Thread: Violent video games?

Just read a story about some teens being arrested for plotting a Columbine style attack on their school. The news story was good until this phrase....

...
Norman also mentioned bullying and said investigators had learned the suspects liked violent video games.
....

What the hell does that have to do with anything? I wish they would stop blaming video games for this stuff. You can see way more graphic stuff on the big screen and on TV.

Video games have just gotten to the point, via shaders, where stuff actually might look a tad bit realistic. But most, if not all, violent FPS games are when you are acting as the good guys beating down a ton of aliens, or you are a SWAT team, or an Army ranger team, etc, etc.

I think the video game industry has done well at improving the settings in which FPS's are played. None that I've played, with the exception of GTA series, promote gunning down everything and anyone. Usually you have a set of objectives in a military type setting or you are fighting your way out of something as in Half Life series, Doom series, and Farcry. Tom Clancy games are totally military based, the Total War series are historical based, and most other games are RPGs where everyone knows it's fantasy.

How can they blame these games when our TV's show far more than I've ever seen on a video game? I just bought NFS: Most Wanted and it's awesome but that doesn't mean I'm gonna take my Eclipse out and ram it head on into a cop car.

There was an article on /. a little while ago about a study on violent video games. To avoid re-typing everything, my take can be found here .

I'm not just defending video games because I like them or enjoy 'attempting' to program them. This is more about placing blame on everything but the person.

It's not my desire that anything I program would cause someone to go out and do something extremely stupid. But, cmon, let's get real - I did not force anyone to do anything, much less even buy the game. The same is true for all the great game programmer's out there? I'll defend the art till I die I reckon but there will always be those who just take the popular news side of the story and never do any research.

Why do our new sources continually push their own agendas regardless of the facts?


Doesn't anyone have any common sense in this world anymore?

I'm quite neutral to this "blame the video game" business.

As one gamer to another, I enjoy playing violent video games. In the words of that bald CS psycho:

"There's nothing like the thrill of hunting people down and killing 'em!"

Indeed. He's referring to digital violence. You lack a great deal of mental stability to go out and shoot up your high-school because you did it in a virtual world. Surely the media realise this.

Looking at the games I've got here. They're all violent in some way and I would probably be right in saying the violence in all of them is pretty "in your face" - the type which is - apparently - polluting the minds of otherwise sane individuals.

However, I am a proponent of age ratings in terms of a store not selling it to you without ID. It's up to the parents if they want their 10 year old to go on a killing spree around Vice City, but I think it's a good idea to make sure kids don't get hold of this type of game without consent.

I mean come on, would you want your minor to tear through a military bunker pinning people to the walls with a nailgun?

Oh, If I'm not making much sense it's because I badly need a good nights sleep.

I bet you they played DOOM, which is that ultra-realistic murder simulator on the cutting edge of technology.

Seriously, games have gotten so much bloodier since then - why do they always pick on DOOM?

However, I am a proponent of age ratings in terms of a store not selling it to you without ID. It's up to the parents if they want their 10 year old to go on a killing spree around Vice City, but I think it's a good idea to make sure kids don't get hold of this type of game without consent.

I'm not against the ratings system, but it still seems pointless. I mean, if kids can get their hands on alcohol before they turn 21, do you really think they can't get ahold of a mature game when they aren't supposed to?

Everybody likes violent video games.

The real issue is how do these kids get firearms? ...

But, I fully support blaming societal influences and how we're training our kids to be sociopathic killers.

The overwhelming point Moore was trying to make was that we have a society that encourages violence...that's why he 'defended' video games that are played in other countries, pointed out that Canada, the UK, etc various other countries have plenty of guns...etc.

> why do you think there was a sudden spike in school violence after columbine?

There was? Please feel free to name some of these violent schools.

And besides, it's the media's job to report news, for good or bad. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away.