Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2011. Carmack left id Software in 2013 and has since worked on virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Few people have heard of John Carmack, even though years ago he was an advisor to Steve Jobs. His name came to light after the school massacre in Colorado (United States), carried out by two teenagers who walked into their school armed and took the lives of 15 students.
Investigators concluded that the two students had planned the massacre with astonishing “military preparation”. It later emerged that they had acquired that preparation from Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D, three popular video games regarded as extremely violent, all bearing John Carmack’s stamp.
Carmack is an excellent programmer and engineer, and he knew how to use his talent to turn the video game business into one of the most profitable businesses. His games are so well programmed and realistic that the US Army itself uses some of them to train its troops. John Carmack even says the US military has tried to hire him on several occasions.
Carmack has refused to get into that business, because he doesn’t want his games associated with death. Authorities in some countries, which are banning his games for anyone under 18, believe these games encourage violence and harm teenagers’ mental health.
John Carmack’s answer is the exact opposite. He has hired a group of psychologists who say that playing violent games helps a violent person feel calmer once the game is over, so the games could serve as a therapy against aggression. In fact, he has compared his games to a punching bag: by that logic, gyms should ban punching bags for encouraging violence, when in reality hitting a punching bag releases tension and calms people down.
He is an entrepreneur with arguments, no doubt about it, and a millionaire too, considering that one of his video games sells for about 60 dollars on average and his latest game has sold more than 4 million units.
John Carmack stresses the incredible business opportunities around online games for software engineers, since mobile apps pay extremely well and you can also charge for advertising. The same goes for social network apps.
As for the benefits or drawbacks of violent games, the jury is still out. After all, these days if you want violence and blood, all you have to do is switch on the TV at lunchtime or dinnertime.
Better to use violence in the virtual world than in the real one, a line attributed to John Carmack.
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