Videogames Really Are Linked to Violence

[ficksucker]

I love how it says that it possibly is linked in so many different ways, I need to ask this girl to do my english homework sometime. Personally, I believe in the good 'ole idea that if a person kills someone, the fault rests on the killer and not what the killer did with his time. If someone honestly kills someone over a game of Mortal Kombat, the issues that person must have go far beyond video games and more than likely could also be motivated by normal daytime american television, and the few lightning bolt-hitting-a-man-taking-a-dump-in-his-bathroom frequent incidents that it might be related to just gets to be amplified fuel for politicians to shift some of the blame off genuinely guilty people who don't actually attribute their acts of violence to games outside of the courtroom. Personally, if I ever get killed, and someone claims that video games were the reason I died and some politician makes a big stink over it and tries to reduce his sentence, I hope the politician is the next victim. I find it offensive that the people who died in the few cases this might apply to become martyrs for causes they probably didn't even want to touch in life.

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing needed for you to be morally responsible for a crime is for you to have intended it. I don't give a crap if video games or count dracula influenced you, If you tried to murder somone and succeeded, you are responsible, end of story.

Now let's ignore what the idiot media and bonehead opportunistic politicians are saying. We can kick this government out on thier ass when we reach voting age. What scientists are saying is that games are one of many factors that contribute to aggression, and aggression is one of the major factors in violence. No scientist is saying that video games cause you to kill directly. In fact we already know that even aggression alone isn't enough for violence because it has to be combined with decreased inhibition... another factor.

But that doesn't mean that videogames can't influence your personality. A lot of things influence who we are... our culture, our friends, our experiences, school, tv, games. That doesn't make you any less responsible for a crime because you still intended it. In my opinion, even if it was pre-destined that you should kill somone since millions of years ago, you are still responsible for the crime because you intended it. At every step during the commission of the crime you could have stopped, but you didn't. You just arn't the kinda person who woulda stopped.

[Aryn]

One argument that is often overlooked in these studies is violent video games can actually help some people to curb their violent desires. I normally am not a violent person but one job I had about a year orr so ago with an abusive guy who was supposed to be a supervisor and a bunch of jerks almost made me go postal, until I purchased GTA for the PSP (back when I had a PSP, before I decided to trade it in for a DS) and relieved my tensions by going postal in the game's virtual city instead. If not for the violent games out there, I would have lost it and actually hurt people.

[robman84]

Probably does affect some people. But for me, music has a much bigger impact. I can play any number of driving games, simulators or arcade smash-em-ups, but it has zero effect when I get behind the wheel. However, if I stick on some blaring, fast, aggressive rock music I definitely drive faster and more aggressively (albeit still within the law - I'm an old married fart and a parent).

So ban music.

And ban annoying people. Annoying people annoy me and make me want to lash out.