Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Video game violence under attack

Bulletstorm Cover Art. Courtesy of Epic Games and People Can Fly.
Bulletstorm Cover Art. Courtesy of Epic Games and People Can Fly.
Fox News has once again decided to run an anti-gaming article, attacking a shooting game called Bulletstorm as hazardous to children.

“Parents had better beware: There’s a Bulletstorm on the horizon.” John Brandon wrote as the beginning of the article.

If that opening statement does not explain how one-sided the article is then take into account that five of the seven sources listed are against Bulletstorm and video games at large. Also, when the anti-gaming sources say something inaccurate, Fox News did not see fit to correct them in the article. Take this gem from Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist and author:

“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” Lieberman said.

First of all, all violent crimes, rape included, have been going down according surveys done by the Federal Bureau of Investigations; secondly, there is no rape in ‘Bulletstorm’.

This not a rant against Fox News however, as for years now several media outlets have been unfairly representing video games with supposed ‘experts’.

For example, CNN used to quote Jack Thompson, a lawyer, as an expert on video games and on the effects video games have on children.

In actuality, he is a now permanently disbarred Florida lawyer, who has never played a game and has no experience in psychology. That hasn’t stopped him from blaming video games for the Columbine shootings, the Northern Illinois shootings, Virginia Tech shootings, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks with no evidence to back up his claims.

“There is going to be a Columbine-times-10 incident, and everyone will finally get it,” Thompson said in an upcoming documentary called Moral Kombat.

This anti-gaming attitude is not limited to the U.S. Russian news network, Russia Today, blamed the bombing of the Domodedovo International Airport on a game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 because it has a level where the player takes part in a shooting at a fictional Russian airport. While this may, one has to keep in mind just because something seems logical that does not mean there is a direct correlation.

Again, there is no evidence to back up this claim. Russia Today just makes the claim that a fictional shooting inspired a bombing, instead of several real terrorist attacks that used suitcase bombs.

Violence, real or fictional, can have an effect on people, particularly children. However, people need to remember that environment and the distinction of “right” and “wrong” plays a bigger role more than anything.

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