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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michele" data-source="post: 7623729" data-attributes="member: 6995890">We have no problems with violence in RPGs for the same reason why we have no problems with violence in fiction. In other games. And especially in sports.Mind you, either it's not real violence (in fiction and games), or it's a strictly codified, limited form of violence (in boxing or football). Those are ways to vent the tendency, or at least the capability, for real violence that we have.We are, of course, capable of real violence because until yesterday it was necessary for survival. It was necessary to fend off enemies, to find food and to secure the possibility of procreating. Survival for yourself, for your offspring, for your community and for your species.Now it's no longer so much needed, yet we are still wired in the same way. We still have testosterone, vasopressin, adrenaline and whatnot. So violent sports (watched or practiced) and fictional violence are probably ways to sublimate the pressure. Playing a violent videogame is possibly not well accepted socially, but it does not land you in jail.Why is it better to kill monsters in RPGs? Because it's easier to kill enemies and non-humans. Killing humans goes against the last of the commandments of survival because it attacks the species; but it is acceptable if they are enemies threathening you survival, your offspring's survival, or your community's survival.But if they are no threat to any of the above, if they just mind their business in their cave, killing them and taking their stuff is more difficult... unless, well, they actually are not human. Then there is no attack on your own species. If they actually aren't humans, or if you can at least convince yourself that they are not humans, then they are fair targets."Colonialism" does not play any role here, of course, especially in the meaning that it seems to have assumed today, but not even in its proper historical sense. What we are looking for when we decide that we can assault the kobold tribe is de-humanization. Which is something we are all able of; for instance, Hutus and Tutsis called each other "cockroaches" and "snakes" - then proceeded with a nearly successful genocide of the Tutsi. The reason why it's practical to place a bag on the head of captives is that it's then easier to mistreat prisoners, or to kill hostages. If they are able to show their faces and eyes, it's more difficult to forget they're humans.</blockquote>

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