Violence: Blame It On The Video Games

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Category: Thoughts

Published on Wednesday, 26 December 2012 22:30

Written by Erik Brown

With all the craziness happening in the with the world today, I mean crazy school shooting and weirdos making it unsafe to the movies or malls, the worlds needs a scapegoat. And, who else better then the video game industry.

It's been pretty hard to miss the the sad events that have been going on for the past few months. With the President crying on TV while giving a speech, its kind of hard for you not to feel sad, and hold your children extra close. I was right on the same level with everyone. Until, they started blaming violence in video games for the violence that had happened in the past few months.

It started with a "study" they did. I guess they had a group of gamers and none gamers, and had some sort of violent act happen in front of them. From this "study" they concluded that gamers are more likely not to help someone in the middle of a violent act. The word they used was "desensitized". So as soon as you become a gamer, you are automatically "desensitized" to violence. It's funny though with all the violent shootings they have blamed on video games, I have yet to see anyone walk into a public place and try gunning someone down with a game controller yet.

Hey, remember this rating system we have. Well, there's a reason for it. If you child isn't old enough to play mature rated games, then don't let them. It's that simple. It's only one way a 14 year old kid can get it, and that's the parents. If you pay attention to what your child watches, you should also be paying attention to the games they play.

They always seem to beat down on video games on the negative side. With all the negative studies and facts, but they never show the other side of it. You never hear about stories like Alfred Gamble. For those of you who don't know, Alfred Gamble was a man who wrote letters to the makers of Oddworld Abe's Oddysee back in 1998. He had just lost his wife and felt like taking his own life. On a whim, or fate, or whatever you like to call it. He went out and purchased a PlayStation and a couple of games. One among them being Oddworld Abe's Oddysee. That game brought new life and joy to him. Afterwards he continued to right letters describing his game playing adventures. He passed away in 2006, still a gamer in his old age. Oddworld and Lara Croft Tomb Raider were some of his favorite games to play.

In my opinion(if you haven't already guessed) to blame violent behavior on video games is sign of a weak and stupid mind, and also a sign you don't know your child's state of mind. Looking for a reason an insane person does insane things is just insane. These people who perform these acts are disturbed, and should have been given the helped they needed far in advance. Blaming games is just what people who seem to have no answers do. Anything can be taken the wrong way, and used in negativity. Like anything movies, music, photographs. Video games are an art that can reach people on a more personal level then any other media known to man. It's a very powerful tool, and used the right way it can bring worlds and people together over that would normally never meet. Putting real world violence all on the shoulders of the video game industry doesn't make sense. Not when they can get their violence fix from so many other places. It just doesn't equal up people. The blame game never works.

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