btw something that really hit me regarding video game violence and how we barely register it was during my playthroughs of disco elysium.
so the first time I played, for various reasons I didn’t have any weapons, because all of them are optional. so when a shootout happened, the only thing I could do was try to talk the enemies down, which didn’t go over great, and a bunch of people died. when afterwards I commented on how badly it went, my companion agreed, saying that regrettably a such and such number of people died - I don’t remember how many it was rn, but a specific number was given.
because of that, on a replay, I was determined to do better, and got myself a weapon. the confrontation still happened and there were still casualties, but I was able to save a few characters by killing or distracting their attackers. however, when I got to that follow-up conversation with the tallying up of the dead, the number I was given was almost as high, and that gave me a pause. I was like, wait! but this and this and this person is still alive, why is that number so high?! and it actually took me a few seconds to realise that the number is so high because of the enemies we killed to protect our allies, but the game made no distinction; it was still “regrettably, eight people died”. and the thing is, I didn’t even for a second consider that; in fact, a video game treating the (arguably justified) death of an “enemy” npc as a tragic loss equal to the death of a “friendly” npc was so unheard of and surprising to me that I had to take a considerable amount of time to process it and realise what was actually happening with that dialogue. and I still think about it sometimes.
Honestly being overworked makes people unobservant and passive and it literally kills people every day. People don’t seem to realize that an overworked nurse might not notice your sepsis symptoms and a tired truck driver might not notice your car when he’s merging into the lane. Failing to protect worker’s rights impacts nearly everyone
