| Show Violence A Video Game Legacy By Abram Bryson Contributing Writer Columbine High School was a horrid tragedy Two boys obviously obviously obviously mentally unbalanced took guns t to school and and w went nt on a shooting rampage killing classmates classmates classmates class class- mates and teachers before turning the guns on themselves After the event there was a great amount of discussion about what caused these two boys to commit this atrocity Some experts believe it was the musicians they listened to such as Marilyn Manson Nine Inch Nails and KoRn Others believe it was the violent video games they played such as Do Doom m Grand Theft Auto and Qu Quake e. e In my personal opinion both of these theories are wrong and here are two reasons why First they had mental diseases that may mayor or may not have gone untreated The second reason is that while they were planning out these atrocities no one paid any attention to th the signs that were telling the world of their V a eS had nothing to do with the the Columbine tragedy Millions and mill millions ons of people have played violent games How many mapy of them have you seen go goon goon goon on a shooting rampage Not nearly nearly nearly near near- ly enough to say siY the video games Z 1 c Photo courtesy of were factors in any of the inci inci- dents I admit that most children and the occasional adult cannot tell the difference between fantasy fantasy fantasy fanta fanta- sy and reality but we have to realize that these people are the ones who go on shooting sprees Can we accurately claim it was video games that put these ideas in their heads They could get the idea from any number Q of other places such as movies TV and and even overhearing other people talk about this subject Second is my own personal experience playing games such as Grand Theft Auto and Doom I have been playing these games and many other games like them for over ten years I also have a abad abad abad bad temper which I inherited from my dad He and I have gotten gotten gotten got got- ten into hundreds of arguments over the years and after nearly every single one of them I went away angry When I am angry I feel like destroying things so I turn on my violent video games My personal favorite game to play play- is js Gr Grand p Theft Auto 3 Nothing ni makes makes makes' kes' kes me feel better rr H sf L th thang g p eople over in in sf stolen len cars ars and evading the police When I t play pl Grand Theft Auto and other simil similar r games I get the satisfaction of destroying things without actually committing committing committing commit commit- ting the act When I am done I have ave regained control of my y temper temper temper tem tem- per no one has been hurt and nothing of value to anyone has been damaged or destroyed I Iview Iview Iview view these games as a healthy release not something that gives me an idea of going to a school a mall a church or any other number number number num num- ber of public places and start shooting innocent people If I were going to do this and asked why I did it I would tell the police that watching TV and movies were my inspiration Movies such as Gladiator X Saving Private Ryan even Men and TV shows like Law Order or even cartoons such as and Looney Tunes namely Wily E. E Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner These TV shows and movies have just as much violence if not more than the worst of the video games Yet still people have a tendency to blame video games Lets Let's make an educated guess as to how many people who play violent violent violent vio vio- lent games go on a shooting ram ram- page Say that one in a million people go on these thes sprees and that there are approximately 50 million people within the United States who play these games That would be about 50 people going on shooting rampages On average that would be someone doing this every single week ot of the year I personally dont don't recall hearing about 50 different people committing acts like this in the thelast thelast thelast last five years let alone one or more person per week If this this statistic statistic statistic sta sta- sta- sta were accurate than in my opinion the media is clearly over ver overreacting overreacting reacting about these games Now lets let's assume the media isn't over reacting and we ne need d to todo todo todo do something about the problem of violence and killing caused by video games If they were going to take away violent video games they would then need to quit making violent movies while banning all those already made They would also need to quit making violent TV shows while taking those already in existence off the air If they were going to todo todo todo do all that there would be millions millions millions mil mil- lions of unhappy Americans across the country and there very well could be hundreds of riots throughout the nation So its it's a fairly safe bet that they arent aren't going to get rid of video games If we dont don't ban video games gaines then what can we do The video game industry a already eady has a rating rating rat rat- rat rat- ing system which goes from E See GAMES GAMESon on page 11 f k ail GAMES continued from page 12 for Everyone to M for Mature Audiences only By law every I store that sells these games has hasto hasto to ID people who buy games t. t that are rated M If kids get a hold of these games there are only two explanations on how co they did it One the stores that sell the games are breaking the law and not asking for ID In Inthis Inthis Inthis this case there would be an easy way to put a stop to all of this We fine the stores for doing so and if they continue then we shut them down The second explanation is the parents bought th the games for their chil chil- dren If this is the case what can be done The parent is the legal guardian and if they say their children childr n can ca'n pl play y these games no one can do anything unless its it's proven that they are unable to take care of their children properly The most effective anyone can be is to not allow their children to play violent video games game until they can understand that they are not real On the other hand what do you do when your ild turns 18 and andis andis andis is legally old t l 1 to go out and buy th them m. m st people teenagers rs especially hay ha haw w a ter dency to want to do what isn't allowed So if violent video games weren't allowed what do you think is going to happen r Im I'm i willing i 5 to b bet th that t at least w wi c iner mner ine r out of fen ten newly legal f r ter adut go gp out and buy Do Doom m mGr Grand Gr Theft Grand Theft eft Aut Auto and nd Quake Once again there is nothing you are able to do to stop them In short snort short I am trying to say people are over reacting when it comes to violent video games For mot most people these games are area a healthy release of anger and other such emotions The real problem a at hand is mental illnesses illnesses ill illnesses ill ill- nesses or lack of maturity in children However if I am mistaken mistaken mistaken mis mis- taken on this topic then I fully admit that something must be bedone bedone bedone done to rid the world of these games If humanity decides to take this course of action then we must also ban violent movies and television shows I believe this to be a bad idea If this were to happen there would be an almost immediate outbreak of riots nationwide and that would be far worse than allowing the video games movies and TV shows to be sold and shown Finally there isn't much else we could do to stop the violence other than trying to identify these people before they commit these acts of horror If children get a hold of violent material we need to ask their parents how their children received the material material material mate mate- rial and why they did nothing about it In other words we should be looking to ourselves for the reasons why these horrific ic acts of senseless violence are being allowed to happen The Thelast Thelast Thelast last place we should look is at music TV movies and especially especially especially espe espe- not video games C 0 |
