Oy vey. A freelance rabbi (whatever that means) plays Call of Duty: World at War, and it helps him to face the horrors of World War II era persecution of the Jews. That's the schpiel that Micah Kelber is spinning:
The surprising benefit of the game was that throughout my entire
life, since sneaking into the synagogue library with David Yagobian and
paging through a book of Nazi medical experiments, I have had
nightmares about Nazis. Jewish summer camp didn’t help. In games like
“Call of Duty,” you get unlimited lives; you keep playing the game
until you are victorious. It’s a safe place. When your character dies,
you may have to go back to a checkpoint, but this is simply
inconvenient, never tragic or final. You will always have another
chance to kill your demons.
So, playing Call of Duty helped Micah face his fears:
One morning, I woke up
extremely aware that I had just had a Nazi dream. No surprise, given
that I wrote this review and played the game late into the night. But I
was shocked that it did not scare me as it would have done in the past:
The back of my neck was dry. The game had subconsciously flipped a
switch. Although clearly there are still very real threats to Jews
around the world, the feeling that Nazis were a threat to my existence
was created by teachers and rabbis, rightly making sure that I knew my
history. In truth, that specific anxiety was not real, but virtual. And I could vanquish it virtually, as well.
This behavior fascinates me. I can't remember ever facing down a fear through video games, but I guess it makes sense. On the face of it, this seems like a completely healthy way for a person to deal with fear, but I wonder if there could be negative permutations of this behavior.
What about the school shooter who creates a Doom map based on the layout of his school? It would seem that if the mind can so closely relate virtual reality and "real reality", there could be just as many opportunities for destruction as there are for restoration. Personally I think that it's best if our virtual killing has no psychological connection to real-world killing, though I'm sure Micah's experience was not intentional.
Related Links:
Where Are All Of Videoland's Nice Jewish Boys?
The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial, Part 2
Industry Predictions for 2009: Doom and Gloom Edition
