Living Room Fighter

Sometimes it's hard to tell when a game stops being a game. But when you start bludgeoning your opponent with a 360 controller, you've probably crossed that line. Seth Able tells the story of a Street Fighter rivalry that becomes dangerously real.

Read Full Article

Hehe nice.
I think just about all of us wanted to belt the other player at some point, though I've never gone through with it.

And Jonas is a dick.

Nice story!

I think we've all experienced that moment of supreme frustration when playing a multiplayer game against someone much better at it than you are. I'm just pleased that I've never gotten into a fight over it.

Love that by line btw.

Tasty tasty violence and a bit of the Old Red? Oh man, I cannot begin to list the number of times I've wanted to take a piece out of someone I was gaming with because they were being stupidly good at it. Envy is an ugly thing, it seems.

I maintain that beating the crap out of someone in a game is better than doing it with fists. At least that way you can repeat the experience endlessly without the whole dying or assault charges thing.

This article pretty much erases any hopes I had for the dichotomy of game violence and real violence, the two have been thoroughly mixed. I love the closing lines; if they got into a fist fight over Street Fighter you would expect GTA IV to devolve into a shoot out!

They should make a movie of this for the campaigners who think video-games cause violence!

great article. i think just about anyone who has played fighting games can relate. especially when playing against cocky assholes that like to rub it in. why take my frustrations out on this controller when i can just punch this guy? i thought the geneva convention quote was hilarious. keep up the good work!

Really good story, I'm sure a lot of members here can relate to it, I know I can. There's nothing worse than playing against a bad winner, a lot harder to put up with than playing a bad loser, in my opinion.
That said, I couldn't help but think that there's a message in there, about the negative effects of video games. Making the players enter their own real life Street Fighter match certainly makes me wonder if Fox News will be reporting this 'incident' later this week.

I've gotten in a fight about Tekken 3 once.Difference was i was about 12 and after I pushed my opponent and he hit his head he started crying and his mom threw me out of the house.

Perhaps I'm over-analyzing, but are you implying that videogames do, in fact, make people violent?

The reason I'm saying this is because I saw the tagline: fiction. Now, since most fiction is used for some sort of statement/message, I'd figured that this one had one, too.

And judging by his actions and reference to the game, is it implied that the game is the reason for his violent actions? I especially noted that he said he would have reacted differently had it been another game.

So do games make people violent? From what I can read, yes.

The game

Theissen:
So do games make people violent? From what I can read, yes.

No, the game didn't make them violent. Shitty human nature did. Jonas was an asshole and deserved an ass-kicking, not because of the game but because of his behavior.

Though I've never gotten into a real physical fight over a game , I bet we've all had those moments in which we've felt really frustrated at the game itself or other players.

Sometimes you hit the couch, but mostly we curse the enemies and wish we could throw our controllers into the screen.

But hitting players in real life is a whole different level. Some deserve it, but I still get the feeling we feel frustrated because it would've felt better if the tables had turned and we had beat them in-game.

In contrast to the site's more thought-provoking articles, I found this one a bit jarring. Sure, the (fictional) account of an RL throwdown over a game was interesting to read, but I can't help but wonder what the actual message of the article was.

I guess part of this is because whether it has been too much forum moderator-ship or reading about people who took the game too seriously, I have long since given up really treating games as something to get upset over. The minute I become upset or annoyed with a game is the time I turn it off or walk away, even despite losing.

But I realize not everyone is like me. When arcades were in their heyday I played decently at Street Fighter II and there were those who, if they lost to me, would be ridiculously upset to the point of being taken aback by it. I never really feared that someone would rear back and try to deliver a real-life Dragon Punch, but it sure seemed like emotional distress was apparent if I bested an opponent multiple times.

This reminds me of the stupid arguments i got in over SoulCalibur(sp?), never quite a fist fight though.

fsanch:
In contrast to the site's more thought-provoking articles, I found this one a bit jarring. Sure, the (fictional) account of an RL throwdown over a game was interesting to read, but I can't help but wonder what the actual message of the article was.

The story is based my own experiences with games and fights. Could two players get in a fight over a game? Sure they could, after all it's happened before.

If you read it as a personal statement on violent video games then I won't deny you that by telling you otherwise. We've all had experience with violence, anger, and frustration. Some people take it out on their controller (or couch as someone mentioned above). Neither Jonas or the protagonist are bad people. They were just expressing their own emotions at a situation for different reasons.

I wanted to write about anger and violence from a perspective that we as gamers can identify with. Does it succeed? I'm not sure, but I sure did have a good time writing it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Theissen:
Perhaps I'm over-analyzing, but are you implying that videogames do, in fact, make people violent?

The reason I'm saying this is because I saw the tagline: fiction. Now, since most fiction is used for some sort of statement/message, I'd figured that this one had one, too.

And judging by his actions and reference to the game, is it implied that the game is the reason for his violent actions? I especially noted that he said he would have reacted differently had it been another game.

So do games make people violent? From what I can read, yes.

I think the moral of the story is that they were still friends at the end, taking out a little frustration but not having any hurt feelings or long term issues is rising above the confrontation despite the conflict.
It goes much deeper then simple violence because of the way someone is behaving.

A nice and interesting article Will.

ph3onix:
A nice and interesting article Will.

Thanks man.

Very well-written and descriptive, although I'd walked into this expecting to read a serious article. That was a mistake on my part, however.

Labyrinth:
Tasty tasty violence and a bit of the Old Red? Oh man, I cannot begin to list the number of times I've wanted to take a piece out of someone I was gaming with because they were being stupidly good at it. Envy is an ugly thing, it seems.

If it's envy for you, that seems pretty bad. For me, it's the fact that a friend would willingly ruin my own enjoyment for themselves.

But that hasn't happened in years. I'm generally the one to set the bar.

Oh, fighting games can be so frustrating. Although if I'm among friends and we're having a winner-stays-on session, it's not uncommon to, rather than handing the controller, throw it at the next persons balls, if they're sitting right.

Although Fight Night on PS3 gets people more worked up than any game I've seen, and is oneof the best fighters I've played, the only letdown here is the PS3 controllers, which are a bit light. 360 are much better for taking the wind out out of your sails.

I've done quite a bit of research on this do games make people violent, to the point of writing a 2,500 word paper on it with diagrams and all sorts (Who doesn't like pictures?) and i dont think they do promote vuiolence for the majority of people. I reckon if you're already of a certain mindset then, maybe. But people who have even a small amount of self control shouldn't be affected.

yeah when i was little me and my brother used to get into fights over tekken 3 i think its 'cause fighting games can be so frustrating and there isn't really and intelligent argument to counter someone really owning you which especially if they're pleased about it. It's like trying to talk when they keep interrupting

on the other hand it think above the age of thirteen we really should have enough self-control to let it go and not resort to bludgeoning them with controllers

Bayonet_Anderson:
I've done quite a bit of research on this do games make people violent, to the point of writing a 2,500 word paper on it with diagrams and all sorts.

Sounds interesting, do you have that paper online somewhere?

I don't have it online but i could easily upload it somewhere here if you wanted

I've been there a few times. Mostly with my brother. I think we both have some controller caused scars. Very cool article, congrats.

galletea:
I've been there a few times. Mostly with my brother. I think we both have some controller caused scars. Very cool article, congrats.

Brothers are wonderful sources of sibling violence. My brother used to get bored and try to wake me up by putting pencils in my nose. To this day I am violent when freshly awoken. Anyway, thanks for your wonderful comment.

See, I came across this out of context, and initially starting reading it as if it were a serious recount, and began to think wilson was a better of an amateur wrestler in his spare time.

It also works great as a bit of fiction too, though.