Glossary of Terms
︎Violent Entertainment︎
Form of recreational content or media that involves aggresive behaviors. The form may vary from reenactment, fictional depiction of a violent act, interactable media, competition based events.
︎Legitimization︎
Violence has it’s own way of justifying itself. It has always been controversial, it creates moral panics, it has always been a quintessential element of modern human society. The commodification potential of violence made it legally pervasive among us.
︎Gamification︎
Violence has it’s own way of justifying itself. It has always been controversial, it creates moral panics, it has always been a quintessential element of modern human society. The commodification potential of violence made it legally pervasive among us.
︎Promblem-solver︎
Violence has not only become something we crave, but also worship. We see violence as this ultimate problem-solver which ranks above any other problem solving methodologies. Destruction and annihilation has more appeal towards human being. We celebrate violence as it forms our culture.
︎Prosthetics︎
Prosthetics are human-made artifact that to be utilized to overcome the limitation of our own body. In the context of violence simulation, we have a long history of pursuing realism by creating technologies and hardwares. From the early fire-arm shaped arcade joysticks to virtual reality headsets, the technology have become more interactable and immersive.
︎Universal Language︎
Scholoars claims that the reason why violence is so widely and easily received is that it does not need any context to stimulate our senses, it also doesn’t need context to understand. It has become a universal language. In almost every culture, human have shared similar characteristics in expressing anger and agression. The one thing that unite us all together is violence.
︎Avatar︎
An avatar is a visual representation of our characters in the virtual world. Often times it is created by the users with their own liking. Studies shown that majority of the avatars created has huge resemblance towards the makers. As we navigate ourselves in virtual world and letting out our urge of experiencing violence, the avatars became our scapegoat. Studies also shown that users tend to form psychological attachment towards their avatars, one couldn’t help but wonder if it would be reflected in the real world?
︎Anti-Hero︎
The Anti-hero narrative is something that we all been obsessed with through the depiction of the fictional medium. It might be astonishing to imagine that we would find empathy with the ultra-violent criminal figures through the mesmerizing story-tellings. The Anti-Hero narrative helped glorified violence into this celebrated means of problem-solving.
︎Escapism︎
Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism is also a crucial aspect of simulation design in terms of trying the impossibles in the virtual world we created.
︎Epicaricacy︎
In the field of philosophy study, it decribe the Rejoicing at or deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others. In psychology study the synonym Schadenfreude is also describing the similar context. In the context of violence, it is a popular opinion among the scholars on the motivation behind people enjoying violence.