Media Expert Worries About Game Burning "Distraction"

[Quaxar]

Burning violent video games? I believe that's a copyright infringement, no?
Oh... THAT kind of... oooh... OOOOOOH

No. Just no.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

the deep, DEEP, banjo playing deep south.

West Virginia isn't THAT far south

 

[Lono Shrugged]

These people are just living in the past, I mean I get all my juicy violent games digitally.


This is why evil always triumphs over good, because good is dumb.

 

[WanderingFool]

As well as this is, it sadly wont have much affact on the whole. It far easier to blame something specific like games, music, TV, and with the shooting in specific, guns as the problem and go after that than to try and venture deeper. Guns and games arent the problem, they are simply a part of the problem, and to simply focus on them would blind us to the actual problem (specifically, what drives these people to grab a gun and to try and kill as many people as they can...)

 

[weirdee]

Wait, how can you claim that video games aren't linked to the incident, and then get together to burn a large pile of them? Are they just burning them for fun?

Because we've still got a lot of copies of Duke Nukem Forever and Syndicate lying around...

 

[zaheela]

I thought Connecticut was one of those upper-class states. Not one that subscribes to the same ideas about the evils of media as the deep, DEEP, banjo playing deep south. Wonder how long till Southington starts accusing D&D players of Devil worship and burning them at the stake.

Coming from Massachusetts, its more of the case of there being a whole lot of rational people, but also the easily duped, the misinformed, the wildly stubborn insert-religious-text thumpers, collage students, wild turkeys and yearly invasions of Canadian geese, like every where else...

Well maybe not the geese.

 

[Treblaine]

"It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try playing games instead of BURNING THEM!"

Seriously, I thought we learned from history that book burning and generally having ritual immolation of "undesirable" media was kind of the *wrong* thing to do. That it didn't spread understanding but engendered hatred and scapegoating.

 

[thesilentman]

I like this guy already. It's people like him that I'd trust to have authority on this matter. I seriously have never understood this issue when you put other violent media right next to games. Heck, most books that are adult can get more explicit and violent than video games.

No one will really listen.

They want something easy to blame and hate, that wont in any way come back to them.
Parents and Politicians like saying and being told that they did nothing wrong and that its something easy to yell at that is completely at fault.

Kid murders someone? Played to much X.
Guy goes on a rampage? He listened too to much X.
Woman kills her kids? She took to much X.

It is easier to BLAME something then to try and solve something.
How well would it go over if a politician said that "Actually weak parenting, lack of over sight, and other factors that require real effort to counter act are at fault?"

People would be angry and then say he does to much X.
Far easier to yell and scream then to work at something.

I see it all the time.
My mother blames video games for everything bad one of her friends kids does, ignoring that his mother spoils him, and then leaves him alone for long periods of time. Over all burning something is just so local morons can feel they did something.

No matter how many books, games, etc you burn there will always be sick people in society who do sick things.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! People don't want to understand anyone's issues, which is the real problem. No one cares.

 

[BrownGaijin]

Initial thought (to the burning):
The smut we must cut, the trash we must bash, the laughter and fun must all be undone, we must blame them and cause a fuss, before somebody thinks of blaming us!

Second thought: The man with the degree about the feels makes a valid point. Burning video games isn't going to solve the problem, it's just going to distract from it.

 

[kortin]

You know, this whole game burning thing makes no sense at all. Yes, let's digress into the medieval ages where anything that you don't understand should be burned at the stake, knowledge is for priests only, and peasants regularly die of the common cold.

 

[Catrixa]

No one will really listen.

They want something easy to blame and hate, that wont in any way come back to them.
Parents and Politicians like saying and being told that they did nothing wrong and that its something easy to yell at that is completely at fault.

Kid murders someone? Played to much X.
Guy goes on a rampage? He listened too to much X.
Woman kills her kids? She took to much X.

It is easier to BLAME something then to try and solve something.
How well would it go over if a politician said that "Actually weak parenting, lack of over sight, and other factors that require real effort to counter act are at fault?"

People would be angry and then say he does to much X.
Far easier to yell and scream then to work at something.

I see it all the time.
My mother blames video games for everything bad one of her friends kids does, ignoring that his mother spoils him, and then leaves him alone for long periods of time. Over all burning something is just so local morons can feel they did something.

No matter how many books, games, etc you burn there will always be sick people in society who do sick things.

Sorry to be the 800 jillionth person to hijack your quote, I just wanted to expand on it.

I feel like this is a large chunk, but another chunk is not wanting to challenge any beliefs. For example, say your mother's friend also blamed video games for her son's behavior. She blames scary new technology she doesn't understand so she doesn't have to change, but also so she doesn't have to think about why she would need to change. Theoretically, if her spoiling her child was the cause, she would need to change the way she parented (assuming she wasn't spoiling him by mistake, anyway). This would mean her beliefs about parenting are wrong (maybe it was the way she was parented or maybe she was trying to rectify the mistakes she thinks her parents made). Your mother also wouldn't tell her friend "your son needs less stuff and more attention," because challenging beliefs can lead to the end of their friendship(alternately, your mother could believe that the media she watches would never lie, exaggerate, or withhold facts, only other media that other people like does that). This is another reason why the media likes to whip people into a panic about an easy scapegoat--everyone wants to believe they're perfect, so it's not good for ratings and profits to tell them they stink. It'd be nice if we could get over our fear of critical thinking and challenge beliefs more often, but at least stories like these are sinking into the minority.

 

[Roander]

Seriously, I thought we learned from history that book burning and generally having ritual immolation of "undesirable" media was kind of the *wrong* thing to do. That it didn't spread understanding but engendered hatred and scapegoating.

Someone should take some of the money we've been spending studying violent media and spend it on a legitimate scientific study of this. At the very least I could easily see something like a media burning desensitizing the community to things like mob mentality or general opression. I don't think the people organizing these things are considering the possibility that their attempts at a solution might be more destructive than the perceived threat.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

I thought Connecticut was one of those upper-class states. Not one that subscribes to the same ideas about the evils of media as the deep, DEEP, banjo playing deep south. Wonder how long till Southington starts accusing D&D players of Devil worship and burning them at the stake.

We can start right now if that fits your fancy

 

[Elate]

First thought:
Yeah sure when you don't agree with someone "must be a delusional idiot" but when they support your ideas "praise be, a sane man" Gamers only question what they don't like, that's as bad as the idiots who cause this mess.

See, that was my first thought, but frankly the guy is just speaking common sense. Lets face it, since when has hauling things together and burning them ever solved anything, even IF games do cause violence. They are delusional idiots, and he's just sensible.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I appreciate that this guy is making the effort although I'm not sure anyone is going to listen to him.

You know what really gets me about this whole violent media burning thing? Well you know when that type of behavior was most prominent? The fucking Dark Ages! What's next? Are we going to start burning witches and crucifying people too?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Burning video games? How awfully outdated. In what civilised society do we gather around a fire to watch a perfectly good piece of media burn? Is this supposed to be a joke? Tell me this is not actually going to happen. What would it accomplish? How downright stupid do you have to be?

This is good old medieval knowledge burning. I thought we had moved past this, honestly I did. It just seems alien that some people would resort to this in this day and age. I can't even fully process the thought of it actually happening. Too much stupid braeks mah braien.

It could be burning books or music CDs or sheet music and it would be equally as moronic. It's just plain useless and reflects badly on all involved.

Oh and if they're burning the plastic cases, burning plastic releases far more harmful gases into the atmosphere than normal wood smoke. I'm not one to really crusade about the environment but still.

 

[Strazdas]

We got a captian obviuos studying psychology. thats where he was hiding.