Deputy UK Prime Minister Nick Clegg criticized violent video games hot on the heels of Rockstar’s incredibly successful Grand Theft Auto 5 launch. After a weeks release, GTA 5 has reportedly amassed one billion in sales worldwide and is the UK’s fastest selling game of all time (taking the crown from Call Of Duty: Black Ops by 250,000 units over the same period by in 2010). That number is only going to get higher as the holiday season approaches.
Glegg explained:
‘Clearly these games can have an incredibly powerful, and I suspect in some cases corrosive effect, on someone’s behavior, someone’s outlook; they get shut off, they don’t talk to other people, they just stay in their living room, their bedroom hunkered down in front of their computer. They occupy a hermetically sealed world of their own and that can have a very detrimental effect.’
I was wondering how long it would take after another GTA hit the shelves before to see some d!ck spout on about video game violence. To be honest, it was much sooner than I anticipated. Fresh off the mainstream medias ad nauseam coverage of yet another tragic mass shooting, this was only a matter of time. They’ve run out of original lies and straw man-tactics, so this is their go-to thing now.
I hate this argument. PERIOD. Games, Movies, Music, Books, they all have relations to our moods. They are meant to evoke emotional states of mind. That is part of what any art form does. That has nothing to do with a persons ability to go out and act upon the thought of stabbing, raping, murdering, theft, etc. It is a psychological issue that stems deep into a persons psyche.
An open-world crime saga bringing in one billion in sales means there are going to be a whole lot of effed up people in the world due to this corrosive effect. I mean how many copies of that game is that? And as far as most of these people are concerned it is 100% of gamers that will be affected..no? Surely the argument has to 100% of people are affected by games otherwise it would mean that there would have to be a secondary factors that would only affect certain gamers and not others and if there is a secondary factor that makes these people act out then maybe it is not games at all.
People really, really, really have a hard time understanding that not every person thinks and acts as they do. Some are violent, some insane, some are sociopaths and so forth. These people may be attracted to activities which complement their proclivities – like video games. They may also shoot up a naval base/school or shopping centre with little to no warning. Most explanations don’t have a single answer and yet we’re pre-disposed to look for one.
Not to mention that credentials, sources for evidence, and actual science would go a long way when making claims like this. Seeing is how none of those were present, this individual falls into the “need a scapegoat” crowd. And it’s evidence-less scapegoating to avoid topics such as mental health concerns in our countries since those are real and real hard issues to deal with.
People can’t handle the simple truth that some people are just broken, so they invent things to blame. Fifteen years ago, it was rap music. Before that, violent movies and television. Before that, heavy metal. It’s an irrational justification for something they don’t want to face.
The thing that concerns me, though, is the repetition of this message, given the influence of mass media and social networking that exists today. In other words, if this falsehood gets repeated often enough, even rational people might start to believe that it’s true. And to a degree, I think some already do.
-Dagobot
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