Video Game Jerks. Right?

Brophy-Warren, Jamin. "Et tu, Mario? Murder, Looting, Pizza Theft and other hazards of cooperative video-gaming." Slate. 13 November 2009. Slate Magazine. 15 November 2009. http://www.slate.com/id/2235587/pagenum/all/#p2

This article, by Jamin Brophy-Warren, discusses the problems with cooperative video-gaming. He starts with an introduction of him testing The New Super Mario Bros. co-op video game with 3 random strangers. One of the random strangers is an extremely annoying team mate in this game, and he "felt no inklings of team spirit and proceeded to stomp on my head, steal my power-ups..." He traces his angry feelings toward this team mate back to his feelings toward his brother, when they would play nintendo with each other. There aren't really any consequences for acts performed within the game. There may be some shunning of the people performing these heinous acts within the game, but "games allow us to act out the worst of human pathologies and encourage behaviors that would get us yelled at, arrested, or killed in the real world." With no no regulations within the game and no consequences in the real world, there isn't anything stopping people from performing acts in the game.

There isn't anything worse in this world than being shot by a team mate in a nintendo game. When it happens, there isn't much you can say except "what the heck?" It isn't really a big deal, but it sure does seem like it when you are playing the game. Nobody will be arrested for friendly fire within a nintendo game, but I think that it does show what kind of person the offender is. These type of people, the "win at any cost" kind of people are really lame to play with, because they don't make a good team mate at all. Video games give users the power to do what they want when they want, and it is what people do under these conditions that truly show the content of someone's character. These type of players drag the team down when they only have their own interests in mind. They may think that they are a valuable asset to the team, but in reality, they are the "Poseidon to my Odysseus—yes, it felt that epic—an enemy bent on ensuring that I would never reach the promised land." I am a pretty competetive person, but I can share the vision of a team and succeed. But this article truly shows that when some people are given the chance to do things without without real consequence, they take advantage of it. Nintendo gives people that oppurtunity.