I'm disgusted

[Nupraptor]

Yep, it was only a matter of time: Even though that the "Serial Sniper" has been arrested and the threat has passed, several news sources are citing videogames as a cause of this senseless massacre.
But the quaint innocence of "Space Invaders" has been replaced by video games that add the macabre element of, say, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the realism of CNN's greenish night-scope views of Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War.
The arcade edition [of Silent Scope EX] is so realistic that Derrick Bartlett, president of the American Sniper Association and director of a Florida company that trains police snipers, theorizes that the D.C. shooter could have learned tactics from such games.

"They could desensitize you to the idea of killing a human being."

Carneal said there was no connection between the shooting and the video games he played. But Jack Thompson, a lawyer representing Carneal's victims, suggests that video games helped the youth, who had never fired a gun before his onslaught, hit all eight victims with single shots.The article, found here (http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/1002/21sniper.html), offers a very weak counter-argument against these absurd claims.

Also, I saw this posted at another board I visit:
Fox News aired a segment that attempted to tie games to the actions/modus operandi of the Serial Sniper who's killed 9 people around Washington since October.

It started off with commercial and logical validity, then deteriorated into one of the worst anti-game spots I've ever seen.

They showed a few clips of sniping in CounterStrike, informing their viewers that the game's players had "a choice of being terrorists or not" (note the wording), and then cited First Person Shooters as "a whole genre that allows gamers to have access to sniper rifles" or something like that.

They then spoke about videogame violence and real violence. Nothing new there...no big deal.

They took the cake however, when they tied one crucial piece of evidence, namely the Death tarot card signed "Dear Policemen, I am God" by the sniper that was left at the scene of one of the shootings, to videogame terminology.

According to the reporter, players enter "God Mode" when they defeat lots of enemies without being defeated themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always thought God Mode was an invincibility cheat. I've always thought a successful winning streak was a Killing Spree.

She then said "I am God", the phrase found on the tarot card evidence, is a phrase used by gamers "all the time."
Again, this is news to me, but I don't play FPSs online. Is this true?

All in all, it was an obvious grasping-at-straws segment, but to be brutally honest, it seemed pathetic at the time

[Oriadin]

I can never understand how you can blame computer games and even films for violence and what not. Ive been watching violent 18 rated films since I was about 10 years old. Ive played violent shoot em up and beat em up games for years and Ive never ever been in trouble with the police.

People who are sitting there saying games do this and films to that are simply making excuses for people. They should know the difference between right and wrong and take responsability for thier actions.

I dont watch Die Hard and think how excellent it would be to take control of a sky scraper like that. I watch it and think, good film. I'll probably watch that again one day. End of story.

[ReaperFett]

Silent Scope is NOT realistic. Do scopes have big red arrows telling you where to aim?

[Master Yoghurt]

It is getting rather tiresome everytime something bad happens, games takes the blame

It is actually my theory, games tends to make people less violent

[JMK]

Video games and movies are not the problem. That's nothing but a weak crutch for people looking for something to blame. What people do is their own responsibilities. I'd say you would have to blame poor parenting before blaming video games.

[Nupraptor]

It's just getting ridiculous, in my opinion: Anytime some wacko comes out of the woodworks and starts killing people, the media instantly turns to videogames. Don't they realize that they're starting to sound like broken records? This one was even worse, with the way they drew the extremly tenuous link between the "I am God" note and the God Mode cheat included in some games, flagrantly lying about the nature of the cheat to try and justify their point.

The media is purposefully preying upon people's ignorance of the medium in order to provide them with a scapegoat. What's next... are we going to start accusing gamers of practicing witchcraft, tie them to boulders and throw them in lakes?

[Xazor Elessar]

Can video games tell you to shoot up someone? Can they put a gun in your hands and load it too? If so, why don't people sue the video game companies?? Hmmm? They have no ground to stand on and if they have tried to sue them, I haven't heard about it. You're absolutely right, this is so ridiculous! Bah.....some people need to get lives....

[imported_QuiGonJ]

At one forum, there a former Marine who points out real long range shooting requires about 10 skills, including stance and breath control, none of which are taugh by video games. He says it's akin to saying that Need for Speed teaches you how to really handle a high-performance sportscar. It really is rubbish.

[ReaperFett]

And they found a Tarot Card. It must be those online psychics, eh? :|

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:rolleyes Why didn't they just call a psychic and ask who it was who left the card?

Good grief, if video games cause violence, all my seven nephews are going to be serial killers. Which they aren't. (Just to clarify! :p)

[Oishii Sakana]

I play video games to let out all that violent energy. I would go around and beat up someone if I didn't have the video games.

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

The only thing video game's teach you is Eye hand cordination, which you can also learn by playing Sports. If aiming a Cross-hair at some computer generated charachter with a mouse teaches you how to fire a real gun with real kickback, then why dosen't the government train all the army guys with Counter-Strike?

[JMK]

I go back to my old theory that as long as people pay attention to the "video game/movie violence" scapegoat the media will continue to write about it. I'm not even sure they believe it themselves, but it has people reading theit reports, newspapers, magazines, internet articles etc. which in turn ensures the success of the company, which ultimately brings them more $$$. They continue to do it because its so damn easy.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That old argument is pathetic, really though if it wasn't true why aren't there more Columbine's? More serial snipers, if video games and movies were to blame there would be serial killers left and right but they arent. There were no video games when Billy the Kid and Jesse James were kids so what excuse do they have. To me its just pathetic to blame problems on such things. The real answers are too complicated for the media and they feel they can't sell the truth so they come up with the video game excuse.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Holding a plastic revolver in an arcade and firing at NPC's who are almost impossible to miss is a huge deal different to actually picking up a real gun and being able to do the same thing. If anything, I'd say that playing Video Games help's you realise stress, tension and anger, and allows you to direct it at something.

[imported_Lance Stormrider]

Heh. They always blame video games and then parents believe all the crap they read and they don't want their children to play nemore >___<

[Sanis Prent]

I'd like to do a statistical analysis and take the data of every violent murderer in the past 10 years, and overlay that data over people who play video games vs people who wet their beds vs people who are vegetarians. I wouldn't be suprised if the data looks very similar, in the sense that there is jack squat for correlation between the variables!

The only "bad" videogame I've ever seen was maybe Postal, in which you kill everyone and everything, for no real reason. That was demented enough to concern me, but hell...even that game probably has never inspired morons to murder.

Maybe they'll make a version of Duck Hunt, with flying Senator Lieberman heads instead of clay pidgeons. Maybe then they will test that theory of theirs...

[Sene Unty]

I dont know....vegetarians probably have alot of frustration to get out :D

There are some games that are just ridiculous in their portrayl of "real life". Games like postal and Carmaggedon are just blatant ways for people to go on murder sprees. However, they teach you nothing about really killing anyone. They make things too simple with no reprecussions. I think the real reasons people don't kill because of games lies in the fact that there is never any punishments in the game like there are in life. To say that games make kids more easy to see blood is ridiculous. It does nothing of the sort. It is all fake and I am pretty sure most everyone who plays games realizes this.

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City makes a interesting point.

In the Original GTA3, if you listen to Chatterbox, you hear a women call lazlo, complaining about Video Game Violence and how it ruined her son. In GTA3: VC, a women calls a younger Lazlo, on VRock, and complains that music is ruining her son.

Interesting... to say the least.

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

The only games that are wrong and I don't think should exist are GTA 3 and VC and almost all Duke Nukem games.
But that has nothing to do with violence.
It's because those games have hookers.

[Leeloo Mina]

There are hookers in RL too.. so maybe RL shouldn't exist ;)

I've always though it just sickening that they blame games for crap like this.. I used to go to a Catholic middle school and they wouldn't allow us to talk about video games - and some kids weren't allowed to play them because they belived all that media BS about games making people kill people.

Games help me relive stress.. if I'm angry enough to want to kill someone, I just play some game and kick some ***, it makes me feel alot better..


What's next... are we going to start accusing gamers of practicing witchcraft, tie them to boulders and throw them in lakes?

I'm surprised they don't do that already.. but of course in the US, they can't discriminate against people who practice witchcraft.. freedom of religion, right? ;)

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

Well, after many hours of playing RTS games, I know belive I am ready to become a General In Real Life. The Military will DIE for me, for I have logged many many Days with RTS Games and have become the master.

Tyreal, what do you have against hookers? You would rather have someone kill someone else but getting with a hooker is bad?

[Sanis Prent]

I'm against prostitution and all...but in some places, hookers are good for atmosphere.

Fallout 2 for example. New Reno just wouldn't be "cool" if you didn't have hookers trying to turn some tricks on the street corner, so they can buy some more smack. I'm not gonna touch em, cause there's no telling what I might get for my trouble...but its fun to see.

[Sene Unty]

:lol that's funny as hell Sanis......

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

The fact is that if someones so deperate, the need to go bang a girl in a game or a hooker, they need serious help.

[Morgan Evanar]

You need some seriously help because you can't let the stupid point drop.

[Sanis Prent]

I mean whats the point in saying that? Conversely then, do people who kill video game people need help? No. So, you're argument doesn't hold water. I played a RP where I became an adult film star...that doesn't mean I'm a deviant. You're trying to use the same argument that you were originally attempting to debase, hence a load of hippocrisy.

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

Sorry, I just think it's important for people to seek real companionship.
It's realy the people who buy the game BECAUSE OF the hookers that need help.

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

The Hookers is a health cheat in GTA3. It boosts your health up to 150. Of course I going to use it. Thats 1/3+ Health! That with Body Armor, you can take a hellva lot more damage.

(Please correct me if I am wrong, I havn't used the Hooker cheat in a long while, and I might be getting confused with some bonuses found in VC)

[JediBoricua]

I think it's up to 125.

[Ishan Shade]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
It is getting rather tiresome everytime something bad happens, games takes the blame


My thoughts exactly.

How many targets (music, tv, video games) can the media point a finger at before they run out of suspects?

[Wei Wu Wei]

They don;t run out. When they get to the bottom of the list, they go right back to the top again.

[Xenodoros Stormrider]

It's set in people's mentalities already. One knows when we're suppose to do something or not. And blaming something on a video game just shows how unhealthy your mind is.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Or how prideful a person is because they don't want to accept responsibility for their actions.

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

Originally posted by Dark Lord Dyzm
The Hookers is a health cheat in GTA3. It boosts your health up to 150. Of course I going to use it. Thats 1/3+ Health! That with Body Armor, you can take a hellva lot more damage.

(Please correct me if I am wrong, I havn't used the Hooker cheat in a long while, and I might be getting confused with some bonuses found in VC)
Exactly my point. gmaes were doing a whore gets you health are just wrong. It glorifys prostitution. No problem if it was for atmosphere and they were just there, but that just goes over the line.

[Morgan Evanar]

Keep your conservatism out of my games. I hope games start more promeniently featuring hookers, and maybe you'll stop playing them.

[Jackson DeWitt]

Heaven forbid he ever play any Leisure Suit Larry games :rolleyes

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

Or Panty Raider

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

I just feel that using them as health pick-ups (no pun intended) is glorifying prostitution.
If it's a comedy game like LLS, that's totaly different.

[Xenodoros Stormrider]

It's a game. Period. Who ever said that a game is exactly like the real world. Of course they're going to add a few things to make the game interesting. And I think picking up hookers is a laugh. Nothing I'd do because it's really disgusting, and I KNOW that they won't restore your health IRL, they'll do the opposite.

[Leeloo Mina]

:lol

I'm surprised they haven't blamed prostitution on games yet :rolleyes

That's kind of a funny thought.. someone picking up a hooker because they think she'll boost their health.

[Sanis Prent]

Next I'll go smash brick walls with my head, cause I saw an italian plumber do it in a game.

[JMK]

Yeah, and I'll eat nothing but little pellets and chase ghosts because I saw a little yellow guy with a big mouth do it.

[Zeke]

Maybe I'll run really fast and jump on robots...

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

Eat wierd objects found around the world, and you will gain "Powers"

[Admiral Lebron]

Eat the little flowers and grab the stars.

[Tyreal Dalarsco]

Ya, I guess you guys are right.
I'd probably just shoot up anyone I see picking em up in the game if I played it though.
Are there any john NPCs?

[Lady Vader]

Oh! Oh! Does this mean I can run around with a massive canon under my arm acting like it weighs nothing and blasting demon bulls and headless bombers that scream (even though they don't have heads) to smitherines? I mean, come on, I saw some guy named Serious Sam do it... why shouldn't I? :rolleyes

[Nupraptor]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/fun.games/11/14/teen.game.ap/index.html

Great. Now we have kids trying to use it as an excuse to get away with their crimes. :x I mean, come on... where in GTA3 does it actually teach you to hotwire a car? He stole over 100 cars, which means he was doing it for money, not because some game "inspired" him to.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Judge will take one look at him and throw him into prision for Grade A smartass.

[Taylor Millard]

I dunno...all the lawyer has to do is convince one juror...one single juror that, 'Oh this is a nice kid who just made a mistake and it's video games to blame'

Which is wrong of course, but we live in an imperfect world...sigh...