I get so fed up with all the media's bitching on video games...

[Peter_20]

Alright, this is a Swedish link, but I'll just translate it, I guess:

http://www.watchtower.org/z/20021222/article_02.htm

"The 12-year-old boy forced an "unarmed opponent into a corner and closely pointed his pistol against his head".
'You won't get away!' he said with a cold smile as he massacred the figure on the screen.
'Now you're mine!'
The boy pressed the button and shot his opponent in the head.
The blood splashed onto the opponents' laboraty coat as he rotated around and fell to the ground.
'Got you!' he said, laughing." ("The Best", march 1999, page 16)

...and so on.
Yeah right, it's not like every gamer on the planet is a 12-year-old problem child who plays way too violent games for his own age.
Why the hell does the media always try to mark video games as something terrible?
Yes, there are violent games, just as there are violent movies, violent art, violent books and violent music.
And of course the media points out the worst possible scenarios concerning video games.
They even claim the reason people become violent is "because they've played violent video games".

I also think Hitler spent three hours a day in front of Dead Or Alive.
Yes, that's the only explanation. :rolleyes2

[Madame Adequate]

Because people are scared of themselves. Nobody wants to admit that, actually, we all have the capacity for extreme acts of violence. They need to believe there is, if not an outright cause, at least some kind of catalyst that enables people to be so violent. That's why these things get blamed.

[Dreddz]

I think its wrong to put all the blame on video games, but is also wrong for everyone to completely deny there any cause of the problem. They do have a role in todays violence, but a small one compared to all the movies and other media we see today. Before people target video games, they should target all other sources of media. This is me giving a sensible response. What I hope to happen is for all the nagging mums to let it be. If we end up banning all media, likelyhood we'll all end up becoming more violent with the lacks of things to do. Crime is down since the 80-90's where games didnt excist, except the late 90's, but games still didnt have explicit violence back then.

[Madame Adequate]

Whether games have an effect or not isn't very relevant, because it's the job of parents to ensure their kids are raised right.

[vorpal blade]

Video games are evil! What do they tach us but that it's okay to rescue princesses and save the world and do what's right? Evil! Fighting terrorists, zombies, fascists, Nazis and demons? Evil!

[NINJA_Ryu]

Whether games have an effect or not isn't very relevant, because it's the job of parents to ensure their kids are raised right.

quoted for the supermotherfluckingbiatchinggodcantbeatalwaysgonnawin TRUTH!!!!!!

[Markus. D]

*sings the Five Nill song*

Blame it on the parents.

there are ratings and regulations.

its their fault.

[Skyblade]

Yet, oddly enough, violent video games are the only ones which have an effect on us. No one ever talks about children being affected by games like Tetris or Bust-a-Move. Don't you guys find it interesting that the only games that have any influence on our minds are violent ones?

[fantasyjunkie]

Bah! It's just the current medium the politicians and moms are ranting about. In the 50's it was Elvis and comic books. 60's it was the Rolling Stones and the Who. 70's every mom was convinced Evil Kenivel was influencing their kids to do crazy stunts on bicycles. 80's it was Ozzy Osbourne and every day care specialist was a child molester. 90's it was Nintendo taking over America.Now it's video games. 10 more years everyone is going to forget about video games and find something else to launch a crusade against.

Edit: Most gamers are my age, which is 39. If not most than the very least we are the ones with the $$$ to buy consoles for our kids. Gamers like me, with voting power. It's only a matter of time that the President or Prime Minister will be a gamer. Video games are here to stay. Period.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Jack Thompson definitely isn't helping with all of his false theories and helping reinforce the "Americans are stupid" stereotypical crap.

[NaroK]

*sings the Five Nill song*

Blame it on the parents.

there are ratings and regulations.

its their fault.

QFT

[rih29]

Any child who actually re-enacts scenes from games in real life violently needs to be smacked upside the head. The parents constantly bitch and whine about it too. So, parents, how did your child get that game?

"I DIDN'T KNOW!!!!"

Well, that's your fault then, parent.

[vorpal blade]

Any child who actually re-enacts scenes from games in real life violently needs to be smacked upside the head. The parents constantly bitch and whine about it too. So, parents, how did your child get that game?

"I DIDN'T KNOW!!!!"

Well, that's your fault then, parent.

Righto! If you've got the power to control it, stop bitching about it and control it!


10 more years everyone is going to forget about video games and find something else to launch a crusade against.

Bears!!!

[Griff]

The funniest thing about this is that since the release of the Playstation violent crime rates in the US have dropped consistantly. If possible I'll try to find the link to where I found this.

[NeoCracker]

Any child who actually re-enacts scenes from games in real life violently needs to be smacked upside the head. The parents constantly bitch and whine about it too. So, parents, how did your child get that game?

"I DIDN'T KNOW!!!!"

Well, that's your fault then, parent.

Righto! If you've got the power to control it, stop bitching about it and control it!


10 more years everyone is going to forget about video games and find something else to launch a crusade against.

Bears!!!

Somebody likes Colbert Report.

But yeah, its just media hungry ass's. Like that bad faith Goo of a man. Jack, when will you learn, you are a joke.

[Madame Adequate]

The funniest thing about this is that since the release of the Playstation violent crime rates in the US have dropped consistantly. If possible I'll try to find the link to where I found this.

Whilst it is enjoyable to speculate upon, correllation =! causation. Indeed it's possible that videogames have prevented the crime rate from falling faster, even if that's not a view I hold to myself.

[Roto13]

Any child who actually re-enacts scenes from games in real life violently needs to be smacked upside the head. The parents constantly bitch and whine about it too. So, parents, how did your child get that game?

"I DIDN'T KNOW!!!!"

Well, that's your fault then, parent.

Righto! If you've got the power to control it, stop bitching about it and control it!
:)


10 more years everyone is going to forget about video games and find something else to launch a crusade against.

Bears!!!
:(

[DK]

If I murdered someone brutally and violently and then told the media that music like Coldplay and Britney Spears and films like Titanic and people like Jack Thompson made me do it, would that mean we could get rid of them too? I'd totally take one for the team for that.

[Strider]

Parental responsibility is a lost art, it seems.

[Dragon Mage]

It's just another stupid stereotype that the media loves to fawn over. Since most gamers are considered to be teenagers (which they're not, and is a stereotype itself) video game violence is just factored into the whole stereotype of teenagers themselves. Why are teens violent? video games. Why do they do crazy stunts in cars? Video games. Why is there a fascination with killing things among teens? Video games. It's a stupid excuse to strike at teens and video games; kills two birds with one stone.

However, I believe there are some overly violent and gruesome games out there. However these are the exception of video games and not the rule. Also, some games are considered 'violent, and gruesome' when they're really not. for example, I never thought that Samurai Warriors was ever overly violent, gruesome, or evil-thoughts provoking. It's just something for the media to attack. And it really ticks me off.

[Laddy]

Wow, I play WoW, I'm gonna get a sword and slice people up, does that seem REALISTIC? My mom, for example, watched me play.... FFIX, she thought I was watching TV, so, she "watched" it with me, thought it was silly. "It's a video game." The Steiner was poisoned, "Really, wow, this is the best-looking game, when has it gotton so realistic?" I toss good ol' Rusty and antidote, "About.... five or four years ago it became more realistic on a regular basis." My mom, mesmerized, walked away. Now, here's my point, they think we confuse reality with fantasy, because they do, well, we're more experienced, so, therefore, I think we may have a BETTER idea to distinguish the the two, IMO.

[KentaRawr!]

It would be foolish to say that Video games don't affect people at all, but it would be more of a long-shot to say that games teach you how to do what they visually show you in the game. For you see, with video games, you're in control through a controller, and not your body. In an FPS, you aim by adjusting an X and Y Axis with either a mouse or double-analog sticks (in most cases) until your character is pointing at a specific target. You're not lifting your arm to aim and shoot, not adjusting your position using your lower body, and not under any pressure with the possibility of you dying. So if someone happens to excel in the ways of fire-arms, it is most likely a waste of time and resources to check their homes for video games to see where such a regular civilian got such skill. (Silly Jack Thompson. n_n)

Of course, that is not to say that games don't develop certain habbits. Whatever skill the game requires to be good at, you'll get better at that skill. It just so happens that most of the time, the skills or habbits you develop can't be applied to real-life situations. One exception I can think of is MMORPGs without microphone support, such as PSO, and therefore require you to type. But because the training for such isn't exactly proper, and because of PSO being addictive beyond much reason, if you want to get better at typing, you should probably practice with the aid of a guide, and develop the correct finger habbits before going into something that forces you to rely on fast finger typing. Otherwise, you may gain unorthodox habbits, such as me. I may be able to type at 60-70 A.W./m, but I'd probably be able to type faster if I didn't develop habbits that have me use two fingers, one on each hand, for all letters and numbers, and a third finger for the shift key.

Edit: Now, there's the deal with becoming more or less agressive. One might become more competitive upon playing video games, assuming the game is competitive in some way. However, agression hardly seems like an issue. I say this because video games generally seem like the types of things that would relieve stress, whether through escapism, or just feeling accomplished upon completing many short-term goals. Full-blown man slaughter is completely out of the question, unless the user is insane.

[Dragon Mage]

The older generation simply isn't as technologically savvy as we are. They think we're acting so strange and think it's becuase of the games, but it isn't. Just a sign of the times.

[rih29]

Also, just for the hell of it, I'm going to go jump on people and blame it on Mario.

[Zora]

The reason is simple: To interest viewers/readers/listeners (or VRLs later).

If the commercial says "How your child may be affected from playing too many video games?" to VRLs, and the child is playing video games and going through the psychological stereotype of adolescents, this will cause VRLs to view/read/listen (or VRL later).

There are also some other benefits to this. Like on a live audio-visual broadcast on CBS or Fox if they presented this issue, if someone acts violent do to one of there shows, they can use this propagated fragment of a broadcast to divert there attention to video games, thus CBS or Fox has created a scapegoat. This can also happen with radio. The reason it is vidoe games are due to specific circumstances (such as parents ignore video games and let them go by in the background of their lives and the fact they are very popular) allows them to be easily picked on.

In the end though, the reasons why it is vidoe games are large, but the main reason is to have better publicity on a whole.

[Gnostic Yevon]

I think any media is going to affect how you react to things. If you're constantly watching and playing what amounts to violence porn (Violence itself is the whole point of watching playing -- story is a distant second), then you'll think that violence is more likely to solve a problem than someone who plays Katamari or Final Fantasy, where just causing heads to explode isn't the point.

I'll put it to you this way: Schindler's List and Showgirls both have a lot of nudity. However the purpose is completely different. Schindler's list is a drama about a historical event, and so the nudity is incidental to telling the story. It's not porn, and the whole point isn't to sell sex, make sex look fun etc. Showgirls is much more about tittlating the viewer into thinking sex thoughts about the naked people. In short, the reason the average person watches is to see naked people and think sexy thoughts.

[tidus_rox]

My history teacher asked us today
"Why is that the most tickets given out is to 16-21 year old males?"

A kid is my class answered

"Becuase they play video games" Yuna really makes me speed