A-B-A-C-A-B-B

Does Video Game Violence lead to Real Violence?

Jack Thompson thinks so. Thompson is an attorney who has made it his personal crusade to purge the American youth from poisonous violent entertainment (read "video games"), and i think it's safe to say he's one of the most hated men in the gamer subculture.

Thompson believes that violent video games have lead to the school shootings in Columbine, Virginia Tech, and pretty much EVERY school shooting EVER (that is NOT an exaggeration. youtube this guy). he says that all the shooters were found to be "immersed" or "obsessed" with violent games, and says that they "trained" or "rehearsed" the actual shootings on games including counterstrike, grand theft auto: san andreas, and doom (yeah, doom...might as well have said contra.)

thompson stands by research done by the american psychological association that supposedly shows a causal link between violent images and violent behavior. consequently, thompson is doing everything he can to ban violent titles (such as san andreas) and prohibit sales of certain video games to minors.

BUT HERE'S WHAT I'M THINKING:

1) while i can believe that violence in video games may cause some violent behavior among SOME children, i DO NOT believe that these video games caused the tragic school shootings. these were EXTREME acts performed by people with severe antisocial personality disorders (or something to that effect). i think that if you removed video games from the equation completely, the main factors that disturbed these shooters would still be present, and most likely still lead to the individuals lashing out at some point.

2) let's not forget the responsibility of PARENTS and EDUCATION in these matters. while GTA: San Andreas provides a world of no consequence, i DON'T believe that exposure to these exercises in fantasy could skew someone's moral compass so drastically, to the point of excessive violence, at least not with proper parental guidance and education.

3) maybe some of what this thompson guy is asking for is not unreasonable. he wants the ratings on games to be enforced in stores, so that kids can't buy mature-rated games, just like we already do with mature videos or magazines. all right. seems fair...

BUT...

this is treading dangerously close to censorship and First Amendment issues. depending on the rating criteria, age limits set (Thompson's aiming for 21... that means that people old enough to join the army and kill people for REAL wouldn't be able to pretend-kill imaginary bad guys with a Wii-mote), etc., this could cripple the progress of video games. if you censor too harshly, you will cripple sales, which will cripple production values, which will cripple the craft, the ART of video games. and YES, i do believe that video games are an art form... this is apparent in some titles more than others, but you can't deny the potential of the medium for artistic expression.

the same thing happened to comic books a few decades ago. remember when batman would get trapped in a giant typewriter, or a giant saxophone, or some other giant household object passed as a "deathtrap," and then escape just in time to teach two kids not to play with matches? yeah, that's what happened when censorship was enforced.

it won't destroy the medium, but it well set it back YEARS.

So my sentiments for now are the following:
-the solution is in education before legislation.
-censorship is dangerous.
-parents, PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS, know what they're doing.
-tread lightly, Thompson, and all who would follow him. there are millions of us, and we know and understand this medium far better than you do. video games are a DEEPLY ingrained part of our childhoods and our culture, and you're attacking them. and we kinda hate you for that.



p.s. A-B-A-C-A-B-B is the blood code for Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis.