Posted on 03/09/2005 8:56:47 PM PST by CorbyCard
OK, I don't love the first-person shooter games like "Grand Theft Auto," but I've played them enough to know they don't make me into a killer either. Check out the hack job "60 Minutes" did on the game.
First, video games were linked to childhood obesity because teens sat around playing the games instead of exercising. Now, CBS’s “60 Minutes” is linking them to something far more destructive – murder – while ignoring obvious points that make the claim look ridiculous.
The Sunday, March 6, 2005, broadcast of CBS’s news magazine showed Co-editor Ed Bradley reporting on a lawsuit about the enormously popular video game “Grand Theft Auto.” The suit claimed the video game was responsible for deaths of three police officers in Fayette, Ala. in 2003. Eighteen-year-old Devin Moore was charged with the crimes and “had played ‘Grand Theft Auto’ day and night for months,” according to the broadcast.
Bradley opened with: “Imagine if the entertainment industry created a video game in which you could decapitate police officers, kill them with a sniper rifle, massacre them with a chainsaw, and set them on fire. Think anyone would buy such a violent game? They would, and they have.”
(Excerpt) Read more at freemarketproject.org ...
I don't know - I have a real problem with such video games - I honestly believe that, even if they don't encourage a life of crime, it does glorify it.
Anything that glorifies violence and crime like that game are a problem.
Meanwhile, at this very second, a million people shot someone online without harming another soul...
By this crackpot reasoning, I should have a higher body count than BTK... who grew up without video games.
Grand Theft Auto would be a third person shooter, not a first person shooter. (Actually, I'd classify it as a non-linear real-time RPG).
It also has a big fat 'M' on it for "mature". Nonetheless, I saw quite a few middle aged women buying the latest installment at Best Buy when I bought mine. Considering even most women my age are not gamers,I will assume these women were not gamers either. Ergo, they were probably buying these for their kids. Nice to see that kind of responsible parenting going on.
Ed Bradley's 130 years old - what the hell does he know about video games? "Where do you plug in the Victrola?"
Is there anybody, anybody at all, on either side of the camera, working for 60 Minutes that's not also getting Social Security checks?
cBS. Nuff said.
" I honestly believe that, even if they don't encourage a life of crime, it does glorify it."
'Glorify' is not the right word. I've played the last three installments of the game, and they felt more like satire to me. The real attraction to Grand Theft Auto BTW is its non-linearity, not it's theme. And with the amount of copies sold, it is quite obvious that the market does like the game.
Kennedy/Johnson crowd pushed thru an overhaul of the penal code, after which crime rates took off. And they were happy. 60 min. won't tell anyone tho.
And with the amount of copies sold, it is quite obvious that the market does like the game.
The same can be said of pornography (including child porn), but it does not mean that it is healthy or condusive to a mentally balanced society. These games(especially in the absence of proper parenting) can have a very desensitizing effect on children to violence and criminal activity - it has been shown to be true of television, movies, music, etc. and it certainly applies to gratuitous violence video games.
Actually I like the GTA games.
Does it encourage me to a life of crime?
Ummm...no...the number of times I end up bullet ridden and in hospital kinda puts me off.
Not for the kiddies though.
Ooooo, you're scarin' me now, Mr. Scientist.
"The same can be said of pornography (including child porn), but it does not mean that it is healthy or condusive to a mentally balanced society."
Oh boy, here comes the nanny-state squad. The fact that pornography is a bigger industry than video games, books, music, and legitimate film means one thing - people are voting for it with their dollars. Welcome to the free market - which always gets it right. As for the typical (and lame) child porn thing - that's illegal because children are actually harmed. You cannot have a market in non-consensual harm in classical market theory.
" These games(especially in the absence of proper parenting) can have a very desensitizing effect on children to violence and criminal activity - it has been shown to be true of television, movies, music, etc. and it certainly applies to gratuitous violence video games."
So much for free will according to you. I guess every criminal gets off on an insanity defense from now on because the video game/poverty/TV/devil/whatever made them do it. Remember that thing called personal responsibility? It's time for people to take some and quit relying on the junk science that says no one is responsible for their own actions.
Gee, Touched by an Angel did this story over a year ago...
Does that include fakes pictures, that are sometimes posted on the FR, of a plane flying into the Mecca ...
Now before anyone gets upset, I am just raising a valid point, which is broad statements like your above one can be used against you and are far more dangerious than any video game.
and I've never shot anyone in real life. To tell the truth, this is a sort of therapy that may even help to "get it out of their system" for anyone who harbors such thoughts to begin with.
My "kills" tonight alone were likely well over 200 :-)
Relax... these games are not going to bring down the house.
So much for free will according to you
First off, I was referring to children who, contrary to idiotic libertarian notions, are not little adults. I could care less what "legal" activities adults choose to amuze themselves with as long as they are not harming others. And personally, I and many other parents, like myself, love recieving parenting advise from people who either have no children or are children themselves. The world is not this libertarian Utopia of hedonism where everyone gets to do whatever they please without repurcussions just because some act like spoiled little brats that think the world is all about them and they should be able to do whatever they please. The rest of us have to live in the cesspool that permisive idiots and thier litter leave behind.
'Big Evil Video Games Turn You Into Killers' (in association with 'HP Turns You Into A Satanist') ping.
You know, if video games like Pac-Man really influenced kids, they'd be wandering around in darkened rooms, eating pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.
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