Visenya

Great article! I just finished my billionth play-through of Fallout 3 in light of the Fallout 4 announcements. The lonely wandering is very therapeutic, and you captured it perfectly.

This is an excellent article, and just in time for the new season. Great job! Another character that could be discussed under this topic is Taystee. She dances a lot in the show, often to lighten the mood for herself and others when something more serious is happening.

I agree with your point on video games being very addictive and your article is very well written and informative. I really enjoyed reading your paragraph on the reward system, it is a very accurate portrayal of the role of reinforcement in video games.

However, I think you are mistaken in comparing video game addiction to substance abuse. Substance abuse can be as mild as a media addiction but it can also be a serious and life threatening disorder. Substances manipulate our body’s chemistry in order to create a biological dependency. I don’t personally see a comparison here with video games. Some of the psychological aspects are quite similar, but the danger of substance abuse addiction is the dangerous combination of psychological and biological dependency.

The label ‘torture porn’ takes a lot of credit away from the movies that are labeled so. Even from the few mentioned by the author, I see clear themes that transcend the violence. The Last House on the Left: rape revenge, familial love, and justice. Saw: life taken for granted, appreciation of what you have in life. Hostel: corruption of the wealthy, morality. These are just a few. I think that these themes are the real reason these movies are popular, the violence is there to serve a purpose and make a memorable point… To get our attention. The movies are about something more than the violence.

Thank you for mentioning On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It is not given enough credit, it is one of the most inspiring on writing books I have read. Thank you for the list, saving for future reference.

This is an excellent article, thank you for sharing. The shadow has been a topic run rampant in my imagination since I first began to study Jung. I began reading horror such as Stephen King from a very young age and I appreciate the way in which you link the Shadow to literature and writing.

What sets games like Fallout 3 and The Last of Us apart from other games in the post-apocalyptic genre is the deep and long lasting emotional connection that is established between the characters and the gamer. It suddenly becomes more than a zombie shooter because the characters could be us and a fantastical landscape becomes much more real because of the character-gamer connection.