Dipswitch: BOOGEDY-BOO! (Are they buying other toys yet?)

posted Dec. 11, 2008 03:06:37 PM by     

The blame game is one of my least favorite activities, especially since there's no achievements. The media loves playing the blame game with video games, from anti-social behavior, to obesity, to violence, there's nothing that people can't blame video games for. I'm surprised we haven't seen a story on how video games are causing the economic downturn! Ok, maybe that's a little overboard. The point is, people often like to shift blame to others, in order to avoid facing the reality of the situation.

If we focus solely on the blaming of violence on video games, I see a severe gap between reality, and what the media portrays reality to be. If someone commits an act of violence, and has had any interaction with a violent video game in their life, then the focus becomes that the violent video game drove them to a life of violence. The problem is, I know dozens of people who play violent video games, and do not have violent tendencies. Furthermore, there have been countless violent attacks throughout history, and yet violent video games have only been in our lives for the past 20 years or so, and in the mainstream for even less.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for this situation. The next time there is a school shooting, or a murder, or someone is attacked, and video games happen to be in the criminals life, they will be blamed. The only defense that we as gamers have against this phenomenon is to act like respectable, honest, and mature individuals who do not engage in acts of violence or dereliction, so that the media can not hold any more of these instances over our head.

We're doomed :(

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