Catharsis-O-Meter
How many people reading this article have actually killed someone, today? It's OK, you can be honest. Just raise your hand. No hands came out of my computer monitor, so I will assume that none of my readers go around mowing down nuns with a SAW just for the hell of it. Yet, you do feel drawn to the violence of sandbox games. It relieves your stress to drive on the sidewalk like a drunk mall Santa (or a normal mall Santa who just can't take it anymore.) It lets a bit of the tension and anger out every time you blast the rude lady at the chicken restaurant. But why? Well, it's a little thing psychologists call "
catharsis". Other people call it that as well, because that's the right word. Catharsis is the idea that you can get a small amount of the pleasure you are seeking by doing something (or pretending to do something) that is related to what you really want to do. It's the whole reason people go home and yell at their kids after a hard day at work, or get a bit of a rush out of throwing pee filled water balloons at strangers and pretending they're your boss. Well, catharsis has a special place in the hearts of every person who enjoys a good sandbox game. Why? Well, that's what a sandbox game is about: put you in a world that allows you to spew your hate at it in any way that you see fit. You could follow the story, or you could get over your girlfriend recently dumping you for a doctor by hanging out at the hospital and beating every person in scrubs to an absolute pulp. Catharsis. APB really lands a solid blow on the human psyche. There's just something about outwitting, outrunning, outgunning, or just plain sucker punching another human being. The thought of knowing that somewhere out there someone is just trying to finish a mission or level up before to go to bed, but can't because you waste them the moment they start the mission is just plain satisfying. It really plays to that primal urge we humans have to make each other eat mud just for the hell of it. And, in fact, since I've been playing, I've noticed a marked decrease in the number of violent threats I make to my middle school students. GTA cathartic benefit was of a different kind. Since players of APB spend most of their time duking it out with other players, the catharsis comes from the relief of victory. GTA players, however, spend most of their time committing heinous violent crimes on authority figures and innocents. Rather than sticking it to a single person, you're getting the pleasure that everyone gets from fighting the man, and telling the people who keep you in line (cops) to bite it. In short, you're releasing a life time of repressed anger and and fear of authority figures that dictate what kinds of behavior are and are not tolerated in public. You know you can't talk back to the cops when they catch you with your pants around your ankles in the park, even if you weren't doing anything wrong. You know that if you get pulled over and harassed for 30 minutes for no reason, you just have to deal with it. Because if you open your mouth, it's going to get filled with pepper spray and then electrocuted. But for those moments when you're in GTA, it's the other way around. Saint's Row also plays to the urge to buck authority so hard it lands you in a shallow grave. However, while GTA specifies which rules you should be ignoring, Saint's Row is a virtual playground in which you get to do pretty much whatever you wish. The principle is the same: you're telling all those people who keep you down exactly where to stick it. However, while GTA tells you the cops keep you down, Saint's Row lets you decide that maybe the trash guy is the real enemy, or your neighbors house, or laws that tell you where you should or shouldn't vomit. In short, while GTA plays to the anti-authoritarian in all of us, Saint's Row plays to the total sociopath in all of us. Final Tally: APB: 2 Dead Civilians - it just feels great to know you're ruining someone's day Saint's Row: 3 Dead Civilians - screw the universe for having laws of physics GTA: 3 Dead Civilians - being told not to drive on the sidewalk is pretty much fascism