Latest Shooting spree now linked to video games

[Edcrab]

Benn is an idiot, pure and simple.

What the media would never do is allow a real, articulate gamer onto the speaker's podium- without subjecting them to peer pressure or overbearing restriction- because they thrive on misrepresentation. The simple fact is my young cousin could explain the basics to anyone with half a brain. Hell, anyone with half a brain could explain the basics to anyone with a quarter of a brain.

Instread we get knee-jerk reactions and sensationalism from people who are hopelessly, hopelessly ignorant. By all means, blame the parents for bringing their children such games, blame the parents for directing the responsibility away from themselves, blame retaillers who openly break the law by not asking for ID- but don't blame the games themselves for your own disgusting stupidity and failings.

 

[ríomhaire]

blame retaillers who openly break the law by not asking for ID

Sorry to keep bring up Irish law but there are no laws in Ireland restricting retailers from selling any game to anyone. A game could be rated 18 but a 2 year old could legaly buy it.

 

[bliink]

Newsflash!
This just in; videogames are to blame for WWII, WWI and all gangland killings in the 20's- it seems that the people involved imagined the violence that could exist in popular 21st century game "Halflife2" and then acted it out in real life!

 

[Edcrab]

Well, I can't speak for Ireland- which I must admit, despite having Irish roots myself, occasionally has pretty damn stupid laws- just for the UK.

Retailers here are expected to treat game ratings like any other form of classification- they're not recommendations, but rules to be followed to the letter.

 

[<RJMC>]

the thing I want to know is why they allways blame videogames why?

sure if the killer say something like "I am doing this cuz someone told me to do it!" or something similiar sure the people will say that videogames make him do it

cuz that guy did it cuz he was angry and not just cuz he played a videogame

"oh Grand theft auto -1 minute after playing- I must kill people"

and I think a "association" or whatever against this blamers wil be a good idea,cuz are some websites against videogames so why nto make one against that idiots

 

[Calanen]

Its not video games that make people shoot others or commit acts of violence. Otherwise the whole of the USA (and most of Europe) would be one massive riot.

It seems that people go on shooting sprees normally when they feel powerless. Like when they lose their job, or when they are bullied and teased in High School. Not everyone or even close to a significant number do this, but some do.

But - at both work and school - if people treat others with severe disregard for what they may do, then sometimes, they may snap. Its better to always treat people humanely, even if you have to fire them. A union official said to me one time 'You think people will always hate you for sacking them - they won't - its just all about the way you do it.'

When I was at school there was a weird kid who wondered around talking to himself and reading novels which no one could drag him away from no matter what was going on. I think he may have been an undiagnosed schizophrenic. Of course every1 teased him and he was bullied mercilessly. I said to one of my friends at the time, 'He will either end up killing himself or killing a whole bunch of other people'. I had forgotten that I had said this, but was later reminded of it.

It turns out I was right on both scores. He eventually committed suicide by jumping off the roof of a psychiatric hospital. After he did so, another friend of mine said he had once brought a rifle in a bag to school and was going to shoot people with it. The friend calmed him down, made him take the rifle home, and forget about it. He did not say anything about it at the time, because he said 'I thought he had enough trouble in his life, and he did go to a psychiatrist after that'.

But shortly thereafter he was dead. And you know what? Very few people cared - and many thought it was amusing.

So I guess the bottom line is - perhaps there will be always crazy peopple that go on shooting sprees. But how many less people will there be who shoot others, if we treat each other more humanely and with compassion?

 

[Edcrab]

Video games are invariably the target of industrial-strength responsibility shifters merely because they're the least understood and most misrepresented facet of the entertainment industry.

For some reason, it's fine to lose yourself in a book or a film, but not indulge in interactive escapism.

Television was demonised and labelled a "brain-rotter" during its early boom (which is ironic considering some of the drivel on our screens these days) so there's some hope that, someday, video games will be largely accepted into society without a tabloid backlash.

And then the next target will be immersive simulations, or some such.

 

[mortiz]

pff, it has nothing to do with video games, one of the shootists went on neo-nazi message boards and said he admired Adolf Hitler for God's sake.

 

[Laivasse]

Its not video games that make people shoot others or commit acts of violence. Otherwise the whole of the USA (and most of Europe) would be one massive riot.

It seems that people go on shooting sprees normally when they feel powerless. Like when they lose their job, or when they are bullied and teased in High School. Not everyone or even close to a significant number do this, but some do.

But - at both work and school - if people treat others with severe disregard for what they may do, then sometimes, they may snap. Its better to always treat people humanely, even if you have to fire them. A union official said to me one time 'You think people will always hate you for sacking them - they won't - its just all about the way you do it.'

When I was at school there was a weird kid who wondered around talking to himself and reading novels which no one could drag him away from no matter what was going on. I think he may have been an undiagnosed schizophrenic. Of course every1 teased him and he was bullied mercilessly. I said to one of my friends at the time, 'He will either end up killing himself or killing a whole bunch of other people'. I had forgotten that I had said this, but was later reminded of it.

It turns out I was right on both scores. He eventually committed suicide by jumping off the roof of a psychiatric hospital. After he did so, another friend of mine said he had once brought a rifle in a bag to school and was going to shoot people with it. The friend calmed him down, made him take the rifle home, and forget about it. He did not say anything about it at the time, because he said 'I thought he had enough trouble in his life, and he did go to a psychiatrist after that'.

But shortly thereafter he was dead. And you know what? Very few people cared - and many thought it was amusing.

So I guess the bottom line is - perhaps there will be always crazy peopple that go on shooting sprees. But how many less people will there be who shoot others, if we treat each other more humanely and with compassion?

There's a lot of truth here. The real damage that is done to emotionally precarious people is not done by TV, or games or any form of media - it's done through interaction with other people. An emotional knockback, bullying, losing your job, whatever...to some people it can feel like the last link in a 100-part curse, feeling like the entire universe exists only to piss on them, and the only way out of the cycle is getting back at it through destruction of themselves and others. I doubt that seeing Gordon Freeman take down a few aliens makes the blindest bit of difference to that.

It is easier to pull a generic scapegoat like videogames out of your arse than it is to act in a more compassionate way towards those stuck on the sole of life's shoe. And so people build complicated censorship systems which they claim protect vulnerable minds, but don't do any such thing when they're so ridiculous that 16 year olds can't watch penetration scenes despite being able to legally have sex.

The moral majority simply reacts strongest to that which they cannot understand or which makes them feel uncomfortable. They don't understand games, so they fear them and attack them.

 

[Zeus]

pff, it has nothing to do with video games, one of the shootists went on neo-nazi message boards and said he admired Adolf Hitler for God's sake.

yeah exactly these blames are unwarranted

 

[Computer5k]

Alrighty boys, listen carefully, I'm only going to say this once.

www.gamersalliance.org

 

[Edcrab]

Yes, I'm happy that such sites exist, and that they're populated by sensible people- but reading that it makes me wish he had a good editor

I can picture the media's next attack- "games make you spell 'the' 'teh'!!"... they'd be very likely to stick stubbornly to semantics rather than real issues.

 

[Zeus]

Alrighty boys, listen carefully, I'm only going to say this once.

www.gamersalliance.org

Wow, good to see some decent human beings on this earth.