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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8032727">To be clear here, I was not talking about slurs. I am not a fan of people using those kinds of slurs at all. No, I am not saying media has zero influence. I am saying people are exaggerating its influence and they are absolving people of responsibility by shifting everything to media content. And keep in mind, not everybody uses games that way. Some people just use them to have fun. Of course RPGs are different. They produce an immersive experience. But you still have moral responsibility when you do that. And you are not a slave to that immersion. You still have control of your thoughts and actions. Maybe part of this is I grew up in a different generation when we were living in a world that was loosening restrictions around censorship (and most of us had parents were believed in the power of free speech, free expression, and trusted that it was better for people to be able to determine for themselves whether a book or movie was valid and wholesome). We also grew up in a time when a lot of media was misunderstood and presented as morally questionable. It wasn't just the satanic panic, but we also had the PMRC trying to control music. I don't want designers avoiding making interesting choices because it might be read a certain way (particularly if the negative reading wasn't what they intended with what they did). I think art, games and media are better when artists are not restrained by a fear of being labeled immoral. Sometimes art, games and movies need to be transgressive. And we are living in a time when people are tightening the boundaries of what transgression is allowable. The language around it has changed. We are focused on different aspects of morality. But to me, it seems strikingly similar to the stuff I used to hear from the religious right and from the PMRC.</blockquote>

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