Violence, part 3: Its usefulness

Defined as two or more objects attempting to exist in the same space at the same time, it is fairly easy to see why violence is bound to occur.  One of the laws of our physical universe is that two objects cannot exist in the same space at the same time.  Therefore, even if two objects both came to the same space honestly, there will be conflict between them if they reach it at the same time.

Violence, part 2: What it is

I want to make the case that no art can be successful without violence, but to do that I will have to address the obvious and countless counter-examples you already have floating around in your head.  Like many things I've talked about on this blog, a lot of confusion can be mitigated if we take a hard look at how we define violence.

Violence, part 1: Introduction

The video game industry is well-known for its controversial violence, with legislators attempting new ways to tamp down on the graphic violence in flagship games just as they were fifteen years ago.  Meanwhile, I'm starting to feel this swelling undercurrent of concern from video game sympathizers that perhaps, maybe, video games have to be violent to be successful.  Though the history of video games is certainly pockmarked with wildly successful titles such as The Sims that at the very least do not feature violence as the main focus of the game, these successes have been more difficult to replicate than those involving mass murder.