Video Games Kill People
Sunday, November 14th, 1999
Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Yes, we have finally found the root of all evil in modern society - and it is the video game. It is the video game that causes otherwise completely well-balanced people to lose all sense of reality and go on killing sprees. It is the video game that is bringing death and destruction to happy, well-functioning societies the world over.
It wasn’t always the video game. Back in the days before video games, it was rock music that played such an evil role in our little world. Music is still a big threat today, as anyone at the PMRC will be happy to tell you - youngsters are so impressionable, you know. Too much Judas Priest, too much Marilyn Manson, and even completely stable, well-adjusted kids might start sacrificing chickens - and then sacrificing each other.
Movies are bad as well, because the people who should know tell us that most people are completely incapable of differentiating between “art" and “real life.” And instead of educating people and teaching them right and wrong, teaching them the difference between fantasy and reality, between art and real life, it is faster and simpler to eliminate the offending art and to do away with the fantasy world. Education is such a hassle, and controversial artists are an easy target. Nobody likes a devil-worshipper, boys and girls.
Because of their fragility, it’s best to make sure that healthy children are not exposed to any violence other than the violence they see taking place in the real world every day. Outside of the virtual world, people have drug deals and drive-by shootings taking place on their doorsteps. Outside of the fantasy movie world, children are abused and ignored, injustices are swept under the carpet, and anybody with half a brain can get access to a gun and blow half of someone else’s brain away. This is real life, but these are not the real problems - and it’s a good thing, too, because trying to change all this sure would be a lot of trouble.
The disintegrating fabric of society is not the problem, the people with guns in their hands aren’t the problem. The real problem is the thousands of impressionable children with joysticks in their hands. Perhaps the gun is just a joystick substitute for these youngsters. If we eliminate the joysticks and the need for joysticks, there will be no reason for kids to reach for the guns lying around their houses.
Don’t worry, it’s not really a paradox if we ban violent movies and video games, yet allow every household to have a well-stocked gun rack in its basement. It’s the God-given right of every American to own a gun; the American God is apparently a member of the NRA. Maybe it’s true that you’re more likely to be killed by a gun if you keep a gun in your house, or maybe it’s not. But if it is, at least you will have gone out fighting - and when America is invaded by the Canadians, won’t you be happy to have those guns for self-defense? Anyway, guns aren’t only used for killing other people; you can kill animals with guns as well, and sometimes you just can’t take down a deer with anything but an AK-47.
So there you go, parents. Isn’t it a comfort to finally understand why your children are turning into mass murderers and to know what you can do to stop it? Isn’t it a relief to realize that the problem is so easy to correct? No, there is no need for you to actually pay attention to your children, to raise them with love, to teach them that life is precious. There is no need for you to take any sort of interest in how they spend their time - just as long as they’re not playing those evil video games. Or watching certain movies. Or listening to that rock music. What, they have pictures of Hitler on the walls of their rooms? No, no, nothing to worry about. Swastika armbands? That’s just the fashion, you know (although you do have to be wary of trenchcoats - guns don’t kill people, trenchcoats kill people). Anway, doesn’t every child go through that fascist phase? No, as long as they don’t play “Doom," those swastikas are not a sign of a bigger problem, and are not a warning signal that there is something wrong with your child.
And Mr. Clinton - you snuggly humanitarian president you - you, too, can breathe a sigh of relief. You just continue to do that great job of trying to ban images of smoking in Hollywood movies. You continue to bemoan the fact that our society is crumbling because of all the violence in video games or on TV, and there will be absolutely no need for you to contemplate dysfunctional interpersonal relationships, attempt to ban handguns or even (gasp) take on the NRA. You just keep on praying - isn’t that what we’re meant to do? Yes, let us pray. Let us close our eyes and pray that all the big, mean problems go away without us actually having to do anything about them. Let us gather in town squares all across America and have a video game burning. We’ll sing Kum Ba Ya and, as the last diskettes and CD-ROMs disappear in the acrid black smoke, we’ll have a 21 gun salute and we’ll rejoice at having eliminated yet another threat to our harmonious American society.
After all, guns don’t kill people…
Comments
1
you suck, metalica rules!
2
I read this (while doing research for my thesis on this subject) and instantly picked out this was a ironic and sarcastic piece. I thought I was blindingly obvious. But then, being British, we ‘get’ humour. In my research it has been seen that a lot of Americans do not. Al Ward up there understands and I love that little line at the end (I notice it comes from a .co.uk address, too…).
I guess this itself is ironic; how people don’t stop to think things through and try to understand, just reach for the angry stick and start to poke.
3
Hey…where’d my comments go? That was a nice piece I wrote, too.
4
You should be flattered that your intent was misunderstood by most who have commented so far. Your real intent has a similar fallacy as the intent you were mistaken for. You can’t blame the NRA just as you can’t blame video games… Please, stop shifting blame.
Responsibility. We fail to accept responsibility for our own actions; we fail to expect others (including our children) to accept responsibility for their actions; we blame stereotypes, the government, gunowners, and figureheads. The children who pull the triggers are to blame even though they live in a society that doesn’t teach them responsibility and they don’t have a real concept of the finality of death. Their food is killed and harvested for them; their elderly family members are sent to a facility to die away from their families; and they are rarely involved in the rearing and care of family. How can you blame the NRA any more than you would a society that desensitizes children with dark fancy and drugs?
5
Ah, there is more than one Infinity7 in the gaming world. I had wondered about that lately. I had not seen that nickname used by anyone but me before.
I believe we probably should have First Person Hugging games maybe. Instead of running around shooting each other we run around hugging each other.
6
You are a genius of sarcasm.
w3rd
7
Interesting but what you fail to realize is that there are millions of people in this country who play video games and banning them just because parents are to lazy to keep tabs on what there children play is no reason at all to ban them. This country is in enough trouble already and doing something like banning violent video games might tip the scale and cause something like an all out riot across the nation. It is so typical of americans when a problem like this arises to blame it on technology. its not the games its the parents children who are not of proper age cannot buy these games. So the only way they can obtain them is with a parent and if the parent buys it without even looking at it first is a BAD parent. So don’t blame video games for your BAD parenting. And children who cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction needs serious help.
8
boooo
9
Jessica WordRidden, I am doing a debate upon this subject and came across your site while Googling facts. You have written a masterful peice of sarcasm and I (in grade 10 here) find it amazing that your readership (who must be morons) could not see that sarcasm. I realized the nature of the peice in the beginning sentence, as it [sarcasm] was blindingly obvious and so thick you could cut it with a knife, and anyone who could NOT see it should be sent back to grade 8 remedial english to learn persuasive writing techniques. An engaging read!
10
The montreal city hall has approved the legalization of prostitution in certain neighborhood of Montreal. It is an poor area of the city whre there are lost of drug addicts at night; stealing and fights are normal there. There are lots of families living there and a school too. Rather than locking the TV or the video games the parents will have to lock the windows I guess… Don’t get me wrong: I don’t like pronography in TV nor violence… but I find it EXTREMELY cynical that we allow it at the doorsteps of the kids and then try to convince them that it is wrong!
11
Uh, okay…but I think you mean "Metallica".
12
Video games have nothing to do with killings the only reason that kids that kill play video games is because while playing a game they get to excape reality and get away from all the stress that is in their lives. Bad parentings is what causes kids to run out and shoot up a school.
13
it’s a load of bolacks
14
Uh, okay…but I think you mean "bollocks".
15
its just a cover. as humans we feel the need to understand everything and why everything works the way it does, and blaming video games is an easy target. its the kids fault not the games. games dont kill people, people kill people!
16
dude r u serious? i have played videogames my whole life and im fine. i have never gotten in a fight at school, or did any junk like that.
17
You guys have no life outside video games do you???????????????
18
i am 12, and am supprised at how you think about games.A friend and I always play "violent video games" i play the most violent games known to man.I also have another……some what friend who actually throws punches at us!He doesn’t play games at all.My real friend an i played half life the other night and looked in to a vent shaft and screamed because a crab bug flew out and scared the shiza out of us.
19
Chandra, thank you! *Finally*, somebody read the article and actually understood what I was talking about! I was beginning to despair…
20
I recently read a review of a Christian video game based on the Unreal engine. Besides the slow movement and Christian theme,the game is alot like Quake; If you play as an angel, you kill alot of demons, and vice versa. Quake, the game played by the Littleton killers has the same objective, minus the option of playing a demon.
21
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people … thus it has always been and thus it will always be. The Bible (nice epic saga) even tells of Cain who slew Able in the field. It is man’s nature to kill, or was it the old version of “Doom” the led Can into an act of murder? Video games are not the culprit here, it IS society, and not the fabric of it, either. Today’s society has made necessary for both parents to work in order to provide a comfortable “home” for their children. No time for parenting here, is there? Let them watch TV and play games and chat on the Internet … anything, just as long as they shut the Hell up after my long day at the factory (or office)! Oh yeah, I did have a VERY stressful day at work because none of these bastards want to be responsible for what they have just done … yeah, the “other” person did it … it could NOT be me, if it was, I might lose my job … must look perfect in the eyes of my supervisor … yeah, the other guy did it … Let’s not blame something which is innocent. If we are going to point fingers at something, so we came place the blame for all of these school shootings, let’s point the finger where it needs to be … capitolism, inflation, money (and the greed that goes with it), and the worst criminal of all POLITICS (and that dirty little bastard child of theirs, NAFTA). Enough … venting makes my brain hurt … it was a long day in the factory …
22
Video games DO NOT cause violence.
Bad parenting causes violence.
23
Video Games dont kill people the sick people that have the urge to pick up a gun and shoot a friend or stranger and end their life are the problem.
Dont point the finger at Video Games just because they have violence in them. Do you want all the games to have pink furry bunnies hugging each other? Violence is in video games because its ENTERTAINMENT. Not real killing its a destraction from a hard day at work or school.
I myself am a 17 year kid who plays every kind of video game out there. Ive played them all my life. And I dont feel the need to shoot someone just because I saw it on a GAME!
And its not the politians fault either they dont know what goes on with everything in the world. Let them take care of the REAL violence, let the parents take care of the ENTERTAINMENT.
24
Computer games only cause violence if your weak minded and stupid enough to actually think they’re real!!! GAMES are NOT REAL!!! They are fictional and quite funny. I enjoy killing little easter bunnies(at killfrog.com) or blowing saddam hussien(at everywhere.com!! lol) away and you don’t see me going around shooting people or strangling bunnies!!!
25
If u are you cannot tell the diffrense between games and reality u should be shot! only an idiot would kill or mimic a game.
26
You all should should do some more research on what your talking about because you apparently have no idea and no real facts backing up your reasoning. Those who do not know their opponent’s arguments do not completely understand their own. Your relying to heavily on what the media is feeding you. Being a gamer myself and a member of the National Honor Society I know if your not disturbed video games will have no effect on your will to kill someone.
27
Okay, I feel the need to step in here and reiterate that my original essay was meant to be IRONIC. Of COURSE I don’t think video games kill people (or make people kill), of COURSE it infuriates me when politicians place the blame for incidents like Columbine at the feet of the gaming industry, while giving the gun industry and the NRA free reign to do whatever the hell they want. Of COURSE I think you have to be pretty disturbed to begin with if playing a video game (or watching a movie…or listening to a band….) makes you go out and kill somebody.
For pity’s sake, did any of you actually bother to *read* what I wrote, or did you all just glance at the title of the article and immediately start to bluster? I thought my readership was sophisticated enough to pick up on sarcasm, but I guess I was wrong…
28
that was the biggest waste of 5 min. reading text in my life…scarry to think theres ppl that actualy belive that. You know what we as gamers call you? a N00B! stupid kids look at games and go and try to shot an educated kid , but the educated kid shoots the dumbass kid. now theres one less dumbass kid to try and shoot educated kids. DIABLOII ROCKS
29
Yes, I was most definitely wrong (about my readership, that is.)
30
video games are for people that can see the difference between reality and fantasy. if you can’t tell the difference then you need help.
31
dear me,that brought them out of the woodwork didn`t it? They certainly know what irony is,it`s a bit like bronzery or silvery.
32
It is in my opinion that although video games may desenceitse children to violence at no stage does it invoke it. video games are now a way of life and there is no way a few mothers that blame the shootings of school kids on video games will ever sucseed in their banning or restrintions. 99% of people who play video games do not reacted violently with three soceity that is a fact.
33
Idiot. The instinct to kill does not come from a video game. It is possible that someone who wants to kill someone would think it would be cool if he tried something he saw in a videogame, but that doesn’t make him want to kill, does it? Does the videogame jump off a shelf and shoot people?
I’m sure many of you have noticed that many polititians and “high” members of society target videogames. Why? To gain support from the concerned parents and gullible fools who believe video games kill. They realise they cannot target music, movies and literature because every democratic nation does not supress speech. Many people are not sure if this counts for videogames so these parasites jump in, accuse games of killing, then leech off voting support.
34
When I was a child, I played games that involved shooting spaceships out of space, and the like. I certainly was not motivated to think, “Hmmmm, NASA has a launch scheduled here pretty quickly, and the space shuttle would certainly be worth a lot of points if I could annihilate that!” I know it may be a strange comparison. However, one cannot prove to me that a video game biologically alters our minds to “make” us kill people. Your mind has to be completely warped to believe this in the first place. It’s much like blaming devil worshiping on the fact that when one played a record backwards, the music told them to do it. Subliminal messages were not actually encrypted into these objects to make people unconsciously succumb to the urge to kill or anything else.
By the way, I don’t know about anybody else, but it seemed to me that some people that commented on this site were against the article. Could nobody sense the sarcasm? For cyring out loud, get a grip people!
35
vedio games stink
36
what a totally retarded view. To shift the blame of people killing people through the reasoning that video games incite the gamers to kill. Obviously, the author is too narrow-minded to conduct statistical research. I can cite references to psychological analysis of killers, and only a small percentage is attributed to video games. There has already been a debate in our university, and we buried [they were so ashamed of themselves they have to undergo plastic surgery to hide their identities after the debate] the team who took the stand that video games kill people.
Amazingly enough, religion tops the motivation for killing, next is politics. But I’m not saying that religion kills people, it’ll be up to the critical-thinking person to analyze numeric, statistic, cold, hard facts whether or not video games do incite killing.
37
Clearly, the general blog-reading population has not gotten more intelligent in the eight years since I wrote this SATIRICAL blog post.
I despair.
38
im sorry but i think the person who wrote this is an idiot, cause some sad kid think its funny to mimic the game, and when he causes a death, blames it on the game. So how comes i can play violent games like Halo, Unreal Tournament and even Dragonball Z and yet still be fine. The only thing that should happen is the parents and kids should be kept away from civilise people. I mean also check the rating to see if the child is old enough to play the game. If it says 18, that means 18. Not 17. not even 9. 18. I read about how a 13 and 15 year old commited a killing and then blamed Grand Theft Auto, a game that is rated 18. They would not be allowed to buy it themselves, and if they did, the shop should be shut down, and if the parents did it, they should of made sure their children would be suitable to play the game, instead of letting two stupid children play it and then think how they can commit the murder then get away with it. I mean what are you lot suggesting, the game suddenly yelled at the child to kill, if so, you are as demented as those two children
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