The Video Game Critic

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 2:03 pm**

I'm ambivalent about gun control, but I think we've lost sight of my point.

We are taking the absolute worst aspects of reality: war and violence... and making nearly photo-realistic simulations of them and selling them as "entertainment". Soon we won't be able to distinguish between a picture of an actual dead person, and a computer generated one.

Now, should this really be our escape from reality: reality at its worst?

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 2:15 pm**

Was it even stated if this person was an avid game player? If it was I'm surprised I haven't heard about it yet. The only people I've heard ring in on connecting this tragedy to gaming is Dr. Phil and good old Jacky boy. This was shortly after the shootings too, before we even knew who did it.

The games don't disgust me... the guns don't frighten me... the only thing that really gets to me is people that like to cash in on this kind of event. Maybe not monetarily but some people will do absolutely anything they can to further their own political agenda and that's exactly what is being done.

I have a large distaste for anyone that tries to capitalize on other's suffering and anyway you slice it this guy is doing just that. So whether you're an anti gun activist or an anti violent video games/media person, there's no excuse to use this event to further your own personal agenda.

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 3:34 pm**

[QUOTE=bluemonkey]mozart the fact is that these crimes wouldn't happen if it was not for the US's gun laws. In the UK we had the Dunblane massacre and that was it. You choose to live in a place where guns are so readily accessible then you have to accept the fact that school shootings are inevitable.[/QUOTE]

No Bluemonkey, you are dead wrong. I don't get that choice ESPECIALLY in Virginia, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country -- gun laws that on a first offense can lead to exile from the State. I hold the people responsible who do the harm -- no more and no less. And I never use that kind of incident to justify violence against individuals who DID NO HARM TO ANYONE.

The fact is that, especially in that part of Virginia, a place I grew up in and lived within for 20 years of my life, I had a severe problem getting a gun despite the fact that I have no criminal record. In most cases, to get a firearm legally you must go through a background check and petition a judge. For at least 10 years in my district, the judge gave out so few firearms licenses a year that practically everyone was denied, until the NRA had to sue that particular judge. During that time, by the way, violent crimes committed in that area with a firearm almost doubled.

And of course, that's exactly what any rational person should expect to happen. Any deranged individual who wanted to murder a bunch of people to make some asanine point would likely pick a school or a public place that has a ban on guns -- like, oh, say ... Virginia Tech. Why not? Nobody is armed, even most of the security guards. Students were banned from bringing guns to campus years ago, and since that time gun crime on campus has escalated.

This incident is particularly bitter to me for a couple of reasons. About a year ago, a criminal came on campus with an imported gun and tried to do the same thing that happened just now. Suddenly, parents and students began to insist that the school not willfully disarm them when they were on that campus, because it puts them at a disadvantage to criminals who pick a campus like VT as easy pickings. A resolution came very close to passing, but partly because of yokuls like the Campus Coordinator, who insisted that guns remain banned to make the campus safe, the measure failed.

We see the result of that failure to pass now.

I look forward to the day when a rational gun policy again visits Southwestern Virginia, a place that holds deep significance for me, again -- so that when my niece and nephew attend, they can do so armed without fear that they will be arrested and imprisoned for trying to keep themselves safe, and so that when some other nutball comes onto campus with an agenda to make an example of 33 students, all 33 students can make an example of him instead.

Assuming for a moment that I accept your Platonian concept of blame, as I see it, quite adamently in fact, it is you and your ilk that must take responsibility -- for disarming victims to the pleasure of their predators, for becoming a predator/supporting predators yourselves by disarming them in the first place on threat of having their lives ruined by a jail term and a felony record for what amounts to a crime in name only, and most of all, for doing so with full and proliferated use of the iconoclastic symbol of your hatred, guns -- only this time in the hands of happy-go-lucky policemen, who [SARCASM]never violate rights[/SARCASM]. It is on YOUR head, not mine.

By the way, to those who are interested, here are relevant articles recently from people who on such campuses, who see the problem exactly this way. Enjoy:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/clarke1.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/04/18/2007-04-18_people_dont_stop_killers_people_with_gun.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts204.html

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 4:38 pm**

There is just too many shooter games on the market that are during WW2. For the new generation of graphics except the Wii, the graphics by looking at the pictures look real. Imagine what would all those war shooting series would look when released

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 4:39 pm**

Guns are not to blame. Overmedicating America is to blame. Most of America is depressed, and all doctors can do is prescribe medication instead of addressing real issues.

FUNK

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 5:59 pm**

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]Guns are not to blame. Overmedicating America is to blame. Most of America is depressed, and all doctors can do is prescribe medication instead of addressing real issues.

FUNK
[/QUOTE]
Sorry to sidetrack the thread along with everyone else (so is it sidetracking?) but Funk, you just addressed my number one pet peeve. I'm not saying this was the cause in this case, bu man if American and Canadian society get any more obbsessed with drugging themselves, we'll be buried under drugs.

As for the "guns create volence" and "bannng guns increases violence issues", well, they're pretty hard to get here in Canada, and there's not exactly a huge murder rate here. Of course, you can also eat cheese curds on french fries here, hockey is the number one sport, and we eat more donuts per capita than any other country on earth, and I'd hardly make the claim that watching hockey is related to lower levels of violnce, or that donuts cut down on murders.

Hey, maybe it's the free health care. I mean, why shoot anyone if they're just going to get to see some doctors and get fixed right up.

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 8:03 pm**

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]Guns are not to blame. Overmedicating America is to blame. Most of America is depressed, and all doctors can do is prescribe medication instead of addressing real issues.

FUNK
[/QUOTE]

I will agree that when treating depression, you need to address the issues that cause the depression, whether they are external causes or internal causes or both. For a lot of people who are depressed, at least part of the their depression is caused by what's going on in their brain. And the only way to treat this is through anti-depressants. I know because I've been on them for a couple of years now. I might not be here today if it weren't for medication.

And now back to video games. Aren't video games fun?

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 9:02 pm**

[QUOTE=snakeboy]

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]Guns are not to blame. Overmedicating America is to blame. Most of America is depressed, and all doctors can do is prescribe medication instead of addressing real issues.

FUNK
[/QUOTE]

I will agree that when treating depression, you need to address the issues that cause the depression, whether they are external causes or internal causes or both. For a lot of people who are depressed, at least part of the their depression is caused by what's going on in their brain. And the only way to treat this is through anti-depressants. I know because I've been on them for a couple of years now. I might not be here today if it weren't for medication.

[/QUOTE]
The only problem is that now, especially with the free vaccations to tropical paradises they get for reaching a certain "reccomendations" quota, doctors jump right for the pills and forget the other part you mentioned.

My fiancee was having some general medical issues a few months ago. During a checkup her doctor asked if she had been depresesd. She'd done a lot of soul searching about her job lately, her lack of post secondary, etc. As well she'd been sick. Not a word of a lie, she says "yeah, sort of", and goes home with a free three months "trial" of antidepresants. She flushed them down the toilet.

Here's the real kicker: right before she was given the pills her doctor said "do you drink a lot of alcohol, because you shouldn't if you're taking these". My fiancee replied, "no, I don't party much" (because she doesn't and it really isn't her scene). The doctor said "Don't worry, that'll change with these." I swear that is exactly what she said. She honestly assumed that if someone who was so clearly clinically depressed after her "deep evaluation" didn't like parties, it was because she was so clinically depressed.

I was with her, and I'm just finishing up my masters in Psychology, and I was practically boiling by the time we left. It was everything I could not to quack on the way out the door. Getting prescribed antidepressents from a "family" type doctor is like getting a computer from a shoe store. I mean, I didn't just wrap up 7 years of education in one field and then think it's okay for someone with no education in the field to go playng around in it. Dr. Feelgood there with his eight minutes of psychological training certainly shouldn't be messing with people's synapses.

Posted: **April 19th, 2007, 10:48 pm**

Atarifever, I'm sure that there are some quacks out there. And you're right. Going to a family doctor to treat depression is not the best way to do it, but I'm sure there are lots of people who do this rather than seeing a psychiatrist.

And, now, on to video games. I've been playing the NES a lot lately. Man, I love that machine.

Posted: **April 20th, 2007, 3:46 am**

Actually we had a US politician on Channel 4 news saying how in some gun shows you don't have background checks. Hence the story about the guy who bought 87 handguns without having to give his details. So yes what I said is true.

Still you guys are welcome to your pro-gun culture it's you who will be the one's who suffer in the end.

The Video Game Critic

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters

Disgusted at realistic shooters