You know, it takes a lot to piss me off.
However, on April 23rd, The American Psychological Association released a study they conducted. They found that violent video games do in fact incite violence in children. http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp784772.html
I am now officially pissed off.
"On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves. Although it is impossible to know exactly what caused these teens to attack their own classmates and teachers, a number of factors probably were involved. One possible contributing factor is violent video games. Harris and Klebold enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-'em-up video game Doom, a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Internet hate groups, found in its archives a copy of Harris' web site with a version of Doom that he had customized. In his version there are two shooters, each with extra weapons and unlimited ammunition, and the other people in the game can't fight back. For a class project, Harris and Klebold made a videotape that was similar to their customized version of Doom. In the video, Harris and Klebold dress in trench coats, carry guns, and kill school athletes. They acted out their videotaped performance in real life less than a year later. An investigator associated with the Wiesenthal Center said Harris and Klebold were "playing out their game in God mode" (Pooley, 1999, p. 32)."
I being an avid player of video games since the age of 3, when I picked up my Nintendo controller and guided Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom, and also being a programmer for a Post WW3 MUD called Desolation, take the assault on video games very personally. I've played Wolfenstein, killing Nazi bastard after Nazi bastard. I've played Doom, guiding the hero out of the depths of Hell, and saving the world. I've played Quake, however the story line on that was so shoddy, I don't know what I was doing. I've played Quake 2, leading the one man assault against the alien Stroggos. I've played Quake 3, climbing the ladder in the Arena Eternal. I could go on forever about the games I've played, and the plots I waded through in each adventure, but there is one important fact that holds true throughout every game. They are games. Period.
Never, not once, not ever, have I felt the urge to kill someone, because of a game. And I am sick, and tired, and disgusted, with the people who afraid of the real problem to face it, and instead search out a scapegoat to point the blame on. Be it the music of the times, the TV, the movies, or the video games, all of them have been and continue to be the scapegoats for violent behavior.
Hey, what about books and literature? Using this same line of thinking, is it conceivable that a Stephen King novel could inspire acts of violence? Could a man be driven to kill his brother, from a passage he read from the Bible? Could reading the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin lead you to hate African-Americans? Could you be more prone to insult someone because of their intelligence, because of reading Of Mice and Men?
Peoples actions are their own. Their own disposition to violence will lead them to make a decision. Factors will help determine their decision, some of these factors may be how they were raised, how they were taught. Other factors may be things they see on TV, or things they read. But ultimately, the decision to commit an act of violence was their own. The game didn't make them kill someone, the movie didn't make them rape someone. Much as the old saying, guns don't kill people, people kill people.
However, there are those cases, such as a man in Brazil, who opened fire in a movie theatre. Before his attack, he was in the rest room of the theatre, and it was said he smashed open the mirror, looking for "goodies." Much the same as in a level from Duke Nuk'em, that takes place in a movie theatre, and if you shatter the mirror in the rest room, you can find some "goodies." While, yes, I will admit, the game did influence it, would also like to point out that the man who done the shooting was found to have high levels of various mind altering drugs flowing through his veins. But it's easier to blame the game then it is to blame the drugs, so the media took that route.
A lot of people say, that because games are so graphic, so real, that they encourage violence. Games are so realistic, that it's hard for some to see the difference between fantasy and reality. You know, they do have a point, because I know every day when I walk out on the street, I see hell demon after hell demon, and legions of blood thirsty zombies. Why, if I had a dime for every BFG, rocket launcher, spike mine, plasma rifle, and rail gun that I've seen in the real world. And you should see the stockpile of artifacts I keep in my garage, the invisibility rings, the haste power ups, the damage amplifiers, oh and don't forget the mega health.
I believe if you cannot distinguish the line between fantasy, and reality; If you believe that killing a cybernetic alien from the planet Stroggos, is just the same as killing Fred the Mailman, then you need help, and you should not play games. I believe that any teen is capable of seeing the difference between a game and reality, and we teens are not spurred to violence because of games.
Also, for quite some time now, a little letter has appeared on every video game sold. That's right, video games have a ratings system, the Entertainment Software Rating Board. eC for pre-school and early childhood games, E for everyone, T for teen, M for mature, and Ao for adults only. These ratings are clearly labeled on each video game sold, and the content of the game is explained along with the rating. These ratings were set up to inform the public about the games they are buying and to help them make better choices. However, I notice every time violence in games comes up, these ratings are ignored.
I am tired of everyone making teenagers out to be mindless drones of the media, following their Pied Piper song of sex, language, and violence like mindless mice. We are not incompetent, or incapable of intelligent thought, or intelligent decisions. We are people too, and we're tired of being told what influences us. Basically, what I am trying to say is this. We are all individuals, each with our own likes, dislikes, and we are influenced differently. To label one thing, video games, as the root of all evil, is absurd, and wrong.
