Capitalism is cannibalism, violence is violence

So, first post after Easter and I'm talking about violence in video games. Talk about starting with a bang! I'm gonna start things off with a recent video from G4TV's X-play. It features Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson talking about their new book, "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do".



So, as you can probably tell from my previous posts talking about what games I play, I have no problem playing violent games. I'm no psychologist, so really I can only have an insight into my own experiences and the experiences of people I know. Quite obviously I'm not going to prove anything about the nature of violence in games and what it may or may not cause, but I can still give my views.

There seems to be two main sides to the violence debate, that either playing violent games encourages people to be violent, or that playing violent games discourages violent tendencies as it acts as a way to "blow off steam". As is mentioned in the video, most studies seem to be inconclusive. Any that apparently prove a causal link between playing games and being violent either ignores that the "resulting violent tendencies" are not actual violence or that short-term results don't necessarily translate to a long-term effect.

In my personal experience, I play violent games and I'm not a violent person. In the same way I can play Burnout and make my way around a circuit at blistering speed but don't think it would be a good idea for me to go out and get behind the wheel of a car. So, obviously violent games don't make everyone violent (and I'm sure I could go out and find a very large group of people who would say the same is true). But that doesn't rule out the possibility that violent games could be the trigger for someone's violence.

But then, if it's not the case for every single person, then surely it's not the fault of the games. In the same way that just because some people don't like cherries but cherries are still sold to those who do. Some people are horrible drivers, but cars are still available to those who aren't.

It's an age-old debate where people try to blame an inanimate something in order to relieve themselves from personal responsibility. Personally, if there were some real reasoning behind removing violence from games, I wouldn't care. But right now, every argument given is hugely flawed. If your child plays a violent game intended for an adult and they decide to emulate something in the game, then blaming the game is the wrong way to go. There's a gap between games and reality and it's not up to a game developer to teach people that.