Ten Years Later: Videogames Not Responsible for Columbine
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
This is truth. People will eagerly choke down whatever the hell Faux News tells them if it means they can chat about it or blow something out of proportion.ButtonedDownParadox said:
More on-topic: this guy is very, very late, but his point stands; these are not normal kids who do these things. Unfortunately, people would rather blame the current scapegoat (see: rock 'n' roll, videogames, etc) than listen/formulate some reason.
....Well that was kinda anti-climatic. Insanity who would've thought.....oh ya anyone with a fucking brain for fuck's sake people use some common sense but thats just it isn't it; no one will learn from this it'll just be the same thing over and over again,"Thos Vija games are the devil's work Dey makin' those kids go crazy along with their Rock 'n Roll 8 track tapes" I'm just so furious that it took ten years for them to come up with insanity.
Huzzah! Another bit of evidence proving gamers aren't insane killers. And only 10 years after the incident, Is that a record?
Yay, they've finally figured out something that we've all known to be the case for the last ten years. Congratulations to them on working out that people who shoot up a school just might have psychological problems.
Here we go...I added a conclusion to this on my other computer, and handed it in today.
Electronic forms of entertainment have been increasing in both their usage and quality. Video games have evolved from small pixilated screens to full 3-D environments. While this is a remarkable achievement, many have argued that the content modern games contain is changing the way that people behave. These games have been accused of invoking violent behaviour and delinquency in both young children and adults, and are commonly linked to school shootings and other extreme acts of violence. But to behave in a violent way that reflects the behaviour a person commits in a video game that they play is a direct result of not exercising any restraint, control, or common sense. While video games may nurse the violent tendencies of those who allow them to, they do not cause a calm, gentile child to become a hateful murderer.
When a person goes into a pharmacy to buy cold medicine, they will likely look on the side or back of the package in order to learn any information they need. The package will tell them how frequently they need to use it, and what it cures. Without this information, it is unlikely the product will be bought, and the person will find one that does include the information they need. To do otherwise is a risk that may have varied results, and it is the customer?s discretion or lack thereof that result in their choice. This concept is not exclusive to medicine. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a company that rates games based on their content. Any game that can be purchased at a licensed retail department in North America will have a rating by the ESRB that is displayed on the front and back. On the back is also a list of features the game contains that have determined the rating. Ratings include "E" for "Everyone", "T" for "Teen" and "M" for"Mature". Games rated "M", which are considered suitable for anyone ages seventeen or older, can only be purchased when an adult is present or if said person is seventeen or older, and to do otherwise is illegal. The purpose of this rating system is to give the customer an idea of what content is featured in the game, as well as to inform parents or guardians how acceptable a game may be to their child or ward. If a parent believes that violent video games will result in violent behaviour, there is no reason for them to buy a game that they believe to be violent, and are capable of buying games that they feel are appropriate. Just like with medicine, to not read the label and purchase the product anyways can bear repercussions. If a young, impressionable child is given a violent game to play then the images of violence that the child sees will remain in their minds. It is the discretion of the parent that is to blame in this scenario. People need to be aware of the environment that they are placed in, and video games are not an exception to this concept. We allow products such as Tylenol to remain on shelves because they can help get rid of a cold, or muscle pains. Yet, the effects would not simply improve if someone were to swallow five containers of Tylenol. To many, video games are a form of entertainment, and when played in moderation, prove to be no problem.
Some violent video games have been accused of more than simply spreading delinquency. The Colombine High School Massacre, one of the most famous school shootings, was concluded with the belief that excessive video gaming was one of the reasons the shootings took place. Ten years after the 1999 shooting, evidence was found that excessive gaming, along with a number of other possible reasons, such as bulling and drug usage, were not to blame. There is, however, commonly overlooked possibility that could be the single reason for why these events occur. This reason is that those who take part in school shootings and similar acts of extreme violence are mentally unstable to begin with. No company associated with video games in any way denies the idea that someone who is already unstable will become increasingly unstable by playing video games. No company seems to need to provide a warning for video games as a whole. If someone has a mental condition that is considered serious enough that they are easily influenced by violence, or need to be under special supervision, it should be implied that he or she is unfit to play video games, as that doing so could be a hazard to themselves and others. A very common comment among school shootings and other acts of violence is that the parents of the one who commits the act normally says that they had no idea that it was a problem, and that it was a complete and utter surprise to them. This can be unavoidable if their child has moved away from home, but if the shooter isn?t an adult, and hasn?t moved away, then it seems as if the issue does not lie in video games, but in the parent?s lack of concern for their children and what their children are subject to.
A common goal for many video game developers is the idea of immersion. Immersion is the ability to make the player feel like they are actually in the game because of how real and how appealing the game is to them. This competition to make a game feel more real has also been criticized on the grounds that it pulls the player in too much and they can never completely get out. A company that makes games shouldn?t be criticized on making them realistic and lifelike, otherwise every game on the market would feature bubbly neon-colored world. While that idea isn?t so awful, the idea of having games that are not only unrealistic, but also completely unrelated to the real world is. This would do the opposite of giving a young child a game featuring extreme amounts of violence. People who play excessively would still play them just as often as they do to modern games. The difference is rather than exposing them to a world they are not prepared for at an early age, when its time for them to move away from home and grow up, then they will be in a world that they are not prepared for. This would be much worse, mainly because of the fact that your childhood is a small portion of your life, and that life becomes much more unforgiving when you are an adult. Unlike a game, where you can start over as many times as you want from the beginning, a mistake in real life must be fixed, and often if not fixed quickly enough, will take its toll on you and your life. It is important that people who actively play games understand that the real world is an entirely different place than the worlds of their video games.
Electronic forms of entertainment have been increasing in both their usage and quality. Video games have evolved from small pixilated screens to full 3-D environments. While this is a remarkable achievement, many have argued that the content modern games contain is changing the way that people behave. These games have been accused of invoking violent behaviour and delinquency in both young children and adults, and are commonly linked to school shootings and other extreme acts of violence. But to behave in a violent way that reflects the behaviour a person commits in a video game that they play is a direct result of not exercising any restraint, control, or common sense. While video games may nurse the violent tendencies of those who allow them to, they do not cause a calm, gentile child to become a hateful murderer.
When a person goes into a pharmacy to buy cold medicine, they will likely look on the side or back of the package in order to learn any information they need. The package will tell them how frequently they need to use it, and what it cures. Without this information, it is unlikely the product will be bought, and the person will find one that does include the information they need. To do otherwise is a risk that may have varied results, and it is the customer?s discretion or lack thereof that result in their choice. This concept is not exclusive to medicine. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a company that rates games based on their content. Any game that can be purchased at a licensed retail department in North America will have a rating by the ESRB that is displayed on the front and back. On the back is also a list of features the game contains that have determined the rating. Ratings include "E" for "Everyone", "T" for "Teen" and "M" for"Mature". Games rated "M", which are considered suitable for anyone ages seventeen or older, can only be purchased when an adult is present or if said person is seventeen or older, and to do otherwise is illegal. The purpose of this rating system is to give the customer an idea of what content is featured in the game, as well as to inform parents or guardians how acceptable a game may be to their child or ward. If a parent believes that violent video games will result in violent behaviour, there is no reason for them to buy a game that they believe to be violent, and are capable of buying games that they feel are appropriate. Just like with medicine, to not read the label and purchase the product anyways can bear repercussions. If a young, impressionable child is given a violent game to play then the images of violence that the child sees will remain in their minds. It is the discretion of the parent that is to blame in this scenario. People need to be aware of the environment that they are placed in, and video games are not an exception to this concept. We allow products such as Tylenol to remain on shelves because they can help get rid of a cold, or muscle pains. Yet, the effects would not simply improve if someone were to swallow five containers of Tylenol. To many, video games are a form of entertainment, and when played in moderation, prove to be no problem.
Some violent video games have been accused of more than simply spreading delinquency. The Colombine High School Massacre, one of the most famous school shootings, was concluded with the belief that excessive video gaming was one of the reasons the shootings took place. Ten years after the 1999 shooting, evidence was found that excessive gaming, along with a number of other possible reasons, such as bulling and drug usage, were not to blame. There is, however, commonly overlooked possibility that could be the single reason for why these events occur. This reason is that those who take part in school shootings and similar acts of extreme violence are mentally unstable to begin with. No company associated with video games in any way denies the idea that someone who is already unstable will become increasingly unstable by playing video games. No company seems to need to provide a warning for video games as a whole. If someone has a mental condition that is considered serious enough that they are easily influenced by violence, or need to be under special supervision, it should be implied that he or she is unfit to play video games, as that doing so could be a hazard to themselves and others. A very common comment among school shootings and other acts of violence is that the parents of the one who commits the act normally says that they had no idea that it was a problem, and that it was a complete and utter surprise to them. This can be unavoidable if their child has moved away from home, but if the shooter isn?t an adult, and hasn?t moved away, then it seems as if the issue does not lie in video games, but in the parent?s lack of concern for their children and what their children are subject to.
A common goal for many video game developers is the idea of immersion. Immersion is the ability to make the player feel like they are actually in the game because of how real and how appealing the game is to them. This competition to make a game feel more real has also been criticized on the grounds that it pulls the player in too much and they can never completely get out. A company that makes games shouldn?t be criticized on making them realistic and lifelike, otherwise every game on the market would feature bubbly neon-colored world. While that idea isn?t so awful, the idea of having games that are not only unrealistic, but also completely unrelated to the real world is. This would do the opposite of giving a young child a game featuring extreme amounts of violence. People who play excessively would still play them just as often as they do to modern games. The difference is rather than exposing them to a world they are not prepared for at an early age, when its time for them to move away from home and grow up, then they will be in a world that they are not prepared for. This would be much worse, mainly because of the fact that your childhood is a small portion of your life, and that life becomes much more unforgiving when you are an adult. Unlike a game, where you can start over as many times as you want from the beginning, a mistake in real life must be fixed, and often if not fixed quickly enough, will take its toll on you and your life. It is important that people who actively play games understand that the real world is an entirely different place than the worlds of their video games.
Video Games arnt responsible for Violence, idiots are. One could argue, that after playing shooting games, some noobs wanna go out and actually do it, but then the counter-argument, is that there is WAY worse things than video games to influence kids and stuff, what about movies?
I say video games are better, you can pretend to be killing your boss or what have you, than actually doing it. For me, it vents frustration.
I say video games are better, you can pretend to be killing your boss or what have you, than actually doing it. For me, it vents frustration.
finally. I knew that 10 years ago......xmetatr0nx said:
I agree. and even with the violent tendencies i have and my very short temper I've never tried to imitate a video game in hacking someone up or shooting them........I say old chap said:
Will it be another eight years before we learn what really caused the Virginia tech shooting? I wonder if that guy had psychological problems.