There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.
I don't want to go too Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people via a headset rarely leads to real-life consequences. Beating up street-fighters is less risky than being in a street fight yourself.
But there are times when games do cause problems away from the screen. Players of Pokémon Go ramble about outside trying to collect digital pets - this also causes them to trespass into military bases.
I was recently reminded of one of the first Augmented Reality Games - Mozzies. Back in 2004 having a phone with a camera was almost unheard of. The Mozzies game let you see virtual mosquitoes overlayed on the real world - and then shoot them.
Waving your cameraphone around while playing caused at least one case of physical violence.
Here's a report from Singapore's The New Paper on 6 October 2004.
I'm grateful to Esme Potatoes for helping me find a transcript.
Playing game or snapping girl? Then… SMASH!
The incident happened while he and his friends were at Orchard Cineleisure for a movie recently.
Before the movie started at 7pm, his friends went to E-Zone, an arcade in the same building. The Indonesian student, who has lived in Singapore for more than 10 years, preferred to wait outside and play his favourite game, Mozzies, on his Siemens phone.
The game, which involves killing mosquitoes that appear on screen, requires the use of the phone's camera.
The camera captures a live video image as the game's playing background, with the mosquitoes appearing in the foreground.
The player has to move the phone around to target the mosquitoes.
Heriyono said: "I was so engrossed with the mosquitoes, I became oblivious to my surroundings."
"Then, I saw through the phone, a figure behind the swarm of mosquitoes heading in my direction but I thought he was just passing by."
Heriyono claims the man then shouted: “Trying to take a photo of my girlfriend, is it?”
And he smashed the phone on the floor.
Heriyono said he told the man, whom he estimates to be in his mid- or late 20s, that it was a misunderstanding and that he could check the phone for himself to see if he had indeed taken pictures of the man’s girlfriend.
But the phone was so badly damaged it could not be turned on.
“I was really shocked. He was behaving very aggressively, I thought he was going to hit me,” Heriyono said.
MAN WALKED OFF
But the man then walked off with his girlfriend, he said.
Heriyono and his friends decided not to chase after the man because he was older and they were worried he could get violent.
Heriyono did not make a police report either.
He was worried the man may get to him again, and refused to be photographed for this report.
When contacted, Siemens Mobile said it has never received any complaints about the games on its handphones. (See other report.)
The Mozzies game is available only on the Siemens SX1 model.
Heriyono had bought the handphone about four months earlier for over $700, after convincing his parents that it would be worth it because he uses all its functions, including the radio and MP3 player.
And he particularly liked the Mozzies game.
“In the end, the game caused me so much trouble,” he said with a sigh.
He sent the phone to the Siemens service centre but was told it was beyond repair.
His friends told him later that his actions could have looked suspicious.
“I realised that I could have looked like a pervert if seen by a passer-by,” he admitted.
“The thrill took over basic common sense and I began pointing my camera around.”
The girl was playing “air hockey” with her boyfriend at the time.
Miss Nalia Suli, 18, the receptionist at E-Zone, said she saw the commotion.
She said: “The girl was dressed very sexily. Her skirt was very short and when she bent down to pick up the ball, you could see her underwear.”
She, too, thought Heriyono was taking pictures of the girl.
“If he wasn’t taking pictures, why was the camera facing up?”
But Heriyono said: “Yes I could have pointed to the floor. But the mosquitoes are everywhere on the screen, you have to move around to kill them.”
He is now using a handphone he has borrowed from a friend, until he saves up enough to buy another. “I think after this incident, I will buy a much cheaper phone,” he said.
Perhaps staying inside to play games is safer all round!
