The fight against mills – that demonized before the video game

Nowadays, blaming video games in everything has already become commonplace. It is worth someone to create a terrible crime, as he immediately has a GTA disc, Manhunt or God forbid the docks 2. Although now you don’t even need a disk, you can just scold games. But what blamed before the devilish games? Why did the mayor of New York breaking pinball machines? If your character in D&D dies, you will die in reality? And what scandals can wait for us in the future?

Pinball

The thirties of the last century were not the most pleasant time for America. Great depression did not spare anyone. In those years, adolescents did not have many entertainment. Carnival and attractions – too children, books and cinema – too adults. At this time, the first pinball automaton was born. Although they did not even have the name. Ballyhoo was the first pinball automaton, in honor of which the rest were named after. Its iconic name, Pinball received with great distribution. It was named after cloves (PIN) and ball (Ball). The basis for it was the French game Bagatelle, the closest analogue of which are Pachinko machines. Its essence is to throw off the ball down the path with obstacles. Depending on where the ball stops, the player receives a certain number of points. The scheme of the work of the pinball of those years was approximately the same. Modern models have flippers – shoulder blades to save the ball from falling. In the old Pinbole, the only way to “play” was the adjustment of the power supply force and the slope of the machine.

In 1936 an experiment was conducted, the purpose of which was to test the importance of the ability to play. It was attended by 97,800 students playing 67,800 games for nine pinball cars. At the end of the experiment, it was revealed that even the most skilled players increased by only 9%.

The game needed only a penny, as for a musical machine or one -armed bandit. Pinbol attracted the attention of many teenagers of those years. Their parents did not like it. On their part, it looked like their children would take a trifle from home and spend it on some gambling games. From the very origin of Pinball – manufacturers tried to fight this stigma. Except for one company. She really produced models operating as a slot of the car, giving money for winning. The rest made machines exclusively for entertainment (for amusement only), even indicating this on the machine itself. Manufacturers told everyone that Pinball is a game of skills, not good luck, but people did not listen to them.

Here the defender of the poor and destitute enters the stage. A person devoted his life to the protection of children and the fight against corruption. Fialel Laguardi-Mayor of New York. He hated two things with all his heart: crime and gambling. The first is understandable to everyone, and the second was due to the fact that the mother of Fialel was a gambling player in poker. Already at that time, Pinball was associated with crime. In the film “Bullets or Voices” there is a famous scene in which criminals sell and roof downball machines, earning hundreds of dollars from them. Lagardi could not ban this game, despite all his attempts. And here there is an attack on Pearl Harbor. Under the pretext of replenishing resources at the front, on January 21, 1942, Fialel banned all the pinbox machines. He said about the owners themselves:

"Slippery crooks, well dressed and living in luxury due to theft of coins.

Fialel Laguardi

He ordered the police to comb each institution with pinball cars. But Lagard himself did not stand aside. During one of the raids, the camera recorded the mayor with a hammer breaking a pinball machine. All newspapers on a break wrote about how bad the pinballs were, and that it adversely affects modern youth. After New York, most large cities began to ban Pinball. Only San Francisco remained aside, and without prohibiting this entertainment. As a result, more than two thousand cars were confiscated. But instead of sending broken cars for remelting, they were thrown to the bottom of the Long Island River.

Introducing flippers in 1947, manufacturers of pinball cars wanted to even further away the game from good luck. But they could not do this the first time. In the first models, flippers were at the edges of the machine gun, not protecting the ball from the fall. Only in the early fifties was an automatic machine with the already classic location of flipper was released. True, the consciousness of people is just not to turn over, especially when your game is prohibited. Because of this, pinballs began to appear in illegal institutions, according to the type of stores for the sale of magazines for adults and small bars. They were also widespread abroad, where to this day Pinball has the largest profit. This led to the fact that the machine gun has become an integral part of the rebels of those years, along with a leather jacket, cigarettes and briaalin hairstyle. Due to such associations, Pinball was mentioned in the report of the Kefover Committee in 1951. This report was created to regulate gambling in the United States. This exacerbated the position of the Pinball in the eyes of the public. Later, to bypass the system, the establishments began to sell special tokens for the game. But this did not help the image of Pinbole much. Most people continued to think that it was just a waste of time and money, that Pinball zombies and stupid children. Nothing reminds? But despite all this, Stigma Pinbola began to move in a positive way.

In 1969, The Who released a rock opera about a blind and deaf boy Aitist named Tommy. According to the plot, he was the best Pinball player, because it was the only game in which he could play. Tommy felt the ball with his increased touch, which allowed him to be the best. The album occupied the leading lines in world charts and clearly influenced the idea of ​​people about Pinbole. In the early seventies, new entertainments began to appear – slot machines. They quickly won a large audience and became more popular than pinball.

In 1976, 34 years after the prohibition of Pinbole, a hearing took place about the resolution of this entertainment. The main witness in this case was Roger Sharp. He was to play the Pinball party to demonstrate that the skill is important in Pinbole, and not luck. The hall had two twinboards – the main and spare. Having prepared to play, one of the Council members told Roger to go to a spare machine, believing that the first could be dummy. Going to another car, Sharp began to play. At the same time, he explained to the senators and all the rest present how this game works. At some point, Roger said that if the game decides in the game, then he will be able to place the ball directly in the center. Sharp triggers the ball and after a few repulsions, he finds himself exactly where Roger predicted. On this, the senators stopped him and voted for the legalization of Pinbole. But the fact is that this very throw that convinced the Senate was a real success.

Unfortunately, the ban was not lifted everywhere. Some cities continued to keep an absolutely harmless game under the castle. For example, in Nashville, until 2004, only people from 18 years old could play Pinbol. The last city in which Pinbol was allowed was Auckland, in which the ban lasted until 2014.

Created by Gary Gigax and Dave Arneson Dungeons & Dragons, is one of the most popular role -playing systems. Partially inspired by the Lord of the Rings – D&D includes incredible study and attention to details, both in the system itself and in Laura. Knights, elves, magicians, dragons – all this is a great way to develop imagination and ingenuity. But according to some, this game entails only dullness, worship of Satan and adolescence crime.

The most resonant examples of this opinion are the stories of two adolescents – James Egbert of the Third and Irving Blinka Pulsi. Let’s start with the first.

James was developed over his years. Already at 16 he studied at the University of Michigan in the specialty Informatics. He was a great fan of scientific and ordinary fiction.

August 15, 1979 He left a note and left the house. In it, he mentioned that he wants to commit suicide. The police immediately began to look for the missing student, but to no avail. Then James’s mother hired a private detective – William Dira. Having rummaged in the guy’s things, William found the mention of tunnels under school. In his opinion, there the boy decided to commit suicide. Having received permission and exploring the tunnels, James himself was never found, but things belonging to the missing boy were found inside. Also, the detective found records that James went down to the basements for role -playing. The detective suggested that players could lose the line between the game and reality, continuing to think that they are their characters. With this theory, he went to reporters and they caught on this idea. And so the first origin of panic began.

As for James. September 13, after almost a month, the detective received a call from him. He was at his friend. The reasons for his departure were problems with peers, the use of drug coters, which he cooked himself and his sexual orientation. He had big problems with communication. He could not find friends at the university, and his parents continued to put pressure on him because of his studies. In attempts to make contact with at least someone, James began playing D&D, but this hobby did not help. He really wanted to commit life in the basements with the help of pills, but after some time he just woke up and went to his friend. Later he left Ohio to Michigan, and from there to New Orleans. There he made a second attempt to die, as well as unsuccessful. Due to the publicity of this story, James’s friend could not stand it and convinced him to contact the detective and confess to everything. During an interview, James admitted that the games had nothing to do with this act. But the press was not interested in the facts, they caught on the game side of the news and continued to develop this direction.

On the history of James, the artistic book "Labyrinths and Monsters" was written. The episode was taken as the basis when players could not distinguish the game from life. Also, a film was shot from the book, in which the main role was played by the young volume Hanks.

After all the experienced, James https://gododds.uk/ moved with his parents to another state. But because of the ongoing problems with parents and drugs, almost a year after the first attempt, on August 11, 1980, James shot himself.

The second story happened two years later.

17-year-old Irving Pulling on June 9, 1982 took his mother’s gun, went out onto the porch of the house and fired in his chest.

Later, parents returning home, found his body and called the police. Having examined his room, the police found several notes: for friends, teachers and parents. As they were described – there were a lot of incomprehensible nonsense in the notes. It was mentioned that Irving became as angry as Hitler and Antichrist and that their voices told him to kill, but instead he decided to finish his own life. In addition, books and posters D&D were found in the boy’s room, as well as a sheet from a teacher with a certain “curse”. Subsequently, the mother of Irving – Patricia, found out that the school had a circle of lovers of board games in which her son participated. The main member of this club was the teacher of Irving, who is a master of dungeons. Having decided to find out what kind of dungeons with dragons it is, Patricia joined the local group of roleviks. How she described this, they played for several hours every month. According to her, she began to feel that she was in some kind of cult.

All of these evidence was enough patricia to understand that DND was to blame for the death of Irving. She sued school, as well as the publisher of the game. As compensation, she demanded a million dollars from school and ten million from the publisher.

But what actually could serve as a reason for the departure of Irving? As his classmates talked about him – he had problems with communication. Also, when he tried to become the president of the class, no one supported his candidacy. According to some rumors, he ran at night and howled on the moon. Also, not a long time before his death, the bodies of animals were found, behind which he was supposed to look after, among which there was a home cat Pulling. As the author of the book “Dangerous Games” Joseph Laycock writes, he was able to contact one of the familiar Irving. He said:

Irving played DND maximum hours 9. In my opinion, suicide was a way to take aggression on the mother. Both parents cheated on each other even before suicide. Using the mother’s weapon and choosing the porch of the house as a place, he wanted to shock and scare his parents when they return home.

There are also questions for the investigation of Patricia. For example, a statement that Patricia played in a table is not confirmed in any way. The curse was not sent to Irving himself, but on his character.

Application to the court of patricia, as a result, has not advanced anywhere. Then she founded company b.A.D.D. The main requirements of the company was: to remove DND from schools and generally prohibit playing in educational institutions. Also, the organization demanded to indicate a box with the game that it could lead to a desire to finish its life. Patricia appeared in a television program of 60 minutes in which she said that her son had never had psychological problems. Together with Patricia, a certain Dr. Thomas Radeki claimed:

The game is full of human sacrifices, eating children, drinking blood, rape, killings in any manifestations and curses. This is generally a very cruel game.

So that you understand the level of his expertia, in 1985 he used a fictional letter from the novel Labyrinths and Monsters as evidence of the danger of the game.

For context, the real doctor – Joyce Brothers, called DND beautiful, because the game encourages interaction, not rivalry. Also, she noted the freedom of imagination among players who create new interesting worlds.

Returning to Patricia, she continued to blame for the whole DND and the school in which her son was taught to play the unfortunate hood.

But D&D has less sad stories related to panic and misunderstanding.

Meet – Jack Chick. He was an artist drawing comics that were named in his honor – Chika tracts. All of them are dedicated to religions. They tell stories about young people who have not found the right path. With God’s help, they came out of the current situations by faithful parishioners. For an example, you can take his most popular work – "Dark Dungeon".

Dambra and her friend Mercy play D&D. Merci’s character dies, which means that she is also dead. Okay, this is a joke, she just goes home. At the same moment, the debra pumps his character to level 8 and gets the opportunity to conjure in real life. A few days later, Mercy tried to get through to Debra, but since she was busy killing a zombie, she did not pick up the phone.

On the same day, Damra went home to her friend to visit her, and she committed suicide, because her character in D&D was killed. Having learned the news, the master screams at Debra, showing his maximum toxicity, and she goes to the church, where the preacher casts out of it all evil spirits and burns all her occult things. On this story, they even made the film of the same name. If you want to laugh at the stupidity and a minimum understanding of the topic with friends, I advise you to see. A fun evening is provided.

But what happened to this panic? Time has set everything in its place. Adolescents who were supposed to kill themselves due to DNDs grew up and became responsible adults. Nevertheless, the pseudo-Dettor and experts were ridiculed by history more than once. And then video games came.

About video games and so enough video. And about all scandals, and about all scientific research. All this can be easily found in a couple of clicks. I, I want to try to raise the curtain of the future and see what will be hated.

In my opinion, we should expect panic on the topic of virtual reality. Articles, books and bills – all this will begin to appear in the next 10 years. Already now you can find people discussing the harm VR. Unfortunately, to confirm them or refute them, we will be able to only after a few decades. Now, let’s take objective disadvantages and advantages of virtual reality. I will try to suggest what in the future they will demonize and hate VR. I will also point out the positive aspects so that there is something to protect this new reality.

The most popular claim towards the video game is dependence. Many people can play their favorite games for hours, or even days, forgetting about family, friends, ourselves and blah, blah, blah … Now we are not talking about video game dependence, I want to discuss precisely VR dependence.

Chinese University of Communications conducted a study on this topic. 20 subjects were taken. They played the same games, both in VR and PC for an hour for 15 weeks. At the end, it was revealed that virtual reality causes 44% more dependence than ordinary gaming. The subjects were 20% more delighted, and people were much harder to stop when playing VR.

Let’s look at all of the above. First: 20 subjects and 15 weeks are too small a sample to talk about some pattern. Ideally, you need to have at least 1% of the studied social group. If for social. We will take the group with VR helmets, we will get that 20 subjects will be 0.0000077 (77 billion). Secondly: 20% increase in the enthusiasm of the game in VR can clearly be attributed to the first experience of the subjects. I don’t think that if you offer any of you to play VR for the first time, and even for free, you will not be delighted. Thirdly: the only source confirming this study is the director of the Chinese subscription HTC Vive-Elvin Wong Grailin. I climbed the entire Internet, even went to the second page in Google, but I could not find these research. On his Twitter, Alvin says that the research is not yet ready, so they cannot be found. That’s just these messages for half a year. Therefore, I’m afraid that no one has proved dependence on VR yet. While the helmet is significantly pressed on the face, and the fatigue from the wave of hands makes you sit in a comfortable chair-you can not even try to talk about some kind of serious addiction.

How can you do without panic about cruelty in VR games. As you could notice, this idea goes in a red thread for all of the above media. There is no sense in this subject in this topic, since the cruelty in VR games is directly related to ordinary video games, and there are more than a dozen other videos about this. Their main conclusion is that games do not increase cruelty, but even vice versa.

As for really important VR problems.

One of them is CyberSickness. This is a new term that appeared with the spread of VR. In fact, this is the usual motion. And there’s nothing to be done here. Different people are differently stable. But there are several ways to overcome or at least reduce motion.

The first way is to concentrate on a static object. As when rocking at sea, our brain cannot understand why we are moving, but our body remains in place. If we concentrate on an immovable object, such as a horizon, our body will understand that we are standing and this should at least weaken the effect.

The second way is to chew gum. In theory, the movement created by the jaws will make it clear to the inner ear that incomprehensible external signals occur due to this. After which it will calm down and the motion.

The third way is to just breathe fresh air. When a person uses digital technique, his breathing is reduced. This is called Screen Apnea. This can lead to a lack of oxygen and to a feeling of motion. So try to breathe deeply and touch the grass deeply. But still, even with the above, if you are still rocking, then, I’m afraid, VR is not for you.

Another problem is the danger to epileptics. It is hard for these guys to play games. Now in every second game there is a warning for them. But, in theory, due to the high screen renewal (90 Hz against standard 60), this may, on the contrary, reduce the chances of a seizure. Unfortunately, at the moment, more accurate research has not been conducted. But nevertheless, risking your health for the sake of a new method of immersion in the game is clearly not worth it.

But what advantages can be obtained from this technology?

The most obvious plus is even more developed communication with other people. A bunch of different complexes and prejudices constant a person in everyday life. In the virtual world you can be anyone. This can help modest and not confident people to be more open to strangers. You can also get many different acquaintances and participate in strange and unusual situations. The main example of this approach is VR Chat. There, people get acquainted, have fun and engage in a bunch of different things without looking back at prejudice. There you can find both ordinary people and role-players, with your own hierarchy and profession, priests who can marry you or even professional holders of secret VR strip clubs with custom avatars for several thousand dollars. VR is a world in which you can be yourself.

Another application was found in therapy. With the help of virtual reality, you can deal with experienced injuries and PTSD. So, for people who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan, simulations are created that repeat their combat experience. Most patients show a decrease in anxiety and a more rare appearance of traumatic memories. But VR can be used not only for the treatment of veterans. Even ordinary people with phobias can work out more calmly with virtual reality. As one of the patients says:

It’s like in childhood, when you are afraid of an imaginary monster in the closet. Every time you open it, there is no one there. You go out of the regime or run and calm down.

So, for example, there are simulations to combat the fear of height or arachnophobia. Or in general, you can recreate a situation that in reality it is extremely difficult to reproduce. The potential of technology is simply incredible. But this is not a panacea. VR rather helps to gently take the first step. Anyway, with such sessions, a professional psychologist should observe you.

Conclusion

Any new method of obtaining information and pleasure will always be found by fear. In this case, one of the protective mechanisms is triggered – hit. I must say as more negative as possible about something new, then it will leave the household. So it was with comics, pinball, DND, video games and soon this one can wait for VR something to hate. Therefore, I ask you, always remain open to new things and do not be afraid to experiment. After all, who knows, maybe soon we will become the same crowd burning comics, throwing offball machines into the rivers and requiring the ban on role -playing games.