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Columbine Student on VG Violence
Sophia wrote in to mention some discussion of Video Game Violence on 1up.com this week. Brooks Brown had the experience of attending Columbine High School around the time of the now infamous shooting incident. Via his blog, Brown goes into a detailed discussion of Why Violence in Gaming is a Good Thing. From the article: "GTA isn't about fucking hookers or killing cops. It's a story of a guy who got screwed trying to get back on top. It is, by nature, a story game. Postal 2 may let you kill anyone you want in bloody and disgusting ways - but that's not what it is about either. It is, by nature, a tech demo in the abilities of programmers and AI. it is WE - the gamers - who change what the game is about and determine what happens. It is the person playing who determines what the game contains." Jane Pinckard has a quick reaction to his post. More commentary on this subject is available via John Davison's Blog, who met Brown at a taping of a news program which was ostensibly to be about gaming in general. Instead he was ambushed about violence in games and ended up walking out.
Uhh, I'm pretty sure it was pretty much a 'kill everything that moves, and even if it doesn't move, kill it anyway just to be sure' kind of game. It was innovative in the ways you could kill people though. Very creative.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.....
The real danger is with racing games. Try racing an Audi S4 around in Project Gotham all day, then hopping into a real S4 to go to the grocery store. Dangerous stuff.
I have often thought that people who were likely to commit murder were attracted to violent video games, and NOT that violent video games created murderers. Perhaps we should find out what percentage of violent video game players DO NOT commit violent crimes... probably in the high 90 percentage count. Also, perhaps we should find out how many people who commit violent crimes didn't even play violent video games. For those who believe in the Bible... Cain slew Abel... and that was before violent video games, movies, or anything else of that nature.
His observations on how it's not the game itself, but what you bring to the game, is right on the money.
As an example, how many people have played Civilization III?
So... what's it about?
Is it about a brave tribe of people who are struggling to establish a civilization under your benevolent leadership, and advance their learning and culture while they peacefully expand, only to be constantly attacked by less enlightened and/or more warlike cultures?
Or is it about a tribe of people who have fallen under your evil domination, who you will then guide forward through the ages in an orgy of conquest, until you stand astride the Earth as its sole Overlord?
Or is it just a bunch of pixels being moved around by the in-game AI, and you're a video gamer with a few hours to kill, amusing yourself by trying to defeat the AI opponents in the game?
It can be any one of those things, depending upon the imagination of the player.
Everything about that article rings true for me... high school was a nightmare for me too. I hated it. Now that I'm finally past it (and have been for the last 5 years) my mind is starting to forget the pain, but you don't really forget it. Just because you're different, no matter what that difference is, you are bad to them. And even if it weren't a hellhole trying to be in school, I wouldn't have wanted some of those people as my friends because they are so shallow and cruel. I really feel for those people quoted above... thankfully I never was singled out for dangerous behavior (I had a principal who valued brainiacs), but I realize I could have been.. and that is scary. High school is one seriously fucked up place. When is this country going to realize that!!?? It pisses me off so much that this kind of thing is blatantly still allowed in schools!
Best death? What, die from a naked lady avalanche?
If they tested the kids that shoot up their schools, they would probably find they are sociopathic or mentally ill in some other way. Perhaps violence in media inspired them to commit their crimes while young, but it was probably bound to happen at some point in their lives.
And now for my story. I apologize in advance if it's tedious, but as someone who almost chose to commit these same acts, I feel it's applicable.
I believe I may have mild sociopathic tendencies, which were aggravated by parents that, though decent, didn't pay much attention to anything I did, and by the "popular" students, who picked on me incessantly through my junior high years. I first fantasized about humiliating them. The longer it went on, the more it escalated. I planned to kill myself to escape the daily misery. A single thought kept me from trying: "They'll win." Then I fantasized about killing them, by many gruesome means.
Mind you, while all this was happening, I wasn't a gamer, and my prior gaming experiences consisted of "Pitfall" and "Breakout" for the Atari 2600. I can't say for certain whether violent gaming (which was available, I just didn't have any new gaming systems) would have changed any of that. Knowing my personality at the time, it would have been more a release valve than anything.
I had access to guns and knives. I had the rage, and probably the tendency to commit what would have been the first such incident (and by a female, no less!). What stopped me from carrying out these deeds I plotted? It wasn't my parents. It wasn't lack of exposure to violence, since I'd seen my fair share of violent movies. It was that same thought that kept me from taking my own life. "They'll win." I would have been villified, they would have been cherished. Those cruel bastards certainly didn't deserve glowing memorial praise. So I did my best to ignore them. Luckily, I moved to a distant town right before high school.
We can't point the finger at any one cause of these crimes. In my case, a combination of factors contributed to a possible outburst, but there was just enough elements lacking that I kept my common sense and was able to overcome the impulse to act. Maybe I wasn't ill enough, maybe my parents were just good enough, maybe the torment didn't go far enough, or maybe I was just too afraid. I know for certain that the emotional torture I'd been put through all those years ago has permanently affected my mental state.
I lay most of the blame for what I almost did on two parties: myself, for taking so much stock in what others thought of me, and all the ignorant adults and peers that saw the problem, but chose to ignore it for whatever reason.
A postscript: shortly after I moved from that town, I saw in a local news broadcast that one of my harassers had been killed in a car accident. I smiled. Does that make me a bad person?
why hasn't he been captured yet? His kidneys are disfunct - how can he keep evading the US troups?
Simple; the people in charge of the US don't *want* him to be captured. (Witness pulling out of Afghanistan when we knew he was still there.)
The reason for this is simple: control. Right now, the US is one of the most paranoid places in the world, and this paranoia is being fed by the White House, because it gives them power.
Want to pass blatantly unconstitutional laws? Say the "T" word, and watch your opponents' political power crumble.
Want to run a police state? Have Federal agents armed with machine guns "patrol" major cities, and tell the sheeple that it's necessary to keep them safe.
If Bin Laden had been captured, people might ask "why do we need all of this?" Bush/Cheney need a bogeyman to keep the sheeple properly afraid, so that the real terrorists (the ones in the White House) can maintain their power hold.