Virtual Warfare
On April 16th, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho massacred 32 people in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He then killed himself.
Jack Thompson, a US lawyer with a vendetta against Take Two Interactive, immediately proclaimed Cho had trained for committing the massacre in the game Counter-Strike. It seemed the answer was found. How could someone have committed such a heinous act? He had trainedon Counter Strike, lowering his inhibitions towards killing. Thompson was a genius. Just one problem.
Thompson made this allegation long before Cho had ever been identified as the killer. And upon searching his room police found no violent or war games. Cho played Sonic. He used his computer to write fiction, not practice killing. Thompson disputed these claims on the grounds that:
“Cho was able to go room to room calmly, efficiently, coolly killing people.”
Guess what? The method and calmness with which Cho killed those people is a sign of Blunted Affect, a psychiatric disorder, a sign of Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, not video games.
The fact is our society is seeking for easier ways to explain the reasons people do these things. It’s becoming taboo to accept the fact that some people are just more willing and driven to kill than others. If someone’s not happy there has to be a reason right? Wrong.
No one is more worried about this phantom affect of Video Games than parents. It seems that if children play violent video games then they’re going to grow up to be violent killers and abusers. Not so. The fact is that there are plenty of laws in place to protect children from violence, be it in video games, movies or on TV. If you, as parents, are not willing to uphold these laws then you have no one but yourself to blame. But even if you don’t, it’s highly unlikely that these forms of mere entertainment will psychologically damage your child. At the age that they can be affected to such a degree, it is your responsibilty to uphold the law and ensure that your own child does not get exposed to things like 18s movies or games. And if beyond the point where they are still learning about the world they cannot differentiate between reality and what is fake entertainment then there is something wrong with them. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.
Let’s take a look at just a handful of violence that I’ve been exposed to:
- Killzone 2 (hailed as the most realistic wargame ever created)
- GTA IV
- Counter Strike
- Battlefield 2
- The Saw movies
- The Hostel movies
Need I say more? Have I ever killed anyone? No. Have ever planned on killing anyone? No. yes, some people will play games and go on to kill, but they constitute an extremely small minority. The media just blows it all out of proportion to get more sales. fear = Profit.
Here’s some stories for you:
- Girl Saves Family from burning Car. Learned from GTA
- Boy saves sister from moose using skills learned in WoW.
I can understand parents being over protective of their children, but there is a line. Research shows that children who don’t play vdeo games, in an environment where their peers do, tend to be excluded from normal social activities. They become outcasts, and that has a much greater push on them to kill than any amount of video games.
Thanks for the comment back on LoaTW.
Ya, I totally agree with this. People that say that video game violence leds to killing are being kind of rediculous. I could say the same thing about the news…as all that seems to air is people dieing, sex, and drugs.
I would however warn those that are letting their kids start out too young… Some games (not all) can sycologicly mess kids up, and should wait till a later age to be played.