Game Violence makes Violent People?

[Timihendrix91]

I think that it's pretty ignorant to say that violent video games always or never make people violent. Most people are definitely level-headed enough to realize that the violence in video games is just fantasy, but I have no doubt that there are people who are not able to draw the line betwen reality and fantasy. Video games are most likely not beneficial for people like that. However, neither would books, movies, tv, even imagination be beneficial for people like that. So, in my opinion, I don't think that banning violent video games just for a minority would be a good idea or even help anything.

[jojo man]

I think that it's pretty ignorant to say that violent video games always or never make people violent. Most people are definitely level-headed enough to realize that the violence in video games is just fantasy, but I have no doubt that there are people who are not able to draw the line betwen reality and fantasy. Video games are most likely not beneficial for people like that. However, neither would books, movies, tv, even imagination be beneficial for people like that. So, in my opinion, I don't think that banning violent video games just for a minority would be a good idea or even help anything.

Thats the thing I think. You never hear about the level headed, intelligent, responsible gamers in the national media. But if somebody commits murder and they've ever played Super-Mario Bros. then the media celebrates it to no end. Like in the case of Fox News(Joke of an information source that it is.) and their piss-poor coverage of Mass Effect. People are only to willing, eager even, to blame all of societies ills on the most convinient scapegoat, rather than put any effort into actually trying to correctly diagnose and treat the problem. This also kinda applies to the presidential canidate campaigns. People are to lazy to actually think about anything they're told, or to try and dig deeper to find out all the facts. They just take whatever spoon-fed crap they're handed on the TV, and pretend like it's the whole story.

[humanbean234]

The laws of percentages dictate that there will always be a number of individual sociopathic types within a given population. Any of them can fixate on some cultural aspect at any time, as a means of rationalizing their poor behavior.

Lately, video games are the "culprit" for society's ills.

Long ago, people believed that Comic Books contributed to Juvenile Delinquincy.

Charlie Manson fixated on the Beatles' White Album as his rationale for the Tate-LaBianca murders.

 

Take 'em all away, get rid of everything that smacks of modern entertainment, make everybody live just like the Amish... and there will still be a certain percentage who will flip out, and insist that Bossie the Milk Cow has told them it's okay to kill their neighbor with a hand-sickle.

 

The belief that Video Game Violence leads to Real-World violence is a pop-cultural phenomena, and has no proven historical truth to back it up.

[Timihendrix91]

Thats the thing I think. You never hear about the level headed, intelligent, responsible gamers in the national media. But if somebody commits murder and they've ever played Super-Mario Bros. then the media celebrates it to no end. Like in the case of Fox News(Joke of an information source that it is.) and their piss-poor coverage of Mass Effect. People are only to willing, eager even, to blame all of societies ills on the most convinient scapegoat, rather than put any effort into actually trying to correctly diagnose and treat the problem. This also kinda applies to the presidential canidate campaigns. People are to lazy to actually think about anything they're told, or to try and dig deeper to find out all the facts. They just take whatever spoon-fed crap they're handed on the TV, and pretend like it's the whole story.

Yeah, well that's Fox for you. :P But you're right.

[Varus Torvyn]

The laws of percentages dictate that there will always be a number of individual sociopathic types within a given population. Any of them can fixate on some cultural aspect at any time, as a means of rationalizing their poor behavior.

Lately, video games are the "culprit" for society's ills.

Long ago, people believed that Comic Books contributed to Juvenile Delinquincy.

Charlie Manson fixated on the Beatles' White Album as his rationale for the Tate-LaBianca murders.

 

Take 'em all away, get rid of everything that smacks of modern entertainment, make everybody live just like the Amish... and there will still be a certain percentage who will flip out, and insist that Bossie the Milk Cow has told them it's okay to kill their neighbor with a hand-sickle.

 

The belief that Video Game Violence leads to Real-World violence is a pop-cultural phenomena, and has no proven historical truth to back it up.

 

I agree. Take Columbine for example. The generation I'm a part of would never have had the thought of taking firearms to school. If there was a problem, and it couldn't be talked through, then you settled it mano-a-mano on the schoolyard.

 

Liberal parents were the problem. No discipline taught, so the children grow up unprepared for adult life and wind up disliking their parents for not teaching them their limits.

[humanbean234]

I agree. Take Columbine for example. The generation I'm a part of would never have had the thought of taking firearms to school. If there was a problem, and it couldn't be talked through, then you settled it mano-a-mano on the schoolyard.

 

Liberal parents were the problem. No discipline taught, so the children grow up unprepared for adult life and wind up disliking their parents for not teaching them their limits.

 

Truly liberal parents would rarely allow a collection of firearms in their house, but that's beside the point.

The Columbine shootings were popularly blamed on video games, but consider other high-profile incidents.

There were a rash of suicides that were blamed on Ozzy Osborne recordings, and the Virginia Tech shootings, which were committed by a mentally-ill foreign national... in all of these cases, there were failures on both the parents of the shooters, and the surrounding mental-health "professionals" to take note of, and take action on, obvious anti-social behaviors prior to them erupting into violence.

Once the shell-casings stop bouncing, everybody is suddenly quick to point fingers at external causes, rather than accept personal blame for their failure to properly care for their kids.

[Timihendrix91]

I don't think parents spaking their children would have stopped colombine. those kids were obviously in a lot of pain. Not that they were the victims, yet I still can't help but pity them.

[humanbean234]

I don't think parents spaking their children would have stopped colombine. those kids were obviously in a lot of pain. Not that they were the victims, yet I still can't help but pity them.

 

Discipline does not necessarily imply corporeal punishment, Timi. Disciplining your kids includes communicating with them consistently, never leaving them uninformed, and always considering their needs before your own. It includes being fair and impartial with both rewards and punishments. It requires a fair amount of effort on the part of whomever serves in a leadership role, be it parent, teacher, counselor, or whatever, to be fully proactive in getting to know your charges, so that you can instinctively tell when something is disturbing them.

 

Lassez-faire is not the way to raise or discipline a child, but neither is constant spankings.

Talk is cheap, perhaps, but it's a darned effective tool.

[dezdimona]

I don't think parents spaking their children would have stopped colombine. those kids were obviously in a lot of pain. Not that they were the victims, yet I still can't help but pity them.

 

Discipline does not necessarily imply corporeal punishment, Timi. Disciplining your kids includes communicating with them consistently, never leaving them uninformed, and always considering their needs before your own. It includes being fair and impartial with both rewards and punishments. It requires a fair amount of effort on the part of whomever serves in a leadership role, be it parent, teacher, counselor, or whatever, to be fully proactive in getting to know your charges, so that you can instinctively tell when something is disturbing them.

 

Lassez-faire is not the way to raise or discipline a child, but neither is constant spankings.

Talk is cheap, perhaps, but it's a darned effective tool.

you sir are a very wise man indeed!

[Timihendrix91]

It includes being fair and impartial with both rewards and punishments. It requires a fair amount of effort on the part of whomever serves in a leadership role, be it parent, teacher, counselor, or whatever, to be fully proactive in getting to know your charges, so that you can instinctively tell when something is disturbing them.

I don't disagree, but I will say this, I know people (myself included) that are able to hide their emotions so well when they want to, that their parents, teachers, etc would all never think that they were anything but happy.

 

It was really stupid of the kids' parents to not be aware of the fact that they were stockpiling weapons though. How do you not see that happening?