Blame The Game
videogames are being implicated in somehow creating a monster. Haven’t we been here before? Aren’t we, as a society, smarter than to instantly make a giant leap from pretending to be in the Army on screen to finding a gun, walking out on to the street and shooting innocent civilians? And, while we’re about it, are average gamer arguments that “it’s just a game” really helping us get to the bottom of why these events occur?
Let’s take a step back. Clearly anyone who takes a gun and goes on a killing spree is unwell. Are games the cause of the illness, or are they merely a means of escape for a person who feels they can’t connect with society in any meaningful way? That their only hope of interaction with others is through a faceless medium where they are more powerful, skilled and respected than they could ever hope to be in the real world? Interestingly, Michael McLendon, the Alabama shooter who killed 10 people in a sick attack, hasn’t been linked to videogames. But then, he was 28. Tim Kretschmer, the German shooter, was 17. Clearly adults don’t play videogames. Or, if they do, they are level-headed enough to accept the unreality of the virtual world. They just shoot people because they have a grudge, or are just insane.
There is clearly a difference between watching violence on a film or TV show and actually adopting an alter ego and interacting in a violent world. That’s where the “it’s just a game” argument perhaps falls down. However, for every Tim Kretschmer there are a million gamers who just play their games and go about their business. If violent video games are to be banned or somehow diluted just in case one person is driven to murder, hadn’t we better ban alcohol, ban violent films, ban life?
This is about society’s responsibility to help the Tim Kretschmers and Michael McLendons of this world to open up, interact with the real world, accept their life for what it is: probably fairly boring and mundane; probably filled with trifling disappointments and rejections; probably even filled with gross unfairness or miscarriages of justice. Sadly, that’s life. It can’t stop. And we can’t stop it. And we shouldn’t be having another debate about the influence of videogames on people’s behaviour when the real issues go far deeper and require much more action than simply banning something which some “experts” perceive as a problem.
People who suggest that games are to blame for anything wrong with the world have probley never played a game. Its just a way to escape, have some fun and sometimes stay away from the real world. I’m sure if a person who wanted to kill people played a game they might let out some of that weird thoughts, but i can say, anyone who plays a game who then wants to kill people was ill in the first place.
Short URL: http://thegamershub.net/?p=608
Posted by Henry Macreadie
on Nov 1 2009. Filed under Editorials.
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