Entertainment easy to blame on?

[Bartman]

Whenever something bad happens like a shooting, someone has to blame it on something easy, like a film, or book and magazine, or TV and especially video games.

What do you think's the problem with this society? Blame something on what happend and you don't have proof?

[VideoGameCritic]

Better yet, blame it on something you don't know much about, and/or fear in some regard.  First it was comic books, then rock and roll.  The media loves to pin blame on rap music even though they don't know anything about it.

But now that gamers are gradually becoming older, I don't think video games will continue to be a big target.

[Steerforth]

Well, its certainly easier for the news media to parade around violent games than take a long hard look at themselves or their affiliates own programming.

I won't stand on a soapbox again on this topic, I reckon I have started to wear thin on a few peoples nerves. But I will give you this example, just in the spirit of looking at both sides.

Take my Dad, now. He is a decent, fair guy, really has no axe to grind on anyone, knows his own business and minds it. But when he sees the level of violence in some of these more extreme games, the blood, the gore, the chopping and shooting, he gets really upset. He cannot fathom this as entertainment for anyone, and because he associates videogames with kids, (and like it or not, teenager are obviously the target driving the content of most these games), he gets pissed, too. He finds it extremely irresponsible, and dangerous and a big negative for society. A lot of people share that attitude, and that is a reality for the videogame industry to deal with. This image problem ain't drawn out of thin air, there is real people who care about it, even if you believe politicians are disingenous and the media is hypocritical.

As for myself, I don't believe a violent game will  program someone to kill. You have to have deeper problems than a game can give you to do that. But I do believe violent games will make people (especially kids) more violent than they would be otherwise. The environment you live in cannot help but shape your life. Thats comomon sense.

Lastly I am sick of violent games because they have been done to death, no pun intended. Time for a new era in gaming, something bright, fun and fresh. FPS and GTA clones have dominated long enough. Just my opinion, and I will not post in this topic again!

[Adamant1]

Make sure to not only blame it on something you know nothing about, but also something your main audience doesn't know anything about either. Sure-fire way to be taken seriously.

[Alienblue]

I'm really not into violent games because they get boring, as pointed out. But I think it is very silly to say they cause violence. First, why an 18-year old man can't kill a sprite on a TV screen but CAN go to war or become a police officer and use deadly force is totally irrational! And IF it was proven that videogames caused violent tendencies, wouldn't the U.S. army use MANHUNT as a training tool to train the "pantywaists" to KILL THE ENEMEY in real life!? Ask someone these questions when they next mention violent videogames.

I'm 40 and I grew up with "comic books are violent, Bugs Bunny cartoons are violent (they even EDITED bugs bunny for saturday morning when I was young-no guns, no anvils, no one geting hurt, NOTHING FUNNY!)... what oh what did the evil people who killed throughout history for greed and sport grow up with!?

For the record the top causes of murder are ALCOHOL, PEER PRESSURE, GREED and simply a warped mind, raised wrong by his parents!But it's so much easier to target Mario then Vodka, gangs or how a child is raised! For the last time videogamers are not violent and if anyone says we are I'LL RIP HIS LUNGS OUT ARGH$%#@&!

[Astrosmasher1]

The trencoat mafia at Columbine played doom not stop for months as such they put the blame against the games door.  I have played doom for years  and I am not a serial killer.  I have not went into my local school with a machine gun and murdered a lot of the pupils.  Why I ask myself.  The reason is that I am not a psychopath.  So I can play violent videogames and not feel the compulsion to kill. 
Games are great and I enjoy them.  That is why I can share my thoughts with you my fellow video game friends.  VCGC is a great site.  Not always do I agree with him but it is good to see someone who likes games as much as me.  More in the case of some of the dreamcast titles.  Less in the case of the 360.  More in the case of the PS3 and the Wii. 

[Bartman]

RIP JACK THOMPSON'S LUNGS OUT Alienblue.

In every era, there is something to blame, such as the comics, and rock and roll like what the VGC said, TV, you get the point. It seems like everyone in the last decade and today blame everything on video games.

I like the YouTube site. I like watching video game console videos. Primarally the Genesis because I own one. I see Sega CD videos, and notice a Night Trap video. Night Trap was not violent at all. There is just corrupt politicians blaming video games on violence. 

[Alienblue]

...I just wanted to add, this hysteria over violent video games is nothing new. They are saying stuff like DOOM, MANHUNT, MORTAL KOMBAT and such are to blame, but REMEMBER....I grew up in the early 80's, and I have books that talk about "The great video game controversy" way back then! Yes, parents thought shooting blocky. blobby robots, aliens and -my god- letting FROGS die! - was HORRENDOUSLY violent, stuff thats considered "all ages", "cartoon / abstract violence" now! More proof that in all times, people are just looking for scapegoats. I just don't beileve how many people ignore the fact that the goriest, brutalist times on this earth were long before modern entertainment. Videogames, movies, TV, and Porn have NOTHING to do with the sick twisted things people do to each other. Sure they can motivate.... but the KKK can do it better! (and ANYthing can motivate, even great literature or plays like Hamlet!)

[feilong801]

I personally feel that most of us here downplay the potential impact of video games because we are all fans to the genre, and we aren't criminals. Yes, when the media plays up video games as a scapegoat, it is for the most part hyperbole, but that is true of just about everything you see on TV news. TV news, to me, is a sort of bad version of "Life for Dummies," and is useless beyond very basic information.

However, I do believe media and culture have impact. Dave brought up rap music. Is rap inherently bad? No, of course not. Most of the early rap music in particular is pretty innocent stuff, really. And much of it today is that as well.

But as the genre progressed, and the "gangsta rap" genre became the dominant form, you have a situation where criminal behavior, disrespecting authority (to the point of suggesting to kill the police), objectifying women, drug use, and gang membership are celebrated, and prison time is treated as a rite of passion to acquire "street cred."

Of course you then get a chicken and the egg scenario. Did the gangsta rap cause this behavoir in the urban community, or did this behavior already exist and gangsta rap was the result? Obviously the latter is the main answer, but to me that doesn't let gangster rap (I'll stop using the "gangsta" term now, heh) off the hook. It helps create a self perpuation of behavior; it creates a strong voice that doesn't say "break the cycle," but continue it. And you have kids that do try to emulate the behavoir they see in the music videos, in they way they dress, talk, act... to the point of trying to form gangs. In my hometown where I grew up, this began to happen, and you're talking about a town of 2000 people and one stoplight!

So, I would agree with Dave that rap, as a genre, isn't harmful. But I do think gangster rap is and it is the predominant genre: for every Will Smith (considered a sell out because he's educated and not shooting up strip clubs!) there are a hundred 50 Cent's out there.

Now, video games are not the same: they do not usually promote a certain cycle of behavior that is pertinent to our particular modern day and age. So I think they are usually scapegoat. But that isn't always true, in my opinion, which is why I brought up the rap example.

-Rob 

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=feilong80] In my hometown where I grew up, this began to happen, and you're talking about a town of 2000 people and one stoplight!

[/QUOTE]
My hometown had only one stoplight for a long time.  Then we got a Wal-Mart and they installed their own.  Stupid Wal-Mart and their fancy new fangled detector lights. 

I don't think the rap that praises violence is bad.  Crazy "Bling Bling" hip hop is bad.  Songs about how the people singing them are rich because you bought the CD you are listening to, which is about how they are rich, is the kind of stuff that rots your mind enough to believe it's okay to shoot other people. It's like a series of time paradoxes on Star Trek.  The songs are about being rich because the songs make the singers rich, but this is all written and performed before the person actually [b]is[/b] rich.  It boggles the mind that anyone listens to them.