Swen Körner is a professor at the German Sport University Cologne and Head of Department for Training Pedagogy and Martial Research. His research is geared towards the optimization of police education and training, practical issues of evidence based violence prevention and the relevance of martial arts in different domains of modern society.
Co-Author: Mario S. Staller
The violence of violence: Reflexive violence and its pedagogi-cal potential in video games using the example of “The Last of Us 2”
FROG 2022 – Poster
Violence in video games is regularly in the focus of scientific observation (Ferguson, 2020). What is striking here is that previous observations of science focus predominantly on potentially negative effects of consumption. In this paper, we take a different angle. Based on Luhmann’s social systems theory (Luhmann, 2013, 2020), we analyze the potential of violence in video games with a view to a possible reduction of violence in society (Staller & Körner, 2020).
Using Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us 2” (2020) as an example, we show that the complexity of decision-making situations (Luhmann, 2009) can be experienced via video games thus opening up moments of reflection. The reflexive reference of violence to itself – the ludonarrative embedding of violence in the game – thus creates the potential to control the complex system of violence itself.
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