Comments on: The Good, the Bad and the Obvious

By: Halrawk

Halrawk — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:42:07 +0000

Just throwing this out there, in most (if not all) games I’ve played, you can’t kill children. Even games like Fallout 3, where you can destroy entire populations, you still can’t kill children. Even violent video games have limits.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 13:22:43 +0000

Of course there is a correlation between being violent and playing violent video games! It’s just that the correlation is that violent people are more likely to play violent video games, not that playing violent video games makes people violent.

My problem with this debate is that both sides seem to go into it believing that every single person who wants to play a violent video game is initially completely non-violent, until the moment that they actually play the game, at which point the dice is rolled.

Statistics can prove correlation ’til the cows come home, but they can’t prove causation.

By: Neospector

Neospector — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 06:29:23 +0000

Yeah, I’ve never really understood the correlation either. Yes, there are idiots, or little kids, who see a video game and try to imitate it, but that number is so insignificantly tiny. People claim they do “studies” indicating that violent video games increase violence, but mostly they’re just ridiculous scientists who monitor control groups of about 100 children playing different games, then select a number of children who responded “violently” in their opinion, turn the number into a percentage to make it big, and then release it to the public to create some kind of whoop-dee-doo scandal. I believe that if a child is young enough to believe that Goombas are a real species attacking Mario, then they probably shouldn’t be playing something like COD or God of War.

Besides, video games are a million times better than what’s on TV. Honestly I’d much prefer it if, if/when I have a child, they go off to shoot zombies in Left 4 Dead, as opposed to watching Dr. Phil, or worse, Dr. Oz…ok, yes, that’s a “miracle weight loss” food, and so was the last 100 food substances and diets you’ve told us about, haven’t you run out of edible objects yet?!

By: Mason

Mason — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:22:20 +0000

By ESRB standards:
fantasy violence – that which is easily distinguished from reality – typically earns an E rating.
mild/strong/intense violence – realistic depictions of conflict, blood, gore, weapons, and human injury or death – garners ratings based on the severity, E10+, T, & M.

In the case of Mario, it’s obviously not real, and so not a concern for lawmakers. However, games like CoD or Battlefield could look very real to a kid, and should be monitored by a parent/guardian, not banned for the audience it’s intended for.

Honestly, I think the school shooter linked to violent games was just tired of getting harassed by the 12-year-olds in online play.

By: Jarrett

Jarrett — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:37:09 +0000

I always thought that the correlation between the two was a crock argument. I’ve been playing video games all my life of varying degrees of violence. I would not even hesitate to pick up a controller grab a rifle and scope down a few digital enemies. But the weekend after last Thanksgiving my dad took me on a hunting trip. This is the first time I’ve ever held a real loaded rifle. The fear of handling it with care knowing that a slip up could be harmful, the uneasiness with the noise, the kick when it fired. The fear of looking down the sights and knowing I was going to shoot a live deer. It really doesn’t compare. The only time I’ve ever been afraid with video games was when I was very little and I hated dying while playing Super Mario Bros. although that had more to do with the fear of failure than of Mario dying. It’s always amazed me that people who know nothing of the two experiences have so much weight in passing judgement on the issue.