The GAME Blame!

Bonnie

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Jun 30, 2004
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Another Perspective
Game Blame
By Christopher Orlet
Published 2/25/2005 12:04:43 AM
When 16-year-old Devin Thompson shot down two Alabama police officers and a dispatcher in cold blood in 2003, local journalists, teachers, and coffee-shop commentators began the usual round of soul searching. Some wanted to fix point the finger at the boy's negligent parents. Some wanted to blame a wayward society that had in so many ways failed the boy-killer. A few even wanted to blame the boy himself. But the victims' families had other ideas

It turns out the real guilty party was a software manufacturer. Also complicit in the homicides were corporations like Wal-Mart and Sony. According to a civil suit filed on behalf of relatives of two of the deceased, Take Two Interactive Software's crime-action game Grand Theft Auto "trained and motivated" Devon Thompson to steal a car, and, once apprehended by Fayette police officers, snatch a service revolver from one of cops and open fire, finally making off in a stolen police car. During the melee officers Arnold Strickland, James Crump, and dispatcher Leslie Mealer were killed. Apprehended a second time Thompson, according to the AP, told the cops that, "Life is a video game. You got to die sometimes."

The defendant's attorney Jack Thompson told Tuscaloosa News, "What has happened in Alabama is that four companies participated in the training of Devin ... to kill three men." Wal-Mart and Gamestop are named in the suit because clerks sold the video games to the 16-year-old Thompson (the Grand Theft Auto series is rated M for mature audiences 17 and older). Sony is being sued because…well, because they manufacture PlayStation 2 and Grand Theft Auto, like thousands of other video games, is designed to play on PlayStation 2. One wonders why the plaintiffs are not suing the manufacturers of the television set as well?

Occasionally there is a single root cause for murder. These are called crimes of passion. But more often violent crimes are committed by young men with long histories of trouble and chaos. An intelligent judge knows that it is often a multiplicity of factors that creates a psychopath: abuse, neglect, hopelessness, ignorance, laziness, absentee parents, and the plain, simple thrill of bad behavior. "Media violence," writes Craig A. Anderson, a media violence expert and chair of the department of psychology at Iowa State University, "is only one of many factors that contribute to societal violence, and is certainly not the most important one." However, for the trial lawyers and plaintiffs there is little benefit to be had in blaming hopelessness and ignorance (though I suppose one might sue the school district). Someone must be held accountable, preferably someone with deep pockets. Jack Thompson and his clients are seeking $600 million.

This is a fairly typical case for the Miami lawyer, whose mission is, in his words, " to hold accountable the entertainment industry for the harm it does to our children." Jack Thompson is perhaps best known for working on anti-obscenity crusades like his partnership with Charlton Heston to persuade Time Warner to pull the song "Cop Killer" from Ice T's 1992 Bodycount LP, and bringing obscenity charges against the seminal rap band 2 Live Crew, which ultimately forced record companies to place warning labels on raunchy and misogynistic albums. However, in this instance the lawyer seems to be in it more for the cash than for any sense of justice. Asked about the suit by video game columnist Shaun McCormick, Thompson's response was a terse "Kiss the game industry good-bye."

Only a moral zombie would defend asinine crime-action games ("murder simulators" to use the lawyer's parlance) like Grand Theft Auto, which appeals to the same sort of mindset that enjoys cockfighting and bear-baiting. Jack Thompson's one-stop-lawsuit website offers this description of Grand Theft Auto:

"In this game you have sex with a prostitute and then kill her grotesquely to get your money back and win the game faster. Police officers are set on fire, shotgunned in the face, and innocent pedestrians are run over with cars."

A kind of Death Car 2000 without the satire. Besides the evidence is quite clear, as Prof. Anderson notes, that "high levels of violent video game exposure have been linked to delinquency, fighting at school and during free play periods, and violent criminal behavior… It decreases the normal negative emotional reactions to conflict, aggression, and violence." But the same might be said for watching classic, though violent films like Reservoir Dogs and Goodfellas. That's why they are rated for mature audiences. The solution is not to ban games like Grand Theft Auto, as California Assembly woman Leland Yee has proposed. The solution is to address the real factors that create psychopathic boys. The solution, as Thoreau said, is to hack at the roots of evil, not prune the branches.

The Wal-Mart and Gamestop clerks were wrong to sell the mature-audiences-only game to a minor, and deserve to be fined and fired (not sued) for that, just as they would be ticketed for selling tobacco to a minor. Wal-Mart has largely stopped selling CDs and DVDs containing obscene lyrics, and it should likewise rethink its policy on selling games that portray criminal behavior as good times. It might also make sense to raise the age for mature video games to 18. But none of this would have saved the lives of officers Strickland and Crump and dispatcher Mealer. Devin Thompson never said the "game made me do it." He did, however, say that "the reason I shot those officers is I didn't want to go to jail." That's a psychopath talking. And you don't become a psychopath by simply playing video games.


http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7813
 
oh jesus christ! not this game again! when are people going to stop blaming others for making money? its a fucking game. they didnt train anyone to kill anyone! its not that hard to grasp the concept. if your kids is a mental defect then maybe, quite possibly, he shouldnt be playing games of that nature? i mean isnt there a warning on the game?
 
Bonnie said:
Right?? I remember that. Remember Tipper Gore's PMRC?


Tipper Gore is one of the biggest reasons that I voted against Gore. I have an old Twisted Sister album from the 80's that thanks Tipper for her contribution to making the album sell so well. She was upset about a certain song, "Be Cruel to Your School" on the Come Out and Play album. Much of those stories simply backfire and make the album/game sell better than before.
 
tim_duncan2000 said:
This is complete bullshit. I'm tired of people trying to blame everyone else for every problem. The only person who is responsible is the punk kid who killed those people.
comeo n Tim... you know this is the new millennium and no one has to take responsibilities for their actions. dont believe me? have you seen the mcdonalds lawsuites?
:laugh:
 
no1tovote4 said:
Tipper Gore is one of the biggest reasons that I voted against Gore. I have an old Twisted Sister album from the 80's that thanks Tipper for her contribution to making the album sell so well. She was upset about a certain song, "Be Cruel to Your School" on the Come Out and Play album. Much of those stories simply backfire and make the album/game sell better than before.
what was the movies the dee snider made? the one where he was a serial.... piercer or murder, i cant remember. captian howdy!
 
Johnney said:
what was the movies the dee snider made? the one where he was a serial.... piercer or murder, i cant remember. captian howdy!


Captain Howdy is one of their songs as well...

If you remember Captain Howdy was the name Blair gave to the Demon at the beginning of her posession in the movie The Exorcist. In the song Captain Howdy had primarily children as victims...
 
Johnney said:
what was the movies the dee snider made? the one where he was a serial.... piercer or murder, i cant remember. captian howdy!


Oh, and the movie's name was "Strangeland".


But the real reason to watch this film is for Captain Howdy. Imagine a violent and twice as muscular Marilyn Manson with an insane glare in his eyes and you will get a good idea. Howdy's life revolves around the ultimate pursuit of pain as pleasure inflicted both upon himself and onto others. He fears nobody and nothing, not even death, as pain inflicted upon him gives him a rush. This guy is way more deranged than the usual horror movie villain. Sure, it's got its bad moments however if you like horror movies and goth/freak culture I would recommend you give this one a try but caution: it just might make you reconsider that nose piercing you've wanted so much...

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305295522/002-9977091-5106468?v=glance[/ame]
 
There is no hard evidence to support the idea that violent video games are the root cause of violent behavior in children or in teenagers.
 
I'm going to have to accuse you all of taking too simplistic a view of this situation.

Yes, I absolutely agree that a person who is mentally competent is responsible for his actions. No, I don't believe that "society failed me" or "the movie made me do it" are valid defenses for heinous actions.

But that being said, can one simply discount the effects of the gratuitous violence contained in movies and video games? Frankly, some of you sound like the executives from the tobacco companies who hid behind the "there is no hard evidence" mantra until the science was finally shoved up their noses. There is no hard science that I'm aware of which supports the assertion that cartoon, video or motion picture violence affects the actions of certain susceptible individuals. But the old saying "where there's smoke" certainly seems applicable here.

Sociopaths are rarely, if ever, born with a congenital inclination toward that type of behavior. Sociopathic behavior is overwhelmingly an acquired trait. So if a child is abused or neglected, poorly educated, has poor role models, and lives in a rat-infested, crime ridden neighborhood all his life, he has a tendency to engage in sociopathic behavior or at least to accept such behavior as the norm. None of these influences, are the fault of the child. Further, the child is powerless to alter the current circumstances of his life.

So if you view the violent content of video games as one of a myriad of negative influences and begin to add all this together, then violent media begins to take on a different, more pervasive and more persuasive aspect. Day after day we are bombarded by violent images in the news, on film, video games and the print media. Surely you cannot deny that constant exposure to these will have a tendency to pervert one's thinking and social attitudes - especially for those who are forced to live in an environment which closely mirrors that depicted in the various violent media.

Now before anyone accuses me of being a closet liberal, let me say that I do not view exposure to violence as an excuse for violent behavior. I don't even believe it to be a mitigating circumstance. I believe this junior criminal needs to die for his crimes. But let's take a broader view of the situation and try to understand the influences of our violent entertainment on young minds. Let's not act like the tobacco company executives and deny the obvious connection until you personally are the victim of a violent crime committed by a video game addict. We need admit there is a potential problem and we need to seek an understanding of the nature of the problem in order to work toward a solution.

I'm not saying ban the games. I am saying that 16 is way too young to "play" this kind of crap. To me, games like these should be restricted to persons over 21. Personally, I'd rather see no one buy the damn things so that they would eventually simply go away. Not likely that will ever happen.
 
Merlin I agree with a lot of what you said, mostly I think the parents should be on top of what their kids are doing whenever possible. Im not a parent, however I would not want my son on a steady dose of violent games or movies, and true the makers of these games do bear a certain amount of responsibility regarding the content of what they put out for public consumption. Still to my way of thinking the boy and his parents bear the brunt of this in this case and others like this. Your right it's more complex than just one way or the other.

The school shootings as well, parents just don't know what their kids are doing. If my kid was making pipe bombs in the garage all weekend I would make it my business to know and stop it. I have to wonder who's in charge of households anymore??
 
Over 21? Be a bit reasonable here. Millions upon millions of kids play Grand Theft Auto and Doom without going on killing sprees. Obviously the game wasn't that big a factor. The kid was just royally screwed up.
 
theim said:
Over 21? Be a bit reasonable here. Millions upon millions of kids play Grand Theft Auto and Doom without going on killing sprees. Obviously the game wasn't that big a factor. The kid was just royally screwed up.

I think I'm being more than reasonable. The game is bad enough in and of itself. But when added to a set of adverse social factors, it can prove to be the catalyst that spurs the kind of homicidal actions which this punk committed.

No doubt you're right that millions play this garbage. That doesn't mean that it is not an undesirable influence. We have become callous in our attitudes toward violence. We even think it's funny. This process has not occurred overnight, nor can it be attributed to any single source. But the fact is that this is an ongoing problem - our motion pictures, television and video games are the main engines driving this. We need to start reversing the trend.
 
I believe as a parent, it is your responsibility to be aware of what your kids are doing. I have a 9 yr old son, and he is not allowed to watch/play anything that has violence/sex in it (this includes the nightly news). He isnt allowed to have a computer or tv in his bedroom. Im sure when he is 16, things will be different with what he is and isnt allowed to do, but I will still be on top of things , as I am now. Being a parent doesnt end when you child turns 16 or 18. Parents need to understand that unless your child has actual mental problems, the way they turn out is almost always dependent on how you raised them.
 
Merlin - I think it a bit unfair to compare my statement about video games to the tactics of the Tobacco Companies. When I say there is no hard evidence, it is not the research of the video game companies to which I am referring but the inability of anyone studying violent behavior to find scientific evidence to support the notion that a violent video game caused or was even a factor in causing violent behavior.

Sociopathic behavior has appeared in individuals without any of the "negative influences" of violent video games, rap or heavy metal music, Dungeons and Dragons, the Satanic Bible, Bugs Bunny Cartoons, or anything else routinely blamed for triggering said behavior.
 
After I made my post, I went and double checked sources. A majority of the current tests being cited as proof that violent video games cause or contribute to violent behavior were done in America. This is not a scientific observation but many of the anti-social indicators referenced are present in my students who don't play video games at all (Rudeness, lack of helping, etc.) Perhaps the problem is with American Society as a whole. (We can thank the "me" generation for that!)
 
I don't think it is the violence on the TV or in the video games that causes problems, it is the lack of context and alternatives that are the issue. The world is a violent place. Simple, undeniable fact. You will never be able to shield someone from that violence until they are 21. Even if you did succeed, you will likely just have created an adult who can't handle the real world.

I've played violent video games for a very, very long time. For some reason, I've always been able to put that violence into context as being acceptable in pixelated form but not acceptable in real life form. Why? Because I understand 2 things: 1) hurting real life is not right 2) pixels on a computer screen are not alive. If someone (hopefully your parents) can teach you the first, and you can figure out the second, violent computer games and movies will not cause you to start killing other people.

A huge problem is also that some people are brought up with a lack of alternatives to violence. Someone else have something you want? Don't work harder to earn money and buy it, just take it from them! Someone not giving you the "respect" you "deserve"? No time for talk, just kick their ass! Again, if you have positive alternatives to using violence you are less likely to be violent.

I honestly don't think the problem is too much violence. The problem is not enough "love", friendliness, or compassion. You will never get rid of violence and fake violence certainly can be entertaining and healthy. We are, at our roots, very violent creatures and that violence will come out one way or another. Instead of attacking this from the "say NO to violence" side, how about a bit more emphasis on the "say YES to love". Personally I think that will be far more successful.
 
Deornwulf said:
There is no hard evidence to support the idea that violent video games are the root cause of violent behavior in children or in teenagers.

Before the video games we were playing war games or cowboys and indians.
Imagine that.A nine year old welsh boy riding his chopper up the valleys, stetson on his head and a babies blanket with a hole in the middle for a poncho.
"Oi,come over yer like innit and put your ands in the ayr".

I never ended up a criminal.
 

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