Violent Video Games: A Change in Public Opinion

Andrew Bergmark of Original-Gamer.com: Just as all art forms are construed by those in power or those with a large enough voice, a second judgement comes upon my favorite way of escaping from the world: video games.

[Reborn]

Why does it still seem that people are trying to avoid getting to the root of the issue?

The issue isn't the games. It's the parents, and the children. Parents should be doing their best to educate their children on what is real/what is not. After all, regardless of what many seem to think. You really are responsible for your own actions.

[thorstein]

ARE YOU CLAIMING THAT THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE IS THE ONE THAT PULLS THE TRIGGER? Wha- wha- WHAT!?!!/sarcasm

Sorry about the caps, I didn't think common sense was so common. Gun control is like putting a bandaid on a severed arm. If you aren't going to take care of the problem then what is the point. Murder is already illegal.

[TacoTaru]

Careful there - it's not PC to say things about all the fatherless households where most of the violent ones grow up. It's not PC to say the mentally ill should be forced to be hospitalized and medicated. Video games are moving into the realm of guns - blame them for the mentally unstable causing problems. A normal person in that grows up in a normal environment won't pick up a gun and go on a shooting spree just because there is a gun and they played a violent video game but politicians will feel the need to do something no matter how pointless it is.

[Nes_Daze]

I agree, there is not enough communication between parents and their children in this society, kids look up more to trashy celebs rather than their own parents. The people trying to stop violent video games from being developed should might as well target the music and movie industry next, not to mention any form of violent advertising...they're idiotic.

[DBergmark]

I don't see how I avoided the 'root of the issue'. Every single thing you encounter in your life affects who you become in one way or another: the Butterfly Effect. To ignore this fact is to remove logic completely from the solution. Read the last paragraph again if you disagree with what I said.

[Hicken]

The problem is assuming that video games play a massive part in this shaping. People blaming games for violent acts are saying they override parental responsibility, that they override the knowledge of right and wrong, that they override any sense of morals instilled in a person.

I have, like many, spent decades playing violent video games and watching violent programming. And yet, to this day, I have been involved in... four fights, with only one coming after elementary school. On the other hand, I've DEFUSED more conflicts than I can count. When I was in the throes of my depression, why didn't I take my dad's gun and blow away people bullying me at school?

Yes, many of the things you encounter affect you. But there's entirely too much that should be placed in front of "video games" on the list of influences in your life. And, right now, that's not how mass media is portraying it.

[DBergmark]

@Hicken Again, I don't really see where you guys are striking at the part where I'm saying 'video games play a massive part in this' issue. Every situation you come across makes you understand and determine how you'll encounter another situation like that in the future.

I've been playing games since I could figure out how to hold a NES controller and I've played games as violent as they can be. I've watched military videos for militants be shot and killed. While I can't recall every video game or video I've engaged with, it's made me the reserved person who I am today because I don't want to see someone react that way. When I was told I couldn't play certain games because that's what the Columbine shooters played, it didn't make any sense to me because I never saw shooting anyone in real life as a logical way to end a conflict in any circumstance.

You can't ignore the fact that people you talk to become a part of you as gossip news you read becomes the way you talk. Just because you see it doesn't mean that you'll create it but it may influence your decision making if it maybe entertaining for the circumstance.

To be as PC and straight to the point though: violent video games don't encourage violent behavior directly. You see how characters deal with situations and maybe when you get very emotional you do something you don't mean to. It's not justification that video games are perfectly good but it's not justification to condemn them for what an individual may do from the millions of consumers that had the exact same experience through their televisions.

We need, especially lower IQ people, to get educated on the books, movies & TV we consume to understand they are just stories and they shouldn't be inspiration for acts when they tilt back and forth between different sides of legality. You can't blame the media for the way games are portrayed because they are bought out by the smartest businessmen this world knows. You have to better yourself to help yourself and your fellow human beings. That's it!