegal, it becomes more special and interesting and people will go to greater lengths to play it.
And once they're used to the blood and carnage in this game, the next game will have to be even more gory and gut-wrenching. It's a vicious cycle.
There is no solution to this. Movies and games will always try to be better than the last. The only way the effect can be kept to a minimum is for people to realise it isn't real. We should stop expecting things to be like they are in the movies and just live life. Or better yet, be inquisitive. If you watch a movie and see someone shooting a car and the car explodes, ask yourself if this is possible.
Don't be stupid and go test it! Find out by other means. The chances are that someone has tested the theory under controlled circumstances and published the results.
A good place to start would be Mythbusters.
Words:
"The claims were that Diablo III looked more like World of Warcraft than Diablo. I don't know where these people got their impressions of World of Warcraft, because in all the Diablo III material out there, I have yet to see a bipedal cow in a wedding dress attempt to seduce a pink-haired gnome in the ancient forest of elves."
-Gameplanet Feature
We as a human race are constantly disappointed in our experiences. A new love interest is never as exciting as in your Marian Keyes book. Going to a formula 1 race is never as exciting as watching it on TV, because you miss half the action. Being a hero is never as glamorous as in the movies. Why is this?Because media and entertainment has made us blunt. Movies and games are constantly trying to make things more real and more fantastic, and it leaves reality behind. If this relates to something we've never experienced ourselves, it shifts our expectations. A car will not spontaneously explode when hit by a train. You can't empty a pistol in someone's chest and they will still be alive, much less be able to chase you, even through kevlar.
I have two things I want to mention with regards to this, one good and one bad.
The good is shows like Mythbusters. A whole form of entertainment based on debunking the misconceptions.
The bad: People's concept of physics is fundamentally flawed. In many cases it could make truly amazing things seem boring, because in a movie you saw it to be much more impressive, even if it was fake. This is a theory called suspension of disbelief. To quote:
"According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is a quid pro quo: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgement in exchange for the promise of entertainment."This means you're willing to overlook physics because... well... "Wow! Did you see that!?"
Because of this tendency in people to believe what they see even if it's obviously faked, some lawyers are able to argue that games are harmful to children because of the violence depicted. When playing Postal, you see people rejecting you, the player, because of your deeds.
The end result is the banning of many games in countries with stricter parental control. But the effect is inverted. Because the game is now illegal, it becomes more special and interesting and people will go to greater lengths to play it.
And once they're used to the blood and carnage in this game, the next game will have to be even more gory and gut-wrenching. It's a vicious cycle.
There is no solution to this. Movies and games will always try to be better than the last. The only way the effect can be kept to a minimum is for people to realise it isn't real. We should stop expecting things to be like they are in the movies and just live life. Or better yet, be inquisitive. If you watch a movie and see someone shooting a car and the car explodes, ask yourself if this is possible.
Don't be stupid and go test it! Find out by other means. The chances are that someone has tested the theory under controlled circumstances and published the results.
A good place to start would be Mythbusters.
Words:
"The claims were that Diablo III looked more like World of Warcraft than Diablo. I don't know where these people got their impressions of World of Warcraft, because in all the Diablo III material out there, I have yet to see a bipedal cow in a wedding dress attempt to seduce a pink-haired gnome in the ancient forest of elves."
-Gameplanet Feature
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