[The Hierophant]

Videogames affect your beliefs and your desires. Well, at least the good, immersive ones do. Just the way a good book or film can change your outlook or beliefs, videogames have the potential to do the same.

Now, people who are naturally predisposed toward violence are more likely to act upon their fantasies garnered by simulated butchery present in most computer games. Even games such as Baldur's Gate which try their best to promote a moral dilemma and define between good and evil still force the player to hack, stab, shoot and slice their way through a myriad of opponents in order to progress.

Now, individuals who find it difficult to differentiate between reality and fantasy (paranoid schizophrenics, narcissistic sociopaths etc) are more likely to have this simulated violence affect their actions in the real world in a negative fashion. However, MOST people are able to switch off their mind's suspension-of-belief, fantasy mode when they stop playing the games and return to behaviour that is acceptable in the 'real' world. It is the few who are unable to leave game behabviour in the gaming world that give other game-lovers a bad name.