Comic-book controversy is a cautionary tale

I am a grandfather. I have seen many video games. Some are for older kids and some for younger. I have seen carnage and death in these games but, IT IS A GAME. You will always have weak minded people blaming bad behavior on one thing or another. No the game is no worse than what is on the news. In fact it is better, because news is real games are not. Society has burdened kids with the mantel that they are capable of making good decisions. They are not and will never be able to. IF they do it is an accident. If you believe that you kids are too young then don't let them play that game. Most games are no worse than playing soldier in the back yard. Video games allow more reality in make believe than running around shooting stick guns. My 3 year old grandson plays LOK Deviance. They are just games. If some idiot blames games for someones stupidity then they are the ones living a sheltered live and need to crawl but under that rock and quit anoying the rest of us with their stupidity.

With all due respect sir, the validity of comments about the benignity of violent video games suffers when the person making the comments finds it necessary to rant about how annoying, stupid, and idiotic the rest of us are.

I'm 26, have no kids and use to read comic books. I also started playing video games when I was young with Atari, still play on my XBox 360 and Wii. As I've grown up I've seen everything from movies, books, comics to video games get blamed for violence and negative influences on children. To me all those are excuses for bad parenting 90% of the time. I only say that because my parents let me watch violent movies, play violent video games and my point is, I didn't grow up beating or killing people. I didn't get into fights a lot when I was younger. Simply because my parents taught me the difference between right and wrong. Now don't get me wrong, I am by no means saying parenting is easy as I do not have kids yet myself. Having said that, I like to think my parents did a good job raising me. People as a whole need to grow up, take responsibility and stop blaming everything around them for their mistakes. Not to mention, some kids and grownups will simply make bad choices. More over, most will tend to blame others for their troubles and not own up to their responsibilities. It's time we as a society start being honest with each other and take ownership of our decisions and actions.

There's nothing I find more aggravating than all of these politicians and lawyers who decide they are Americas moral compass and try to ban or otherwise obstruct a video game or it's creators. While I agree that the violence of some games in the late 80's and early 90's was a bit over the top, they were simply following the trend of TV, Movies, and even comic books. But some of these games were never meant for children. This I believe is where the root of this issue lies. A vast majority if not all of the ones who make the laws don't play video games, and still believe that video games are meant for their eight year old grandchild. But just like their audience games are growing up too.

For example a ten year old in 1974 was perfectly content to play pong and pac-man. But ten years later, when the Terminator is blowing up cars and shooting up nightclubs, this same kid, now a twenty year old man, is no longer content with gobbling up power pellets and ghosts. He wants more. The video game industry recognized this and in turn made their games more graphic to better attract this older gamer. But why not continue with their more kid friendly games? Because a twenty year old has more buying power than a ten year old.

Fast forward again to 1996, sex is finding it's ways into movies and even TV without much fuss. But when a game called Duke Nukem 3D is released there a is an enormous outcry over the games rampant sexuality. Claims of prostitution, nudity, bonuses for killing innocent women, and using pictures of hardcore pornography for target practice are flung about by politicians who have never even played the game. Take it from someone who has, there are no prostitutes, very limited and barely perceptible nudity, killing innocent bystanders is "rewarded" with several waves of heavily armed enemies, and I hardly think a woman posing in a one piece bathing suit qualifies as hardcore pornography.

Now we reach the video games of today. Where technology has given game makers the ability to let players do what they wish like never before. Sex and violence in itself is no longer the threat. Now politicians are leveling their sights on the realism of games, such a the current bane of humanity, Grand Theft Auto 4. Just as it's predecessors, there is still controversy surrounding the players ability to solicit prostitutes, kill innocents and have shoot outs with police. But this incarnation of the game also allows players to drive while intoxicated. But there is one key difference between the games of today and those that came before.

All of it is done by choice.

None of these activities are mandatory, the game can be completed without doing any of this.
Prostitutes walking the streets do not approach the the player, the player must seek them out. The only people who are killed story wise are mobsters, gang members, drug dealers, crooked lawyers and other unfavorable types. Running over pedestrians is not rewarded and in fact will attract law enforcement to try and put a stop to you, whether the player chooses to surrender and go down fighting is up to them. And as for driving drunk, the player can hail a cab at any time in the game. They are never forced to drive themselves.

In recent years, video games have been labeled "murder simulators" and claims are made that they teach children, in great detail, how to kill and use firearms. As of January 2008, the video game Halo 3 (rated Mature), has sold over 8.1 million copies alone. If video games truly taught children to kill, it would stand to reason that there are now at least 8.1 million people ready and willing to commit murder. So where are they? Of the few murder cases that have been linked to video games by even the flimsiest of pretexts, I've not found one that has positively determined the cause to be video games.

Heath High School, Columbine, Virgina Tech, all three of these shootings almost immediately scapegoated video games as the root cause. But is it really shocking that these teenagers played violent video games? As popular as video games are today, you would be hard pressed to find anyone their ages who has never played one. There wasn't some uncontrollable urge that was forced upon them. Behind these attacks were individuals that were deeply disturbed in much more complex ways than simply being unable to differentiate reality from fantasy. As tragic as it was, these people were all very aware of their actions and the consequences of what they chose to do.

Video games are not only linked to violent crimes however. Need for Speed is a popular racing game based on underground street racing. Racing through cities against rival drivers and out running police was central to the games theme. The latest installment of the game takes place on closed courses in officially sanctioned races. Why the sudden change? Personally I believe it has to do with an early 2006 accident between two street racers and a taxi that left the cab driver dead. In one of the cars owned by the street racers was a copy of Need For Speed Most Wanted, sparking allegations that the Need for Speed series encouraged street racing and high speed police chases.

Is it unreasonable to think that perhaps this person was racing cars long before he purchased this game?
I'm a certified pilot and own Flight Simulator X. I was interested in flying long before I started playing with flight sims. They were simply an extension of my interest. Just as a violent video game is an extension of the violent interests of people who do go on shooting sprees. But they are not the cause.

Just as with comics and movies before it, I am confidant video games will survive until the next media to be blamed for the decay of society comes along. Why then, are gamers so passionate about the debate surrounding video games and violence? Because of self censorship. As more and more people jump on the "blame video games" bandwagon, game companies are beginning to fear lawsuits and in response are taking fewer and fewer risks with the content of their games.

What will this chilling effect have on the video game industry? I don't know. But I do know that until video games are given the fair treatment they deserve, I will voice my support for the industry every step of the way.

For now I'm going to jump down from my soapbox and I'm asking all of the politicians and attorneys who want to put an end to video games to do the same.

One Florida attorney in particular.

He knows who he is.

I'm lost. I don't see comic books to have ever suffered a downfall. The popularity of comics has it's peaks and valleys certainly, but they are still here. One of the best salutes to comics are all the blockbuster movies being made about the super heroes that originated from comic books. Back on topic, whether they influenced how kids behave depends on each individual. Some kids just cant sit still long enough to "read" a comic, and one of my own parents couldn't stand the fact I could without interrupting it with more spur-of-the-moment chores. There are too many social peer groups to count that read, dabble, or boycott comic book reading to be able to make a blanket statement that comic books have seen a downfall. As a parent myself, video games spurred my kids forward to learn how to read early. My example is Nintendo 64's Super Mario Adventures and the Banjo Kazoie (sp?) adventures. They soon learned valuable tips were being given in text form from the characters they interracted with. Comic books would take longer to spark their interest because it isn't as flashy as a video game. Till I shown them the Japanese anime import comics, Pokemon, and the like...and they were easily hooked into an alternative diversion when video gaming wasn't an option. This is all just a way to deal with boredom. I did some terrible things when I was bored as a kid. I'd rather have my kids occupied, than bored anyday.

We just need some parents to spend the time with their kids to see what they're playing with, and who have the authority to say "yes" or "no." Easy to suggest that Congress get involved when they won't take the time themselves as parents.

I'm 18, and I play violent video games quite often, but I don't plan on going out and shooting people. I have GTA: IV, all of the Call of Duties, countless other shooters from various console generations, and I just reserved Mercenaries 2. So I assume I know what I am talking about.

I live in a town that is mainly infested with rednecks who hunt year round. Which is more of a training item for handing firearms and learning how to kill things? Stalking, killing (with a firearm or blade), tracking, and skinning a live defenseless animal for weekend fun, or turning on a game console in your house and shooting pixels on your TV? It may just be me, but I don't know too many people that think they can blow up an alien infested ring with an AI in their head... Or go back in time to the Second World War and single handedly win the war as an American (Even though the Russians took Berlin....).

Anyways, back to topic on hand. Video games for some may cause violent outbursts (just listen to people on XBox Live), but for most, Video games, like music, movies, books, and the like, are just simply a catharsis. By taking out frustrations on the moving pixels instead of people, you save yourself embarrassments, lawsuits, jail time and bloody noses. However, for some, it's like the PMRC of the '80s. In the 1980's, Tipper Gore and a group of her little extreme-right morality buddies banded together to try and stop songs and certain bands from making music (The Filthy Fifteen), but this just made the music sales of the "inappropriate" bands skyrocket as rebellious children and teens bought the music just to make their gullible conservative parents unhappy.

Games, like movies, music, plays, television, and books, are a form of fantasy. They're just dreams that are acted out in different formats. There is more violence, sex, gore and language in the movie section of Hastings, or probably at your local movie theatre. How come if video games are so bad, they sell well over $13 billion USD worth of merchandise every year?