Annnnnnnnnnnnd they're trying to scapegoat "violent videogames" (CT shooting)

[Nico Olvia]

Medias do have an influence on people. I mean, there is people who for example picked a career choice because of a movie, or a tv show.

That's example of good (i hope for them) influence but if a good influence is possible then it's only logical to assume that a bad one is just as possible.

A book can change a whole life. Lot of people have been deeply influenced, positively i think, by Albert Camus or Rimbaud or again Voltaire for example. As some people have become dangerous weirdos after reading some religious text or mein kampf.

I don't know any video game who can have that kind of strong influence for being honest but who knows what kind of thing can cross a fragile mind.

[idlewildered]

Sadly, this type of atrocity can't be blamed on non-personal external influence.

I don't think political parties, or the media set out with an agenda of hating and blaming video games, music artists etc, it's just really a means of making them feel better about a situation that we are unable to rationalise.

It's far too difficult for people to look at this type of tragedy being inexplicable and unpreventable, it's much easier for people to cling on to the hope that something this terrible can be blamed on an external factor. If it can, then perhaps we can prevent it happening next time.

Sadly they're looking in the wrong places for a solution.

[Songbird/Diamondback]

I'm not gonna sit here & tell you that there aren't excessive amounts of violence in all types of media BUT these nutcases by & large aren't going out there doing this crap because they played too many FPS or saw too many movies with excessive gun violence, or they listened to violent music alot. Point blank these people are either sick in the head or evil & these types of rampage killings have been happening a looooooooooooooooong time before these politicians had violent videogames or media to attempt to use as convenient scapegoats.

I still think it's an over glorification.

Biggest example? The God of War games. There is a moment where you shove Poseidon's crying wife, who is begging for her life, into a giant turning wheel to hold a door open, and you hear her get crushed as you step though a door, but it's okay, cause the little girl is on the other side treating you like a good person.

Right there is an over glorification of death.

[idlewildered]

I still think it's an over glorification.

Biggest example? The God of War games. There is a moment where you shove Poseidon's crying wife, who is begging for her life, into a giant turning wheel to hold a door open, and you hear her get crushed as you step though a door, but it's okay, cause the little girl is on the other side treating you like a good person.

Right there is an over glorification of death.

why would someone concerned with the over glorification of violence play God of War?

[Songbird/Diamondback]

why would someone concerned with the over glorification of violence play God of War?

I played the first one. I've seen that scene from the third one.

I'm just saying, with that guys mindset, I can totally see him going off the rails on an adrenaline rush.

[idlewildered]

I played the first one. I've seen that scene from the third one.

I'm just saying, with that guys mindset, I can totally see him going off the rails on an adrenaline rush.

Severe mental health issues aren't caused by the playing of computer games or any other factor at that stage in life. They are deep rooted, psychological issues, brought to a head over a period of years, usually decades. They are not someone kicking off after a hefty COD session.

[SteveGus]

I'm not sure that the content of our culture and media is entirely blameless. But the first link in the chain is the media itself, which confers the mantle of Celebrity on any murderer whose crime is sensational enough. The media buzzards in Newtown are quite extreme and exceed the bounds of propriety in my opinion.

They manage to make these killers into antiheroes, and there are indeed too many antiheroes and a paranoid streak a mile long in contemporary American mass culture. I see this as a problem.

[darkmetal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSBn77_h_6Q

I found this very interesting on the subject of violence in games.

I think at the end of the day he was a point,it just how games are designed and how they are produced.Only way to do that is trying to fix the computers CPU and well that is tough because computers are not human.

[dupersuper]

http://news.yahoo.com/congressional-...-politics.html


"Congressional gun rights supporters showed an increased willingness Tuesday to consider new legislation to control firearms in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shootings — provided it also addresses mental health issues and the impact of violent video games."

The last comparison of yearly gun deaths I saw had Canada at 52 that year, and the U.S. at 10,700 and some. Despite all the video games we play, we Canadians some how manage not to blow ourselves away...

[darkmetal]

The last comparison of yearly gun deaths I saw had Canada at 52 that year, and the U.S. at 10,700 and some. Despite all the video games we play, we Canadians some how manage not to blow ourselves away...

let put this to perspective my Canadian friend our population and size can also tribute to less deaths,our country is also has better gun laws then the states do.

[goosey13]

Plus you guys got chainsaws and axes and woodchippers and attack polar bears and stuff. Guns would just be a boring way to off a mofo.

[darkmetal]

Plus you guys got chainsaws and axes and woodchippers and attack polar bears and stuff. Guns would just be a boring way to off a mofo.

thanks for that stereotype.

[goosey13]

thanks for that stereotype.

Joking of course. Your country seems mostly awesome and I would like to check it out sometime.

[SINNER]

there was gun violence like this long before the first violent video game came to play. a sick mind is a sick mind and eradicating violence in video games is not the cure. any healthy sane person can tell the difference between entertainment and the real world. in fact, i believe its been proven that getting to blow stuff up in video games is a good stress relief. so the source of the problem is not the violence in video games... it's the individual.

i've been playing violent video games (starting with moral kombat 1) since i was 5 years old and doing something like the CT shooting has NEVER crossed my mind and i've no interest in owning a gun. so no. think again.

[idlewildered]

there was gun violence like this long before the first violent video game came to play. a sick mind is a sick mind and eradicating violence in video games is not the cure. any healthy sane person can tell the difference between entertainment and the real world. in fact, i believe its been proven that getting to blow stuff up in video games is a good stress relief. so the source of the problem is not the violence in video games... it's the individual.

i've been playing violent video games (starting with moral kombat 1) since i was 5 years old and doing something like the CT shooting has NEVER crossed my mind and i've no interest in owning a gun. so no. think again.

I think the point is the affect that violent video games have on the fragile mind rather than the collective as a whole.

As before, I don't believe the two are related. Violent imagery has been part of any form of entertainment since the dawn of time. Hell, look at the old testament if you want disturbing! Spree killers have existed almost as long as man has been around and from what I can see, it's not like the numbers have climbed since the introduction of violent video games.

As I said, it's just easier for people to cling on to the hope that these things happen due to an external influence we can remove and therefore stop these tragedies happening. It's just not the case. The last few spree killers in the UK for example haven't been young, potential gamers, violent film watchers. They were just severely disturbed people who were failed by the systems we have in place available to the mental health profession. Even in Scotland, it wasn't all that long ago that we had one of our worst tragedies in Dunblane and our mental health service is purportedly excellent here.

Sadly people will always fall through the cracks and commit atrocities. We just live in a society that can't pass it off as demonic possession or true evil now. We have to look for solutions, of course we do, but those solutions lie in funding for social workers, counsellors, healthcare, they're not going to be found by removing certain forms of entertainment.

Sorry I'm rambling, I've been thinking about this a lot over the last week.