Video games in crosshairs after Newtown shootings

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http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/g ... 2bo3w.html

Why not just outlaw fun?

We all know people that have fun by shooting paper or playing violent video games are potential mass murderers.

I never felt like killing anyone after playing a video game but have felt like taking said game and throwing it in a lake maybe, if it gave me a difficult time winning...I have never been much of a fan of the violent games however. I guess you either like that sort of thing or you don't. The most violent I played have been Star Wars related. That's as low as I go.

No surprise really. They did the same thing during the Virginia Tech shooting. I suppose they're going to start banning certain video games and leave us with with crappy titles about sharing...Ugh!

13 years ago, we were blaming Marilyn Manson for Columbine. Needless to say our approach towards scapegoating has not evolved much since then.

Not a fan of the COD fanboy army, so any attempts to advertise and hype up other decent games is another good move here.

Just Dance 4 is now marketing the gangnam style dance add on
FIFA 13 has now got bonus packages and just before the winter window, so upto date.
And, obviously, the new Professor Layton for 3DS.

Video game ban too?? What makes them think banning games with bullet overdoses make things better?

It gets them elected.

People are hungry just to do "something."

I don't think video games increase violence in MY kids, but I can't say if the same is true for all kids; the stats on increases in violence come from somewhere. Regardless, it backs into the same thing, in my mind: parenting. Parents can withhold the games from kids if they are paying attention and see negative effects.

Let us not forget Rammstein and KMFDM, some of the perpetrators' favorite bands. The news even played a song about using a shotgun to kill kids in a school, claiming it was a KMFDM song. Having every album in their discography, I knew that the band never released or even produced such a track. If you listened to the vocals, it was painfully obvious they weren't sung by Sascha or anyone else affiliated with the band. I can see where they get off with saying "weisses Fleisch" by Rammstein was about killing someone at school, though according to Rammstein, that's not what it's about (the lines that translate to "I'm on the schoolyard and I'm ready to kill / nobody here knows of my loneliness were what put it in the spotlight). Music and videogames do not drive people to commit crimes anymore than Sam Carr's dog told David Berkowitz to kill.

Keine Musik Fur Deutsch Marks is harmless indeed. I never felt violent once after listening to them .WTF? Where do people get this?

What's the first thing a kid does after watching Superman? Uses a towel for a cape and jumps off the couch or even the roof. To say media doesn't influence people is just wrong. Advertising is based on media's ability to influence people.

I agree, Superman did make jump off things hoping I could fly but I have never harmed anyone because of something I saw on television or at a movie. I could go see Friday the 13th and have no urges of any kind afterward and only felt like the movie is kinda dumb but that's about it. I never had those inclinations to harm people physically. That is what this boils down to. Those who have those inclinations in the first place will be the ones who go and get into conflicts or shooting rampages. They are already quite willing to beat the crap out of someone because of some stupid reason, for example, not liking someone's face. The violent inclination is there before they ever see a movie. Probably has it's' origins in growing up in a household with domestic violence where it is common place to hit. Some parents also encourage their kids to resolve conflict through violence as well which only emboldens them.

Violent inclination is either there or it isn't.

I played "T" rated and even "M" rated games while I was still in elementary school, and is spite of the Nixa R-2 school districts best effort to tempt me to go on a shoot rampage (they tried really, REALLY hard!) I've never killed anyone.

Can videogames instill desires in people? sort of. But they can only build on what's already there. In a world where videogames didn't exist, people would find some other medium in which to incubate their violent thoughts. And even if you were to ban videogames, movies, tv, books, and censor everything about violence and war out of history and religious texts, I doubt that would make people less violent as their violent desires would incubate inside their own imaginations.

Banning games is pointless.

Video games are a byproduct of modern technology. They do not take control of people's minds.

If seeing fictional violence in a video game is bad, what's that say about seeing extreme real-world violence on the nightly news?

Where's the article about journalists being in the crosshairs?

I guess it's right next to the news story about SSRI drugs being in the crosshairs, which is aired between ads paid for by pharmaceutical companies.

Sure, haha.