Deathmatch: Long-Gone Barbarism or Future Entertainment?

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-22 10:38am

(This is a bounce from one of the many 'FOX and its Quest For Reality TV' threads.)

At this point, the public is willing to watch people fight, eat bugs, get married to random strangers, sell their dignity and their bodies, swap partners for a game show, engage in hazardous stunts and consume gross things (think Fear Factor). They're willing to watch people lie and cheat to win. Skill doesn't even matter in many shows: It's roman entertainment without the death at the end.

So my question is, does anyone think that 'deathmatch' will ever be public entertainment again, as it did for the Romans?

One side of the argument is the immorality inherent in mortal combat as entertainment. But we already have UFC fighting and boxing. The top multiplayer video games are based on murder as competition. Movies display death and gore, albeit fake death and gore, to levels that the Romans likely wouldn't even go for a public spectacle (see Dead Alive).

But, you might say, since all that entertainment is fake, we've managed to keep the public lust for blood without sacrificing actual lives to do it. You could say that violence doesn't need to be real to entertain since we're so good at faking it (see boxing, wrestling). In other words, that although we haven't risen as a society above violence, we've risen up in our expression of it.

While I personally would have no interest in watching 'Running Man' style fights to the death, I'm sure that if they thought they could get away with it, a 'reality tv' show whose premise is that players get eliminated via death would be on the airwaves already.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-22 10:40am

"I'll be back"
"Only in a rerun..."

I think that covers it for this......

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-01-22 11:41am

Lagmonster wrote:(This is a bounce from one of the many 'FOX and its Quest For Reality TV' threads.)

At this point, the public is willing to watch people fight, eat bugs, get married to random strangers, sell their dignity and their bodies, swap partners for a game show, engage in hazardous stunts and consume gross things (think Fear Factor). They're willing to watch people lie and cheat to win. Skill doesn't even matter in many shows: It's roman entertainment without the death at the end.

So my question is, does anyone think that 'deathmatch' will ever be public entertainment again, as it did for the Romans?

One side of the argument is the immorality inherent in mortal combat as entertainment. But we already have UFC fighting and boxing. The top multiplayer video games are based on murder as competition. Movies display death and gore, albeit fake death and gore, to levels that the Romans likely wouldn't even go for a public spectacle (see Dead Alive).

But, you might say, since all that entertainment is fake, we've managed to keep the public lust for blood without sacrificing actual lives to do it. You could say that violence doesn't need to be real to entertain since we're so good at faking it (see boxing, wrestling). In other words, that although we haven't risen as a society above violence, we've risen up in our expression of it.

While I personally would have no interest in watching 'Running Man' style fights to the death, I'm sure that if they thought they could get away with it, a 'reality tv' show whose premise is that players get eliminated via death would be on the airwaves already.

_______________________________________________________________________
Give them twenty years and it will be that way.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-22 11:49am

Montcalm wrote:Give them twenty years and it will be that way.

But do you see 'reality tv' as a progressive trend leading to Deathmatch, or do you think society can't go that far again?

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-22 11:59am

I dont see reality TV as a progressive move towards deathmatch. Deathmatch tv would not be possible without a complete breakdown of many social norms anyway.

However, mabye a fake deathmatch like pro wrestling might be popular. What do you think?

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-22 12:04pm

Lagmonster wrote:
Montcalm wrote:Give them twenty years and it will be that way.
But do you see 'reality tv' as a progressive trend leading to Deathmatch, or do you think society can't go that far again?

The three safe bets :-
1. Idiocy (not stupidity, definetly idiocy)
2. Institutional Incompetence
3. Indescribable Bad Luck

These bets are so safe no bookie in the world will give you odds on them.

Considering them....its a scary possibility...

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-01-22 03:10pm

look, there's a movie where people try to get themselves killed for 2 hrs in hideously stupid stunts. add corporat sponsership, and of *course* deathmatches are comin back.

Shadow Walker · Post by **Shadow Walker** » 2003-01-22 03:22pm

Considering how entertainment seems to degenerate every day to new lows, it's only a matter of time until we get actual deaths on TV being the entire premise of a show.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-22 03:38pm

I think American TV is moving more toward personal relationships rather than physical conflict.

Perhaps they'll start showing reality divorce shows or something (they already do but they're not widely known).

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2003-01-22 03:44pm

Every time I watch survivor, I take a grim pleasure in counting the ways they could die/be eaten.

we're very close to deathmatch

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-22 03:58pm

Shinova wrote:I think American TV is moving more toward personal relationships rather than physical conflict.

They're teetering both ways. Shows like The Chair, The Chamber, and Fear Factor are specifically torture for the sake of amusement, period. Did anyone SEE The Chamber? That wasn't a game show. That was a drawn out execution...!

I don't see American Gladiators: With Guns making a debut soon, but I don't see it staying away. Hell, the shows Robot Wars and Battlebots are starting to gain popularity, and I think there's a Junkyard Wars car-wars equivalent show on too. Gladiatorial combat, yes. Humans, no. I think the mentality for extreme human violence as a sport is there in the American audience.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2003-01-22 06:02pm

BATTLEBOTS

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-22 07:35pm

I think America could easily slide into it. With the trend towards reality TV and violent entertainment I don't doubt it'll happen sooner or later. With the whole of western civilization getting more and more ignorant and callus I see it as evitable. It'll start with criminals and eventually spread to volunteers. I don't doubt that we'll have gladiatorial games.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-01-22 07:51pm

Rollerball. It is the future.

SWPIGWANG · Post by **SWPIGWANG** » 2003-01-22 08:02pm

sure, if we can find truelly cool ways to kill people.

Sektor31 · Post by **Sektor31** » 2003-01-22 08:26pm

Running man d00dz.

"I'll be back!"
"Only in a rerun." is right!

Although they'll probably fake the deaths, and with SFX these days it's very possible.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2003-01-22 08:33pm

Welcome back to "American Gladiators!"

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2003-01-22 08:41pm

Lagmonster wrote:Movies display death and gore, albeit fake death and gore, to levels that the Romans likely wouldn't even go for a public spectacle (see Dead Alive).

NO WAY!!! Would you suspect people would want to see molten lead being poured down people's throats? Would you suspect people would want to see others being crucified on wooden crosses? Would you think that people would want to see children viciously killed by wild animals? Would you want to see soldiers smash babies against walls? There is no way in hell that our society can become this cruel and heartless. Freaking no way. Unless the deaths are somehow made to be clean like in movies, where you can't feel the blood splatter against you. And where you can't smell the stench of rotting bodies. And where you don't have people begging and pleading for their lives in front of you. You're not responsible for their deaths in movies. And you know it's fake. That is why we treat it like nothing. Because it is nothing. Don't tell me everytime you play GTA 3, beat some person over the head with a baseball bat until he or she is dead on the ground, rob him or her's money, and then kill the police officer that chased you, you think that what you did was real. Would you really do that? Do you have the heart to do such immoral acts? Hell no. Do you think you could watch that in reality and not get upset? Hell no. I really doubt that people would sit in an arena or at home in front of their televisions to watch people get brutally slaughtered like that. Look at 9/11, the U.S.S. Cole, the Oklahoma city bombing, the fighting in Palestine and Israel, Flight 587, the sniper rampage in Maryland, the Columbine shootings, [insert large scale disaster resulting in many deaths here]. These are all real violent deaths and people are horrified over them. We outlawed cock fighting and such events because it's cruelty to animals. WTF? How could that be illegal and the American equivalent to Roman gladiators be legal?? Non sequitor (it does not follow).

The Romans treated real violence the way we treat fake violence today. The difference is that they were well aware that it was real then, and we are well aware that it is fake now. Look at whenever someone in a sport is hurt. Do the fans rave about how cool it was that an athlete broke his leg? No. Do they say, "Oh man look at the blood splatter!" No. Romans rejoiced in watching people injured like that get killed. There's the difference.

I honestly do not believe our society will be transformed into a society comparable to the ancient Roman society. It is just too distant from society's current moral standards to ever become warped like that.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-01-22 10:29pm

yes, of course it can. humanity loves it's entertainiment, and blood is the best dressing of all.

and battlebots is so cool.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-01-22 10:33pm

People who says they will never watch shows like this are hipocrites,they are going to see wrestling and boxing and they yell kill him.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-01-22 10:43pm

enthusiasm in the moment, I think. but an increasingly jaded audience will want more violence, which I think could be seen in movies these days.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Deathmatch: Long-Gone Barbarism or Future Entertainment?

Deathmatch: Long-Gone Barbarism or Future Entertainment?

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