You admit that you haven’t read the studies, that you are unfamiliar with the science, that you argue from ignorance. Many folks here have read the studies and understood the math. They seem to agree that the connection you expect to be there …just ain’t there. It has been debunked. There have been links proving that rampage killings predate video games. These links show that rampage killings have happened in schools, places of worship, places of business, various modes of transportation, homes and neighborhoods…they have used bombs, grenades, knives, sickles, flamethrowers, cars and of course, guns. These have happened all over the freaking world. Lots happened before video games were invented. Lots committed by people who have never seen a video game.
Why would you hold on to that assumption in the light of convincing available evidence to the contrary?
Do you have an emotional investment? Do you just not like violent video games?
The man who carried out the worst attack on a school - the one with the highest body count - in US history never played a single video game.
Why? Because when he killed 45 people and wounded 58 others, it was back in 1927. People leave it off the list of “worst school shootings” because the fellow decided he needed something more effective than a gun; instead over the course of several months he surreptitiously put explosives in the school, and detonated his bombs one morning after murdering his wife at home and blowing up his own house.
That was already established upthread. Starcraft is not a first person shooter game, and Lieberman has been peddling the blame-the-games bullshit since Columbine. I’m glad he’s leaving office. To be honest about this, people in the upper levels of the federal government haven’t played current videogames. Lieberman is 70. Axelrod is 57. There have to be some people in those age groups who play games like Call of Duty, but not as many as in younger age groups. So it’s easy for them to talk about the supposed deleterious effects of something they have no firsthand experience with. That’s pretty much the same thing that happened with comic books, Dungeons and Dragons, violent movies, rap, metal, and everything else: older people get scared of some new form of entertainment, say it’s different and worse and scarier than anything that ever came before, and it must be bad for kids and causing all kinds of problems. Then little or nothing happens and life goes on because even if people who are predisposed to violence are attracted to violent entertainment, the entertainment is not the problem.
Actually, if your idea of how to wage war is to sit someplace far removed from the fight and send your troops in to commit mayhem and get slaughtered, Starcraft is pretty freaking realistic. So, for some members of Congress, maybe…
I hope Congress looks at games, entertainment, guns, law enforcement and of course mental health issues. Look at everything and try to find a solution. Assuming there is a solution. There may not be one.
I realize games won’t be banned. Neither will guns other than renewing the assault weapon ban. Maybe the ratings on games could be strengthened? Restrict the violent ones to adults over 18. <shrug> I know kids will still get their hands on them. Just like they get cigarettes and booze.
It’s pretty hopeless isn’t it? We will have more killings eventually no matter what.
Let’s have some evidence games and entertainment are part of the problem before we start “solving” them.
That’s already how it works. And if the ratings system isn’t that effective, I’d say the MPAA ratings system isn’t either - and it really shouldn’t be. Those are recommendations, not the law.
When I was playing minecraft for days at a time, I started “seeing” the real world like minecraft. I kept thinking how cool it would be to go around and mine a block out of a street lamp post, or the corner of a building.
We can all be thankful I just wasn’t in possession of a pickax, or lord knows what would have happened.
And you don’t want to go Christmas shopping at the mall after playing Dead Rising, because combining a paddle with a chainsaw starts looking like a good option after the third person runs right into you while not paying attention.
