Video Games: The Source Of All Evil?
If you’re a gamer, then you’ve probably heard of Jack Thompson. If you haven’t, well he’s an attorney who is obsessed with getting rid of violent video games and blaming everything that happens on them. His latest push of his anti-video game agenda was a short time after the Virginia Tech massacre. Before they knew that Cho Seung-hui was the shooter, before they knew why, and pretty much before they knew anything specific about the shooting, Jack Thompson was called upon for his expertise (He’s not only a anti-video gaming advocate, he’s also a school shooting expert…). Basically he blamed violent video games for the shootings. Let me state it again…this was before ANY information was known about the killer/motive/etc.. Basically Jack Thompson is so sure that video games are the root of all things evil in the country. Someone with that much of a bias shouldn’t be allowed to present his opinion as a professional one.
I’m going to be laughing my ass off when they find out Cho wasn’t a gamer at all or all he played was Mario or something. But then again I’m sure Jack could link jumping on a Goomba’s head to the largest school shooting in American history.
To say that video games cause violence is completely stupid. Sure, they’ve been a contributing factor, but only because the gamer that did the shooting was psychotic. Millions of people play violent video games and NOTHING happens. Then a handful of crazy people play video games and go off and kill some people and all of a sudden video games are corrupting the minds of the country and training us all to be killers? Its absolute crap.
Tags: Gaming, News, Technology
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Apple, Gaming, News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Good points. I’m an avid gamer (Battlefield 2142 being my current favorite) and previously active duty Army. One of my biggest problems with people like Jack Thompson is that they try to make it sound like these games “trained” people for violence in addition to making them violent, both theories being ridiculous. I can tell you that most FPS games are no help (other then stress relief) when it comes to squad tactics like movement to contact, ambushes, and patrols. A gamers 7.1 surround sound may seem cool, but is nothing in comparison to the noise, smoke, and disorientation that a fire fight produces.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Yeah it bothers me that he refers to the games as training devices. On top of your reasons, I hate that he ignores the fact that these games have storylines and present them as nothing but violence in graphical form. A great example of this is Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Its an amazing game because the story is so great (most of the time. sometimes the story is kinda crappy). But all people like Jack Thompson see when they see San Andreas is the Hot Coffee fiasco, gang violence, and a threat to their uber conservative agenda.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
An argument my dad always makes when get into game violence debates is that violent video games ‘desensitize’ people. I think thats true to a certain point. Im wondering how you would respond to that.
BTW: JT = liberal.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Video games will only desensitize you if you let them. If you let them, they’ll become a priority over everything else and more important things will be cast aside. Happened to me a couple years ago, but I’ve pretty much gotten away from the “addiction”.
But like video games and violence, it has a lot to do with the person.
May 6th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
So when the people can’t play their violent video games, they can go watch TV shows like 24 or movies like Saving Private Ryan and see the shotting and violence protraid by people instead of game characters? Or, you know, watch the evening news and see gas station shottings caught on camera?
May 7th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Well what’s interesting is that over the years I’ve watched a lot of the History Channel. and from it I’ve learned that society seems to blame whatever is big at the time. In the 50’s they blamed comic books for violence, then they moved on to movies, then television, then music, and now it seems we’re at video games. Most likely the next thing will be the internet. I’m amazed the internet hasn’t been blamed for more than it has.