Oh, CNN, we can always count on you for the stupid!
Seriously, have you people looked at the sales numbers of First-Person Shooters? If these things turned people into killers, you would need hip waders to keep the hemoglobin out of your hightops while perambulating the streets of America .
Plus, this meme is tired. Really, really tired. So tired it's narcoleptic.
Relax, you kooky squares; the kids are alright.
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16 comments:
They won't give up on it though... it 'fits' their agenda...
Even better is the fact that he did't even say the things they said he did.
He said he played WOW for a year because he thought he deserved a vacation. He played Call of Duty and said he thought it was a good military simulator, but not that he used either of them to "train".
rockpapershotgun.com has a good writeup on it. Amazingly, video game journalists actually seem to look into facts before they write articlres, maybe CNN and everyone else could follow their lead.
Nah.
Well, I thought it was all the Satanic violent music that came before the FPS games. Silly me.
I remember when I was a preteen, they were blaming Dungeons and Dragons.
Mazes and Monsters? Bah give me Skulduggery any day.
More and more it seems that a basic comprehension of correlation (and let's not even get started on causation) is not a requirement to be a newsman.
Also Magic Cards are Satanic, so I'm sure they can be blamed too.
Going after WOW really shows the thinking here, what is it about fantasy time-sink games that the over-media is so scared of?
Have you read On Killing?
mariner,
"Have you read On Killing?"
Yes. I think Grossman had some good points, and was all wet on some others. His whole "violent video games/violent media" schtick was among the latter, IMO.
There I go, thinking that something can be so obviously silly that the news media, moral guardians, and the chicken littles of the general public wouldn't buy into it.
I really should notch up the cycnicism a bit.
What you'll probably never hear about is speculation on whether or not violence in media causes a numbing effect in people so that they are less likely to have the required amount of outrage inspired in them by sensationalist journalism.
How many people who watch the evening news on a regular basis start to get inured to the 50% or more of stories featuring some form of (real, not simulated) death or violence. Maybe the concept of "if it bleeds, it leads" is reaching some point of diminishing returns.
As violent games are concerned, I've been an avid first-person gamer since Wolfenstein 3D came out, and there is one common theme I've seen throughout the genre. The simulated creatures and people I've killed in those games have all tried to kill me first.
Nonsense! While it is true that television COMMERCIALS have incredinle mind- and behaviour-changing powers (just ask the advertising salesmen), the CONTENT of television programs is incapable of influencing anyone to do anything bad.
Historically the best indicator of violent criminal activity among young men is fatherless families. I wonder how often you'll hear about that from the agenda driven media.
We used to play Risk all the time in my young days.
Kneel before me or I will unleash my green piece horde from the Kamchatka peninsula! Resistance is futile!
Gerry
Saw something recently that since 2004, Halo players have spent over 2 billion hours playing Halo online....ah, here it is
http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=32070
235,182 YEARS!
And that is for just one game...
Teenage boys with switchblades and greasy hair who watch Playhouse 90 for attitude will form adult-hostile gangs and get young dancing girls pregnant!! And chew gum! I saw it on Broadway!
Tam,
His whole "violent video games/violent media" schtick was among the latter, IMO.
My recollection of the book was that Grossman's point was more "nuanced".
The Army wanted to make soldiers more willing to actually kill the enemy. It did so by using video-based training to weaken inhibition, and it worked.
Likewise violent video games weaken children's inhibition against killing.
I suspect he's right about that, but I don't believe playing those games turns ordinary people into killers.
I dunno, I'm an introvert "know thyself" kind of person, and I knew I could take a human life if I had to before first person shooters EXISTED. I've not had the need yet.
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