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[Column] General: The March Against Violent Videogames
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And the purpose of gun ownership is to allow people to protect themselves, whether that attacker is a random thug or government. From your profile, it appears you are Canadian, so I don't expect you to understand the reasons for gun ownership in America or America's gun culture. However, to say that quote above is attributed to conservatives only is false, especially in a thread where most people agree the solution is identifying and fixing the problems in society that cause people to commit violent crimes, and I seriously doubt this is a heavily conservative crowd.
The collective responsibility is to get help for the people that need it. The collective responsibility is to make sure that a person doesn't reach the point of committing such atrocities. Don't blame the thermometer for the temperature.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Its always sad to see people die BUT its FUNNY to see that some people blame video games for whats happening when in FACT the US is by FAR the number one armement selling country in the WOLRD.
In fact the US economy is so great thanks for many good things but also because of all these weapons selling all over the world.
Also everyone can buy guns hell even auto-riffles in the US OMG!!!! and after when a tragedy happens the president himself almost cry and say that the US need to find a solution????
I always feel bad when I see kids or people get killed by a psyco BUT geez before blaming video games LOOK at all the REAL weapons that THEY allow their own people to buy...
Oh yeah 20 people die to a shooting how sad BUT yet MILLIONS die each year around the world becaus eof the same weapons sold by the same contry? cmon...
I played video games and violent ones all my life and I never considered shooting anyone.
It is the moral values of people that has to be addressed. Education is the best solution and the society have to walk the talk. I have seen cases where people go to church and then go home and rape his daughter. I have seen personally how a pious mother who go to church and then go home and verbally abuse her kids.I strongly believe it is not video games that causes these but it is the society that pressure someone to go beserk and kills.
Things happen for a reason. The shootings in the states, in my opinion are due to psychological stimulus and pressure from something somewhere. Hell, if you take a look at civil war torn Africa, people were masacred every day in outskirt villages. Kids burn or even put to run with a pinless grenade just for amusement. they don't have video games, but they still do it?
If the states were to ban violence on video games, it won't solve anything.
If this was true, that violent video games/movies breed the "events that are happening with youth...then on there account I would be considered a Serial Killer canadite LOL.
7-10years old watching freddy,jason,goolies,hellraiser, mortal kombat, etc..( like many others)
<--Family of 5 that I love to death, and why I bust my ass at work....nuff said {grins}
Well I am not a violent person, but when that happens I am going to have to vent my anger at something.
But seriously why don’t people who say those stupid things about games/movies look at other countries and there lack off mass shootings while having the same games and movies available.
But there is 1 thing which most off the other countries without mass shooting don’t have and that is guns available for everyone.
So maybe they should look at that, just an idea.
They could ban every gun in the USA and some guy would make a blow gun and start shooting people with cynanide tipped darts. the point is nutters will find a way, it matters not if it's a gun or broadsword.
This seems to be a waste of time and money. plus blaming the gaming indusrty when we got guys flying remote controlled drones in other countrys killing both friend and foe seems allot like a video game to me.
"Not even a cray super computer can make this game run well. Thats what happens when you code an MMO in pascal. " - miglor
Oh this old chestnut again. Sick things in the real world have been blamed on things like rock music and video games for as long as I can remember. One of these days people will take responsibility for their actions instead of constantly trying to look for something else to blame.
From my own point of view, I've never been involved in a fight or any kind of violent behaviour in my life, and yet I love beat-em-ups; I've never fired a real gun, swung a real sword driven overtly recklessly or any of those things in real life despite my choice of games and for the record, have no wish to do so either. For me, the fact that I CAN do this in a video game provides a channel to vent those daily frustrations should I feel the need. Stuck in a traffic jam? Go home and play Forza Motorsport, GTA or Saints Row. Someone annoyed me at work? Go home and play Street Fighter.
I wonder if someone somewhere should do a study just to see how stark raving bananas someone would go if they didn't have that kind of outlet.
They are using video games as an excuse for bad parenting and as a scape goat because its an easy thing to target. In the 80's we had the video nasty along with Dungeons and Dragons. This caused church leaders and the media to try and ban them. In the UK we had bishops on TV saying that if we let children play D&D they would all grow up as Satanist and murders. In the 50's they tried to ban rock and roll because it would corrupt the youth of the day.
If an individual is unbalanced in their life playing a violent video game or watching a film will not be the cause of them going on a killing rampage. There have been many mass killings throughout history to prove this. I think parents use video games as an excuse for their own failings at raising their children.
I have played video games since the ZX Spectrum was sold on the shelves and the graphics and game play have come a long way, but never in my time from a young boy to now being an adult have I ever felt like picking up a gun or sword to go out and kill people because I can in a video game. I find violence to be a sad part of life and can never understand why people would resort to it.
I think video games are a wonderful way to let off steam at the end of a stressful day and without them there could be more violence as people will not be able to release that stress within a controlled enviroment.
Video games are the modern day scapegoat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat
People must think that murder never happened before video games, music, movies, etc etc.
Have boxcutters been banned yet?
You mean like the Norway shooting? Or the one in France not too long ago?
Per capita, U.K. is #4 in most violent countries, U.S. is #23.
There are more deaths from baseball bats than rifles, in the U.S. And that's from the FBI website. Official crime statistics contradict everything being told to you on the TV.
I guess they'll add a tab on the chart that reads "video games" from here on out. Sounds stupid? Well so is banning salt and soda, but that happened too.
The shooter at the school had his background checks denied 5 times while trying to buy weapons. He stole them from his mom, who he killed, and by the way knew he was crazy and on medication, yet leaves out an arsenal.
Blaming guns is just as stupid as blaming video games. So is blaming a spoon for making you fat and a pencil for spelling errors.
The gun, video game, spoon, and pencil are nothing without an operator. The operator is to blame. Go after them, not me.
Besides, did we ban boxcutters or did we go after terrorists?
A gun is not a thermometer. False anology. The purpose of a gun is to kill people. It has no other purpose except for hunting.
Where I am from, and who I am, makes 0 diffrence to my argument. Ad hom's are the tactic of someone who knows their argument has lost, or they are simply ignorant of basic logic. Two options, which is it?
So the question remains: Do you want to make it easier or harder for people to kill others?
So which is it?
A firearm is a tool, like a spoon. Leave it on a table, it does nothing until someone picks it up.
Should boxcutters be banned or did they do the right thing by going after the bad guys?
Firearms are what, a multi-billion dollar industry? Duh.. of course the NRA and other groups (including the government - tax) are diverting blame.
Stuff doesn't change while people are getting rich.
Take smoking, for example. We all know it kills, and racks up huge costs to the healthy care systems around the world, but they keep on selling and taxing them, while introducing periodical 'band aid' measures, such as hiding them away behind shutters.
Talking out your arse there.
UK is 4th most violent country in the world and usa 23rd - BULLSHIT
America has by far a higher murder rate than the UK. Including per capita. Now if you were talking about assault or something, yeah I could believe UK is higher than usa with that, but not murder.
Are you seriously saying their are only 3 countries more violent than the UK?
I can think of several right off the top of my head e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, south Africa, Jamaica, usa.
Where not even the worst in Europe, Naples has by far a higher murder rate than any British city, up there with places like Detroit & Washington.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
UK is low on 1.2 homicides per year per 100,000 people
USA is lower than I expected on 4.2
World average is 6.9
There are some countries in Europe with a higher rate than the usa, mostly former soviet countries.
When taken in a world wide context, we are lucky most of us to live in Europe or north America. Lots of places in central America & Africa with a rate higher than 50 in 100,000
It is impossible to say that any one thing perpetrates the crime rates or these mass shootings in the US. Anything is drastic over simplification. In the case of one shooting, it might be someone with a mental issue whose intake of medicines might help promote paranoia and violence in the individual. In an other, it could be a crime of passion. Who knows ? Just blaming it on one or two factors is not going to help.
I agree with Pockett that parents should be sure what their kids are playing, but I doubt that it would have had much effect on avoiding some of the mass shootings that have occurred in schools. They are not related to "normal crime", which is usually when someone breaks the law in order to further their own goals at the expense of others. These mass killings are more about a suicide that takes out others and are designed to do the maximum harm, so I think that we need to look at the message that these individuals are obviously trying to send us as a key on how to solve them.
There are also video games and then there are video games. Some games are so violent, realistic, and anti-social that they do turn my stomach even though I am a long-time gamer, like GTA 3 and the Hitman series. Others have violence that really can't be taken seriously like the old classic Duke Nukem 3D, and yet others have cartoon violence like WoW that could never be confused for anything real.
To me games are overall beneficial because they provide an outlet for expression, emotion, and socializing. This is what critics and anti-video game advocates do not understand. Repression breeds even more (real) violence, so they should be careful.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I checked the movie line-up last night for something to watch. I have lots of channels, all the HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Stars etc etc. Nearly every movie was about killing. Being killed, doing the killing, investigating the killing, revenge by killing those who killed, kill kill kill kill.
Also, if you check the t.v. ratings for the last .. oh, say ten years.. you'll find that most of the top shows have killing as their central theme. CSI.. etc. Or, just open any history book. Or for that matter, take a gander at the true history of any religion.
As humans, we are totally enthrawled and mesmerized by death. It has always been that way and it always will be. It consumes us and pervades nearly everything we watch. Do you see any channels reporting on good news? No, it's death and violence. It's a true cop-out to blame video games, since they are the natural offshoot of other media -- media and entertainment btw that is in extremely high demand.
The easiest way to get people facing in one direction is to point out a bogey man. It doesn't seem to have the same weight that it's had in the past though. In the 80s, it was like somebody had discovered a new drug or something. Now it seems like a token effort is being made to "do something", and report on it, but people in general don't believe it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Violent Games don't kill people. Guns Don't Kill People since thats obviously what this is referring to.
Yes the school shootings were tragic, but at the same time its the schools lack of security, and they are actually just as responsible for not protecting the students, even when I was going to school always violence in school, and lack of security, and even the Teacher had a discussion about Terrorisim so I brought it up about violence and what was the school going to do to make us feel safe this was shortly after 9/11 and discussion on it. Nothing was done no security increase nothing.
Even if Guns did not exist there are many ways to commit a crime, or murder these are things that really shouldn't be talked about but consider the fact that almost everything in Real Life can be used as a weapon including everyday items, even Unarmed fighting can turn deadly.
Its not really Guns and Arcades, or Call OF Duty that makes a person violent if that were the case after over years of playing FPS games, and MMO's I would have broke down already, I remember playing games like House OF The Dead since 8 years old, Rampage, and such and never turned out to be a killer..
The Government in my opinion is always trying to find someone to blame, something happens like the Movie Threator Shooting they blame movies, games, entertainment, but really they are just as much at fault for not locking the back door properly, schools are at fault for not having armed security, and proper lockdown procedures and I mean an actual lockdown no one gets in no one gets out type of emergency and I don't mean when they yell code red and the kids get in a corner turn the lights off when all they have to do is break through a small window on the door reach their hand in and open the classroom door that isn't really going to help.
And to even be more specific in some ways even Airport security can be just as bad.
Lets talk about School Security.
Back when I went to school all the students would meet outside and have to wait 30 minutes to actually go to class during the time you were standing around talking, or sitting down. Well This was also the area where the BUS would pull in to drop students off. There were over 300 students there including myself it seem, and two unarmed security guards. What gets me is the fact that some maniac could do a driveby like in Grand Theft Auto on all of us go straight through and there is no real security there to stop them how many students could be harmed.
Yes I have played many violent games Duke Nukem, Counter Strike, and I was 7 years old when I first started playing I am now 22 almost and I learned the difference between games and Real Life long time ago. The only thing now is that violent games have made me more aware of things like I often notice lack of security, sense of security everywhere which it needs to be improved or X type of thing could occur, so its not such a bad thing of course if a person used it the wrong way it could be.
The Second Way violent games have changed me is Self Defense. Act First if being attacked ask questions later.
Guns kill people, this is true, But so do Bow & Arrows with Poision, or TranQ guns which these can be obtained easier and without a license than even a firearm. Also lets not forget our rights which is the right to have arms and the civil war that would start over this if it was actually enforced, a reason I will never support removing all firearms, one day we may need one and we won't have it for who knows why. Even Knives, or box cutters as mentioned above can be used for more than cutting your onions and opening a package.
Guns reguardless in Movies, & Games are going to be a part of everday life what is important is that kids be taught what will happen when you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger, and be taught that people can't respawn in Real Life once they are dead, and the concequence of manslaughter/murder type of thing.
Hopefully common sense will work out in this debate, and nothing too harash will come out of these tragic events.
The only thing I want to see come out of it is Security Improvements in our schools and public areas because no security is bound to be asking for trouble, sure there are Gangs, Terrorists, and Physchopaths out there but there are more who are not than those who are there is no reason to punish the 99%.