So I was reading this GamePolitics.com article which cited this DenverPost.com article about the recent Colorado shootings by Matthew Murray. As I read them, I kept wondering “Why is this on GamePolitics.com?” and “What does this have to do with gaming?” It got me thinking about the media and folks like Jack “Ass” Thompson. What is it that makes people rush to tie videogames to killers? Not only that, if you read the source information, it would almost seem the “tie” here is that the guy was angry over NOT being able to play them. Does that even count as tying videogames to the murders? Oh, I forgot, merely mentioning them together is probably enough in itself.
What happened to the time where people could just be “crazy”? Why is there this need to analyze and place blame on something? How can videogames make someone a killer? It just seems preposterous to me. Well, on second though, my macaroni and cheese I ate last night caused me to streak up and down my street for 30 minutes. You know… with the strong tie of macaroni being a noodle and “noodle” being a euphemism for, well… you get the drift. And I’m sure you agree with me right? We need to ban macaroni and cheese! Think of the children…
Okay, enough with the silliness (for now). Reading the DenverPost.com article, I notice videogames are mentioned twice, and both by individuals commenting on the situation. Are we now conditioning the public to assume games are related? It seems just like yesterday that the Virginia Tech shootings happened and Jack “Ass” Thompson was pointing the finger at videogames. Now we’ve got people “out in the wild” quick to associate things with videogames that otherwise prove nothing.
If I went around calling myself Duke, would you be able to tell whether I was a fan of John Wayne or 3DRealms’ game character? Online names mean nothing. Hell, mine’s from a psychology teacher I had in college that had an amazing power to put hundreds of people to sleep at 8:00am simply with the power of his voice. Does that make me “psycho”?!
I think we need to be careful of becoming complacent with the notion that there’s always a tie binding murderers and videogames. Keep in mind people were murdering other people LONG before there was ever computers, videogames, movies, television, rock music, hell… I’m sure it happened even before organized religion.
So GamePolitics.com, I’m not quite sure what your intentions were with your article, because as I read the DenverPost.com article, I thought it was just an individual’s odd comment in passing but what you’ve done more than anything (and yes, myself included by writing this) is taken one step further in formalizing the conceptual link of the events that took place recently and the innocent hobby of choice to millions. A hobby fighting for a legitimacy in today’s culture. It seems like every step forward has us sliding back again.
So I ask you, the reader, should we automatically address every high profile murder and discuss whether videogames played a role in the life of the murderer or not or leave the issue alone unless it comes up on its own? And who decides videogames are fair targets yet we don’t see investigations into TV or movie viewing habits or even books and magazines… what are your thoughts?
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9 responses so far ↓
1 lwelyk // Dec 12, 2007 at 3:10 pm
If those quotes were true, his parents were messed up too. Patting him down for DVDs? That’s insane.
But I agree with you, GP is making a mountain out of a molehill here. The article mentions videogames twice. And it never said “VIDEO GAMES CAUSED THIS!” I think GP is going a little too far.
2 Dejanus // Dec 12, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Hell, I agree, Game Politics has gone down the drain lately. I remember when they used to be reliable.
I won’t be going there again unless something changes.
3 Chaser019 // Dec 12, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I agree totally with what your saying Rothbart. Who’s place is it to decide that counterstrike or COD4 or some other game made this kid kill people? If this were the case why in the world have I not snapped and blown away my boss and co-workers yet? I play video games just as much as anyone.
And your right, how in the world could you compare a video game to a movie or a book? “Well it’s because your acutally controlling the guy in the game.” So what? If your not crazy to begin then playing a game isnt going to make you kill people, I’m tired of people saying it will; and just because you can point and click a mouse doesn’t mean you will autoatically know how to use an M16 or an AK IRL…
4 Peter // Dec 12, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I think part of the problem with the site was that Thompson should have been banned a long time ago. I post on Gamepolitics a lot, and it just seems to me that what Thompson wanted to achieve, he has already done.
Basically, he’s made the site paranoid. Dennis McAuley is a good reporter, but he’s spent years being harassed and effectively spammed by Thompson propaganda, almost to the point where he starts automatically defending video gaming before anything has even been accused.
It’s unfortunate because I think it’s affecting the site’s reputation, as other posters here have stated, but people need to learn not to defend until an accusation has actually been made, that way leads to home-made controversy.
5 DemonicDerek // Dec 12, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I think the problem here is that societies throughout the ages have generally been narcissistic. Examples include that humans first thougth the solar system revolved around us, and that when people mathematically proved that wrong they were ridiculed and immediately called a psycho. Now days we realize that is wrong, however there are many other things that happened in the past that can show that societies are generally narcissistic. My point is that since society at the present time is still slightly narcissistic, and so the majority of the people that are included in said society don’t even think about the possibility that it could be either morality issues or even worse that society itself has caused this (through ridicule or harassment etc.). Understanding this you see that since the people won’t take the blame upon themselves or the person they have to blame it upon something else for the most ridiculous reason in the world. I will admit that I sometimes blame things for ridiculous reasons and usually I will state that my blaming is pretty poorly supported. So yeah, people need to learn that very rarely do things outside of society and parenting (parenting is what teaches morality from what I understand) cause issues like this.
DemonicDerek, feel free to correct me if I am wrong about something. However please don’t flamebait in the process.
6 NoneOfYourBusiness // Dec 12, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I wouldn’t mind if video games got bad press, so long as they also get good press at times. You never hear a news outlet comment on a game’s storyline or gameplay, its always “buy this for you kids…its hot”
There are games with better story lines then some best seller books. I couldn’t care less if the media tells the world that certain video games are the anti-christ as long as they balance it out.
7 daz // Dec 13, 2007 at 8:10 am
The most likely place to find serial killers and mass murederers has been thriller/crime/horror writrs, after all they control the characters and make them do most horrible things. What’s more these things are totally their invention in a free sandbox environment. Lately movie creatoes and game designers have joined this sorry lot.
8 irish boy90 // Dec 13, 2007 at 11:08 am
this should be what a lack of videogames does to you
9 denver post // Apr 1, 2008 at 10:46 pm
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