Is GTA V promoting torture and violence?

[Dembadon]

For me, there is a wide gulf between reality and fiction and the realism of the media has no impact whatsoever on that gulf. I'm re-watching Game of Thrones in preparation for the upcoming new season and a few days ago I watched an episode where a woman gets burned to death in a funeral pyre. It isn't quite as graphic visually as the Jordanian pilot's burning, but there is a lot of screaming. It had no impact on me whatsoever. The Jordanian pilot video, on the other hand, caused me physical pain. It made me sick and gave me a headache I couldn't shake for the rest of the day. The knowledge that something is real or fake is everything here.

For that matter, a reality-based, but fictional movie like Saving Private Ryan has much more emotional impact than a pure fiction like District 9, even though the violence level is similar.

Wanted to second this. I've become emotional during movies before (the ending of American Sniper gets me every time), but when I see "real life" footage of something terrible happening to another person, I often become nauseous. Purely fictional movies do not get to me unless the situation hits really close to home.

 

[micromass]

Wanted to second this. I've become emotional during movies before (the ending of American Sniper gets me every time), but when I see "real life" footage of something terrible happening to another person, I often become nauseous. Purely fictional movies do not get to me unless the situation hits really close to home.

Right. I can very easily look at the saw or hostel movies. Part of me even gets excited to watch these movies. But give me anything bad happening to a real person and I break down. It takes a very good movie maker to make me feel even remotely connected to suffering in a movie. Curiously, the same is not true for animals in movie. Do something bad to an animal in a movie or book and you already got to me.

 

[einswine]

It seems that all we have here is anecdotes, opinions and studies with conflicting conclusions. Personally, torture porn makes me want to puke. I think much of pop entertainment is vile and destructive; especially the video games. But I am totally unwilling to push that view without better evidence.

 

[Drakkith]

It seems that all we have here is anecdotes, opinions and studies with conflicting conclusions.

Indeed. It is very difficult to conclusively associate specific behaviors to a specific cause when it comes to social studies. There are simply too many factors and human behavior is too complicated. Something that affects one person a certain way may affect another person to a lesser extent or it may even affect them in a completely opposite manner.

 

[Derek Francis]

It seems that all we have here is anecdotes, opinions and studies with conflicting conclusions. .

Sounds a lot like life.