I rly hate the Satanic Panic & the moral panic surrounding violence in video games in the 90s, coz it's now impossible to talk about the social implications of violent video games in a realistic sense.
No, violence in video games does not create serial killers in the way most people imagine it would.
However, it's very important to notice how after 9/11, a lot of violent video games pivoted their content from silly gratuitous cartoon gore to more realistic military shooters set in the Levant from a US American lens. It's also important to notice the connection of these games & their toxic online multi-player voice chats to Gamer Gate in 2014.
It's obviously not as black & white as it was presented in the 80s & 90s, I dont think everyone who played early Call of Duty games is a white supremacist who wants to join the military to kill people in the middle east, but I think it's dangerous to pretend like video games or any media can't have an impact on the way people think about violence.
I think what makes all the difference here is how that violence is portrayed, what the message behind it is, what the motives are behind the people who crafted that message, who the victims of that violence are, how they are portrayed & the greater cultural context that surrounds it.
It's so fucked up that digging a bunch of holes works so well at reversing desertification
I hate that so much discourse into fighting climate change is talking about bioenginerring a special kind of seaweed that removes microplastics or whatever other venture-capital-viable startup idea when we have known for forever about shit like digging crescent shaped holes to catch rainwater and turning barren land hospitable
whenever i'm trying to talk myself out of buying something i don't need i always hear my old russian professor's voice echoing in my head: "WHAT??? WILL YOU DIE THE RICHEST MAN IN THE GRAVEYARD?" and then i make an unwise financial decision
sometimes im like "wow holy shit im being really fucking annoying. i should stop talking" and then i pull out my magic 8 ball and it says "youve always been annoying and your friends chose to talk you anyways. youll be fine" and im like wow thanks magic 8 ball. and then the ogre attacks me
okay but what if your grandparents died and left you with all of their fortune but the rest of your family was pissed to the point where you think they might kill you. so you marry mafia!price for protection and in exchange, he and his gang use some of your grandparents estates and businesses as a front for their shady operations?
you start dating ghost and soap gets... chummy. too chummy. ye weren't even friends before, and now every second you spend at simon's side is one more opportunity for soap to blow up your phone. sound intentions, you figure. watching out for his battle buddy. so you bear his keen involvement in your relationship with amusement and—endearment.
what can ya say? johnny makes an arse of himself, but what an arse. and simon speaks highly of him, encourages hangouts and gossip seshs, so you embrace it. a boyfriend and a bestie? say less.
soap was never the picture of restraint. three months in, though, you learn just how intrusive a man can get, and how much he was holding back. his advice shifts from preferred gifts to ghost's favourite sex positions. he asks after your dates: where'd you go? d'ye like the movie? how'd he kiss ya? care to demonstrate? and he joins in, sometimes, a dinner here and there, and at the end he shares a look with simon and goes to the guest room. ghost makes you scream louder on those nights, fucks you longer, harder.
I honestly and truly believe all good AUs should be a little “”””ooc”””” in the sense that good characterisation involves understanding that changes a characters backstory and circumstances will have an effect on how they respond to the world around them
Good characterisation isn’t about creating a perfect 1:1 canon replica it’s about understanding why a character is different in your work and about grounding the changes you do deliberately choose to make in canon character traits