Game Violence

Rob — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:05:26 +0000

Lately I've been thinking quite a bit about violence in games. It's a topic that's been at the forefront of the media many times in the last few years and it's pretty much taken over from Rock 'n Roll as the number one suspect for the random killing sprees that we occasionally see tumble across the Media wasteland.

Most recently, German retailer Kaufhof has come out and publicly stated that they will no longer be stocking any games or films that are violent. It was with considerable dread that I read this article and with even more annoyance that I read the fatal words "who was an avid gamer" and knew that there would be the usual backlash on the gamer community.

Being part of a gaming community site I naturally posted the topic for some decent discussion. It's something that's very close to our hearts since the clear message here is we're all complete nutters just waiting to up and slaughter twenty people.

A bloke on the Intertubes posted an interesting example (he is awesome by the way - this is not a scripted testimonial) about how irrational it is to place blame for tragic events such as this at the feet of gaming or even any one source.

Bread is bad for you.

Prove it? Sure!

- 100% of violent criminals eat bread.
- 10 000/10 000 drunk drivers were reported to have consumed bread within 3 days of their accidents
- A census showed that every time a student fails a test, it occurred within 24 hours of eating bread.
- 100% of people developing lung cancer consumed bread throughout at least 50% of their childhood.
- 100% of suicides recorded in 2007 were by people who ate bread on a daily basis.
- 100% of divorced families were in possession of bread in their houses.
- Every recorded commercial airline crash had trace amounts of bread on board.

There you have it folks.

His conclusion is one that I agree with completely as well and I'll use it to finish off this blog. I suppose though that stories with the headlines "Horrendously bad parenting contributes to bad children" just don't sell as well as sensationalist crap.

I mean really now ... sure the kid PLAYED games... even a lot of it. But if they want to point a finger at gaming, I want them to perform a study where a perfectly sane kid goes mental after playing games & watching violent movies for 5 years. Until then...

STFU!

Idiots. (that last bit is mine)

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Game Violence