Jean Baudrillards theory and how it is applied to my media text.

Jean Baudrillard’s theory and how it is applied in my media text.

For my media text I have picked is GTA because I believe it shows what Baudrillard’s theory means when he says Divisions between ‘real’ and simulation have collapsed, therefore an illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is no longer there. This is known as ‘Hyperreality’

The whole game itself shows a ‘hyperreality’ as it shows a dream way of life way beyond what reality is. As in the game allows you to be violent and break the law and do pretty much anything you want, this shows younger teens a bad influence which is commonly heard comment about this game.

 I guess this is where the line to reality and hyperreality mainly crossover with GTA IV and other violent games like this as parents fear that their child may go out and steal, kill and even buy prostitutes because they do it on their games. PlayStation games such as GTA which have a lot of violence in them often have a lot of bad press, and the media believe that people will commit these immoral actions which they have seen in there videogames.

It has actually been proven that only a small percentage of cases have people have committed such crimes due to the violent games that they play. For example one of the prime examples is a man who believed he was still in the game and therefore would gain points for carrying out illegal tasks; the worst crime he committed was murder when he killed his best friend. His argument was that he had been told to do it, meaning that he genuinely though he was in the games when in fact he was in his reality not the hyperrealism created by the game. This is just one of few cases that show that some people cannot distinguish the difference between the game and the reality. 

Simulacra

When a sign loses it relation to reality, it begins to simulate a simulation.

Simulation

The process in which a representation of something comes to replace the thing which is actually being represented. The representation that becomes more than ‘the real thing’.

Hypereality:

Divisions between ‘real’ and simulation has collapsed, therefore an illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is no longer there.

"He said he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulates the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school when Klebold and Harris killed 13 people and then themselves.

Gill complained that a video shooting game, "Postal 2," was too childish. He wanted one that allowed him to kill more and go "berserk."

"I want them to make a game so realistic, that it looks and feels like it's actually happening," he wrote in his blog."

the original 'Columbine Shootings were allegedly influenced by the videogame Doom, which of course is a fantasy FPS game and lets the user be in the 'eyes' of the character which is what films are so successful at. Which is a paradox and postmodern conundrum of immense proportions?

Video games are meant to hypnotise people for a bit and perhaps escape from reality but it does not substitute for reality. Is also another thought on the theory