I Tire of This
We need to stop this.
Once again my beloved video games are under attack because the killer in the VT massacre, among other things, played video games. This is one of the most simple logical fallacies, and the media falls into it EVERY time. Jack Thompson is just a douchebag, but Dr. Phil of all fucking people should be familiar with causation and correlation. Sometimes crazy people play violent video games. Sometimes crazy people shoot up schools. Sometimes normal people play violent video games, too, yet normal people don’t seem to shoot up schools. What exactly is so hard to understand here, again?
I don’t know a single person that doesn’t play video games, and the majority of people I know play violent video games. However, nobody I know has ever done anything that makes me think “Uh…I think you need help, man.” I tend not to hang out with homicidal maniacs though, so my data may be skewed.
Full disclosure: I play violent video games. The Grand Theft Auto series is a good franchise. They’re high quality games with good storylines, good voice acting, and provide hours upon hours of gameplay. Doom III is a good game. It’s full of creepy atmosphere, moody music, and more great voice acting and cinemas. Neither of these games (examples that seem to get picked on all the time) are no more violent than say, The Godfather, and The Godfather is universally hailed as a masterpiece of the medium. Nobody is blaming The Godfather for organized crime, because that would be silly, but apparently when it comes to video games, all bets are off.
Another common misconception among game-blamers is that violence is what makes a game entertaining. There are tons of bad games that will let you murder innocent bystanders. There are also tons of virtually unplayably bad games based on children’s movie franchises, as well. The common quality between these two types of games is that, you guessed it: they’re BAD, so people don’t play them. This also ensures that they never take the heat for widely-publicized real-world rampages. People play a game if it’s fun. If a game is fun and happens to allow me the freedom to pull a man out of his car at a stoplight, kick him in the head, take his money, then drive his car off a cliff into the ocean, I appreciate that that freedom is there, but it’s not why I purchased the game. I also have a couple games in which, as a little fat astronaut, I can harvest tiny plant creatures that do my bidding. I can’t fly helicopters into police cars, but it sure is fun. I’ve invested equal amounts of time into both of these series. Let’s put it this way: No game review on the planet has ever read “The camera makes movement nearly impossible, the controls are sluggish and unresponsive, the story is awful, the voice actors worse, and the game freezes if you push “left” and the “B” button at the same time…but you can shoot cops! 5 stars!”
Despite hours upon hours of Burnout, I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket for at least five years. Despite hours upon hours of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I still haven’t quite been able to quite nail that 1440° kickflip, nor have I been tempted to hurl myself off an 18-stair. Despite hours of baseball games, I’m still waiting for that big MLB contract. I’ve never sprinted with an idling chainsaw, I’ve never swerved into oncoming traffic on the highway, and I’ve never stolen an ambulance and driven it into a bank. I do this shit on a regular basis in video games, but the difference between me and our buddy Seung is that I’m a pretty level-headed guy. Did any of these game-blamers read the killer’s “literature”? There seems to be a common rape/molestation theme — maybe that avenue could be explored? I dunno, I’m no DOCTOR; I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes since the investigation stops when we discover the killer plays video games. I must have missed that hit molestation game, too.
If Dr. Phil actually sat down for ten minutes with a high-quality, violent video game, he would be lying if he told everybody afterwards that driving an ambulance into a bank was NOT fun. And if for whatever reason he DID admit “Okay, this game has a compelling storyline, and I can’t describe the allure, but I don’t seem to tire of stealing ambulances and driving them into banks”, I don’t think people are going to consider him a threat to society. Nobody thought Seung was a threat either, just quiet — a trait that, sadly, Dr. Phil lacks.
I understand what these people are trying to do. It would be nice if we could go “Okay, this is what makes people go crazy. Eliminate this, censor that…there we are: No more school shootings.” …but it doesn’t really work that way. I don’t mean to sound like I’m understating the tragedy of what happened, but you know — sometimes people just snap.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I believe I read earlier today that the police have even searched this guys dorm room, and found NO video games. Yet it is still somehow the fault of video games.
I do recall a story of you swerving towards a small trailer cocked up like a ramp on the street one day. But at least you snapped out of it before you got a unique jump bonus.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Stunt multiplier.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Back in my day, the cause of all things evil was pornography; e.g., Ted Bundy read pornography which in turn made him kill those women. Logically, Hugh Hefner should have been thrown in jail as an accomplice to all the assaults on women everywhere in the US. That’s our society, we like to be able to fix blame and find quick, easy answers. And I’m not sure why you think Dr. Phil should know any better, he is an entertainer first and foremost.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Now everybody knows pornography is good for the immune system.
I just think it’s irresponsible of him because of people’s willingness to believe anything that comes out of a mouth belonging to a dude with “Dr.” before his name. As an entertainer, I say Dr. Phil should change his name to “The Amazing Phil”.
April 20th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I’m tired of this complete bull shit. I know it’s sad to say, but after my intial shock of hearing the news about the VT shootings, I knew that it would only take a day or so before the media would started blaming the arts, and pointing the finger, and I became annoyed before this even came true.
I found myself saying the same things when the Columbine shootings inspired plenty of crappy people on crappy news channels to say for hours on end that these kids played violent video games, listened to violent music, and watched violent movies, and this was the reason this happened. I’ve seen the same movies. I’ve heard the same music. I’ve played the same video games. Yet, I don’t go around shooting people. Hmmm… that’s interesting.
Let’s face it, in between shitty parenting and deaply disturbed people, and the lack of respect towards others, these things will continue to happen.
We don’t want to push blame on the real issues, no. That might actually shed some light on these tragedies. Instead let’s blame the arts, the things that are an escape, and in my opinion are a way to vent feelings that might otherwise push people over the edge.
I just don’t understand how these news corporations, and these psuedo-experts like Dr. Phil can continue to spoon feed the public such bull shit. I don’t understand how news corporations can televise real wars, where real people are loosing their lives for oil, but pretend things such as movies and video games are the only influence for violence. I wish these people would point their fingers where they belong… straight up their asses.
Violent acts have been around since human kind’s beginning, but video games, and film have not.
April 20th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
what is the world coming to? first cats and dogs living together and video games