Video Games= Evil

[daltysmilth]

This just in: video games will turn your children into murderers, drug dealers, thieves, and rapists.  Seriously.  I read it on the internets:

http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/kidshealth/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100153600&GT1=9033&wa=wsignin1.0

So don't let your kids play video games!  And don't play them yourself, either!  Otherwise you might go out and kill a bunch of people and stuff.

[Nunyerbiz]

Lame hyperbole aside, I don't think it's much of a stretch to realize that exposure to forms of media that promote and/or glorify violence and aggression will lead to increases of violence and aggresion in some people. To say that Doom caused Columbine or whatever is patently retarded... altho to say that those types of games have any positive effect on a child's psyche would be just as retarded. They might not be harming every kid, but they certainly aren't helping.

I'm not calling for banning of violent video games, but I do think the rating system has to be taken a little more seriously by parents and retailers alike.

[torgosPizza]

... parents and retailers alike.

You nailed it. The rating system is meaningless unless the retailers enforce it, and the PARENTS be responsible for their childrens' actions. How many of the incidents could've been prevented if the parent was aware that the child was making pipe bombs or bullying kids in school, and DID something about it?

[Pak-Man]

So does that mean the debate's finally tapering off because everyone's sick of it? :^)

[Nunyerbiz]

Hah...

Yea, I got all caught up in a serious reply and totally forgot that they referenced frickin Mortal Combat. Geezus... might as well reference Hitler in a discussion about modern Germany's well-being.

The debate about whether a long dead fascist dictator is bad for Germany is both red-hot and perennial - sort of like the sales figures for Pet Rocks and Hypercolor T-Shirts.

[Hobbit]

I don't trust the government studies.  If they don't say something sensationalist, they lose their funding.  That being said, I don't think violent video games are any worse than violent TV, movies, and other forms of media, but are not harmless.  I also think this attention to the violent content draws away from the most dangerous effect of video games: addiction.

[Variety of Cells]

However much I like some violent video games, they are much worse than tv.  I think I've mentioned it in these forums some where, but it bears repeating.

Violent video games are interactive, movies are passive.  In movies you usually just see violence happening, and maybe a little preparation.  In video games, you go through all the steps.  You pick your target, find a weapon and ammunition, load the gun, hunt down the target, and pull the trigger.  Then you usually proceed to loot the body.  It's a completely different experience.  And plus, after you pull the trigger and are successful, you are rewarded in some way, be it with points or the ability to go further int he game.  There is no way that has the same effect on a child as just seeing it on tv.

It doesn't pertain to just realistic video games.  The more cartoony the game, the worse.  With cartoon violence there is very little consequences when you shoot some one in the face.  The most that happens is their hair is blown back and their face is covered in soot.  Then they continue to chase each other.  This teaches kids that violence has little consequences, and that all that happens when you hammer some one on the head is that a lump forms for a second. 

Now, this doesn't necessarily make kids go out and shoot people in the face.  But it does increase aggression.  Kids who play a violent video game are more aggressive during their physical play than kids who participate in a non aggressive activity, like a board game. 

Luckily, there is a cure for this.  If the kid really wants to play the game, make sure to sit down and play it with them.  Talk to your kid, and make sure they understand that the violence that happens in the game is different than real life.  Real life violence has consequences.  It helps a lot, because although it's obvious to us, kids don't always think rationally about the consequences of their actions. 

[mrbasehart]

Has anyone ever played "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!"?  I've read a lot about it and its reception at the Slamdance Independent Games Festival.  I don't think I'm quite brave enough to play it myself, but I'm curious to people's thoughts on it.

Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Columbine_Massacre

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

have you ever tried turning off the tv sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?

[Rude]

...

Everything Bad Is Good For You:
http://www.rifftrax.com/smf/index.php?topic=2116.0

Including video games!

-Rude

[daltysmilth]

I think video games do cause violence.  Like, let's say you're playing Final Fantasy X, and you get to a point where the save points are few and far between, and it's been awhile since the last time you encountered a save point, and all of a sudden you get to a really long, unskippable cutscene, and it goes on and on and on until about 10 minutes have passed, and then at the end of the cutscene is a boss battle, and it's the most difficult boss battle you've yet encountered, and it's long and complicated and extremely difficult, requiring strategizing that would make Sun Tzu scratch his head and say, "Huh?", but still, you persevere and finally you beat the boss battle, and afteward there's another long, unskippable cutscene, but you get through that, and you're in control of your character again, and of course, there's still not a save point in sight, so you decide to go back to the last place you saw one, and then you get in a random battle against an enemy that you normally would have no trouble beating, but because you've just finished a major boss battle that left your characters HP down to less than 100 each, and you had to use all your potions to conserve MP for major attacks, and you had to use a bunch of major attacks and as a result your characters are running low on MP and you're running low on potions, so you haven't had the chance to heal your characters yet, and the enemies, which are normally fairly weak, use their one insanely powerful attack which takes 4000 HP every time it hits, and since your characters have less than 100 HP, your party dies, which means Game Over, and you realize this means you're going to have to start over from the last save point and go through all the rigamarole with the unskippable cutscenes and the unbelievably difficult boss battle again, just because of some STUPID RANDOM ENEMY WHO NORMALLY IS VERY EASY TO DEFEAT BUT IT HAS ONE G*DDAMN ATTACK THAT TAKES OFF 4000 HP EVERY G*DDAMN TIME!!!  And this makes you very angry, which leads to violence.

[Tyrant]

   As always, it boils down to the parents. Parent's evidently don't want to be bothered with parenting so they blame their kids' faults on other sources like TV and videogames, despite the warning labels and ratings. They ignore movie ratings and then scream bloody murder when their kids try to act out a scene from a violent movie. This is a generation of parents that should never have had kids, in my opinion. They don't know how to discipline, recognize behavioral problems and fix them, or take responsability for anything if their kids are messed up.


   I remember my Mom sat down with me and my brother multiple times when we were growing up to watch what we watched on TV. She always told us that what was on TV was never real and to never assume otherwise. We always knew, as a result, that violence had consequences. It wasn't hard for her to find time to do that, and she was a single Mom raising two kids on minimum wage. Parents these days disgust me.

[Pak-Man]

I am a hardcore member of the Video Game generation, and I'm as passive as they come. Maybe I'd be a much more violent person if I DIDN'T have the chance to splatter hordes of alien brains all over digital landscapes growing up. :^)

[Tyrant]

I am a hardcore member of the Video Game generation, and I'm as passive as they come. Maybe I'd be a much more violent person if I DIDN'T have the chance to splatter hordes of alien brains all over digital landscapes growing up. :^)

  Well, you do have that obsession with being a digital world dictator, for some reason.

[Pak-Man]

I am a hardcore member of the Video Game generation, and I'm as passive as they come. Maybe I'd be a much more violent person if I DIDN'T have the chance to splatter hordes of alien brains all over digital landscapes growing up. :^)

  Well, you do have that obsession with being a digital world dictator, for some reason.

What can I say. I love making little digital beings do my bidding. But I WON'T take over the world because I don't HAVE to! If only Hitler had had the benefit of Civilization 2. :^)