Blaming Video Games

[spydermal]

I admit some are gory as hell, and have obscene images but is it appropriate to really blame the games?? Recently a teen some where i believe in the Uk was murdered my his friend with a hammer, and now there blamming the game the suffering for his death and want it banned. I think its parents and the government just looking for a scapegoat, i mean im a fan of almost all kinds of video games, and ive never had a thought of killing anybody or hurting anything. what are your thoughts. I also think parents are a big responsibility, i mean the games a rated for a reason, yet they let there child rent them and then blame them after for being gory.

[Calgary Flames]

It isn't the games, it's the parents for not telling them about the values of life. What is real and what isn't...

[BlackArcher101]

I believe that games are both good and bad.

No, they don't make us shoot someone or become more violent.
Yes, they make some kids zombies and keep them from experiencing real life.
Yes, they offer great entertainment
Yes, they de-sensitize a person

Personally, the last one is the biggest problem for me. All these years of "killing" things on the screen, I have become somewhat desensitized to someone dying in real life. I actually have more emotion when the Flames lose than when someone I know dies. It's actually pissing me off. I'll go to a funeral and not break a single tear. I look out of place. That's my biggest beef about them.

[peter12]

Thats not it man. I guarantee if someone was gunned down right in front of you with a shotgun you would be emotionally moved.
This blame game stuff is bull####.

If its true that kids follow video games as examples than their would be about 200 million child on child murders a month.

[JohnnyO]

I would say TV and the media is more to blame. Ever watch a happy newscast?

Also parents who don't talk/spend time with their kids are to blame. As well as parents not setting rules and sticking to them, I would also add a good spanking now and then would help.

[MrMastodonFarm]

I will revert to the comedic geniuse of one David Cross when talking about video games and violence.

I'm sorry, but what violent game did Hitler play before... oh ya.. nothing? And what.. what disturbing video did Josef Stalin watch before.. oh ya.. he didn't

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by peter12@Jul 29 2004, 03:06 PM
Thats not it man. I guarantee if someone was gunned down right in front of you with a shotgun you would be emotionally moved.
This blame game stuff is bull####.

If its true that kids follow video games as examples than their would be about 200 million child on child murders a month.

Honest, I don't have feelings for something dying anymore.

When I worked the highways, I was standing on the shoulder and some dog was following us for the past 2 hours.
Suddenly a car came past at 120km/h and the dog ran out in front of it. I saw the whole thing in slow motion, I can still remember the Yelp from the dog and the dog flying through the air barely missing me.

I could go into detail, but I won't. It tried to live for 1 hour, but I didn't shed a tear... nothing, notta... hell, even the other construction guys were sad, but not me.

I was beside my grandmothers bed when she passed away. I didn't shed a tear there either. It's like I've lost that feeling completely.

[peter12]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101+Jul 29 2004, 01:13 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BlackArcher101 @ Jul 29 2004, 01:13 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-peter12@Jul 29 2004, 03:06 PM
Thats not it man. I guarantee if someone was gunned down right in front of you with a shotgun you would be emotionally moved.
This blame game stuff is bull####.

If its true that kids follow video games as examples than their would be about 200 million child on child murders a month.

Honest, I don't have feelings for something dying anymore.

When I worked the highways, I was standing on the shoulder and some dog was following us for the past 2 hours.
Suddenly a car came past at 120km/h and the dog ran out in front of it. I saw the whole thing in slow motion, I can still remember the Yelp from the dog and the dog flying through the air barely missing me.

I could go into detail, but I won't. It tried to live for 1 hour, but I didn't shed a tear... nothing, notta... hell, even the other construction guys were sad, but not me.

I was beside my grandmothers bed when she passed away. I didn't shed a tear there either. It's like I've lost that feeling completely. [/b][/quote]
Uhh than you might want to maybe see like a psychologist or something. Next Hannibal Lector?

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by peter12@Jul 29 2004, 03:16 PM
Uhh than you might want to maybe see like a psychologist or something. Next Hannibal Lector?

Hmmm, perhaps you're right. But the big difference between Dr Lector and me is that I don't kill.

[spydermal]

....................yet. It may not be the games, it may just be who you are. I always get sad seeing animals and people dying for no reason. I love my dog so much, they truely are mans best friend.

[Calgary Flames]

Yeah sorry BlackArcher, but i've played games my entire life and I don't feel like my emotions have been shattered...

[Reaper]

I don't play video games (sorry, too boring for me) but I also don't think that they cause people to behave violently.

If someone has it in them to kill another person then the most a video game can do is give them the idea of how they would do it. It's not the reason, it's the method.

[calculoso]

I think it's all about desensitization. Violent video games, violent movies, and (perhaps mostly) news broadcasts has caused society en masse to be desensitized to violence. Things that used to shock and dismay people are now just sluffed off as normal.

I, for one, don't think this is a good trend.

[BlackArcher101]

The way I am now is not because "That the way I just am"
I used to be very emotional, but now if it involves something living/was living, then I have nothing.

If I were to see a person get hit by a car, I would think "Geez, that's too bad". I wouldn't freak out. I truly am desensitized to violence/death.

[Inferno]

Blaming games is just an excuse. The person is screwed up before they even play the game. I play alot of gory games and I'm currently playing the game that they're blaming that UK murder on(Manhunt) and though I do think the game is cool based on how gory it is not once have I thought about using someone's head as a baseball.

[octothorp]

I hadn't heard about this story so I had to go find some more details on it. Here's a link on the BBC site for anyone interested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicest...ire/3934277.stm

When I was young, I would play Tetris so much that when I would go to bed and close my eyes, I would see Tetris, literally. I would dream Tetris. Obviously, the game had lodged itself somewhere deep in my psyche. Now, Tetris was a fairly innocent game (though it gives me pause to wonder, what happened to the blocks when they were deleted, and did it hurt them?), but I can imagine that one would get the same effect from playing any high-adrenaline game. I think that in high-adrenaline situations, your mind absorbs things at a deeper level--there's a survival instinct at play here. I can imagine an impressionable youth playing a game like this and having some patterns from the game imprinted on him at a very deep level--keeping in mind that some kids are more impressionable than others. When one boy murders another with no apparent motive, and the method of the killing mirrors that of the video-game, one has to suspect that the video-game something to do with his actions. He was probably a messed-up kid with some dark fantasies before playing the game, but the game encouraged those patterns.

[RougeUnderoos]

Not this again. It's about time we put a stop to this "blame video games blame television blame the parents" business and lay the blame where we all know it really belongs: Judas Priest.