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New York Times profiles John Romero & John Carmack
whiteprints writes "The New York Times has a great article about John Romero and John Carmack. Talks about the school shooting connection
" It's getting on my nerves that so many people want
to connect Doom and Quake to the shootings, and aren't willing to
connect that simple fact that for millions of years, humans
were hunters. And this is the NYT so you need to login to
read the article.
He refers to "the natural instinct for neophyte hunters and soldiers to shoot repeatedly until a target drops". Has anyone else found, either in games or RL, that exactly the _opposite_ is true? Certainly _my_ problem has never been shooting repeatedly until the target drops...in fact, just the opposite! I usually have to fight the temptation to fire once, then peer and go "Hmm, what did that shot do?" (Especially with rockets/grenades.) I've heard that that's a common problem, although I can't cite a source.
Furthermore..."Though he'd never fired a gun before, the teen-ager hit eight people with eight bullets, five to the head and three to the upper torso." Bull. I'd like to know where it's been shown that Carneal had never fired a gun before. As someone who's fired perhaps 500 rounds through _real_ pistols, rifles, and shotguns in the past year, I can tell you it's not that easy. Especially not when you're full of adrenaline and your targets are moving. Either he was some sort of freakish shooting prodigy, or he'd had real practice - because I can also tell you that shooting in Doom/Quake is very little like shooting in RL. For one thing, your arms and hands don't get tired and start to shake in Doom...
"and through our own actions, demonstrate to children that problems should be resolved by talking it out, and that violence, no matter what the reason, is never a viable solution"
[clicks channel tuner]
"In other news today, President Bill Clinton announced that the bombing in Yugoslovia will intensify as we enter day 60 of NATO action in that troubled region of the world."
Is it any wonder that kids are confused?
(rant on)
Mainstream America is also ignoring the fact that their children are amongst the most vicious, self-center little animals on the face of the planet. Their "little darlings" will terrorize anyone whom they consider to be outside the norm.
If you any of the following applies(or applied) to you in high school, you have points against you:
Living well: the only just revenge. Take it from the poor, short, fat, late-blooming German immigrant farmer's math whiz son in an Irish/English area who graduated in the top 10% of class with two diplomas from a school where his mother drove bus and his aunt taught Chemistry. My grandmother taught me that if I didn't like my position in life, the only way to improve it is by getting more education. (And keep on soaking it up for the rest of your life!)
I went to my 20-year reunion and was surprised to see how things hadn't really changed back there except for those of us (we geeks) who'd left town for greener pastures (call it about a 40k/yr difference). Most of 'em were still drinking in the corner bar, watching sports, and wondering why they'd grown up to be just like their parents.
Oh yeah! Marry a geek too! Life is much more "interesting", profitable, varied, and entertaining.
(rant off)
I'm sure this is gona get some flak (but please read the whole thing before flaming):
Q: Are violent games played by violent people?
A: Yes
Q: Do criminals use guns to kill people?
A: yes
This is how the media sees the whole situation.. they ask these two questions and then they try to convince everyone that "violent games + guns" breed murdurers. The only problem is that these same games are played by millions of other people who are NOT violent. And millions of guns are bought and used by people that DON'T commit crimes. But no one looks at those statistics not because they're NOT true.. but because they don't help them push their political agendas.
I'm sorry but I doubt that a 14-16 year old could afford a $2000 computer. An internet connection.. and ALL these violent games. Some where along the lines here the parents payed for some of that. So why are we blaming the games? Most likely the PARENTS bought those games. That's like blaming a gun because a parent bought a hand gun for their kid and the kid went out and killed someone. I'm not saing that games DO cause people to kill.. but even if they DID the parents are still at fault here.
In the case of the Colorado shootings (And I live about 30 min from Littleton) the kids were building and setting off pipe bombs in their BACK YARD.. hello? anyone? For crying out loud those two were practically asking to get stoped.
So now we have a bunch of "politicians" trying to make their names known by banning games, tv shows.. hell anything that they can point the finger at as the cause. The only "politician" that seems to have ANY common sense these days seems to be an ex-pro wrestler from minesota.
Ex-Nt-User
It seems the press keeps asking, "Why did this happen?"
I think the correct question is, "Why did this happen at school?"
Why not a shopping mall? Why not a department store? If FPS games are really turning kids into violent, mindless killers, why are they particularly targeting their fellow students and not Joe Six-Pack on the street?
How does that saying go? "For every complex problem, there's a solution that's simple, neat, and wrong."
--
The Future: Some assembly required; batteries not included.
In my area, they have coverage of the hearings in Congress regarding the shootings in Littleton and such.
:-(
It seems like Congress almost "gets it" as far as this. They're talking mainly about after-school programs for the kids to have a place to go to after school. And, other such things.
It seems like the role of culture and games and such isn't seen as something that should be controlled, at least in these hearings. There was some talk of gun control and other such issues, however.
Hopefully, things won't progress to the point where they start trying to control popular culture due to the misdeeds of a few. Then again, laws like that go along the same lines as drug laws, and we have drug laws in this country which have contributed to the United States having more prisoners per capita than any other country except South Africa, yet our crime rate is sky-high. I think that a figure I saw shows that there are more heroin users per capita in Baltimore than in Amsterdam.
I think the biggest problem is that people are not willing to take responsibility for their actions. We need to do things that attack the problem at hand. Parents need to take more responsibility for their children. Parents need to talk to their children.
Feel-good approaches like trying to regulate popular culture, picking kids out that wear trenchcoats, etc., whatever it is, will only backfire.
Just as there are a lot of gun owners who don't rob liquor stores, similarly most game players don't kill people in real life.
The problems that caused the Littleton and other shootings are the same as they've been for ages -- intolerance, parental incompetence, lack of emphasis on the importance of education.
Our society needs to realize that our children's education is like your rent payment -- it's not something you get around to if you have some extra money after buying fancy clothes; it's your number one priority -- and that being a parent is a full-time responsibility, more important than your hobbies, your friends, even your career. If you're not willing to give up all that, don't have kids. Besides, condoms are a heck of a lot cheaper.
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
I saw the images of people that were blown up, shot up, and hacked up. These were hard-core and in your face images of violence from all over the world and nothing like image of a blown up imp from Doom. If you want to learn how to become a remorseless killer all you have to do is follow in the footsteps of your favourite news story.
Oh yeah, I think there was something about yet another punk shooting up yet another school. What does that make since the huge media hype of Littleton? Three, four? I don't really know for sure since I can't watch the news too often (too depressing). I would bet that most of them wouldn't have done it if they didn't figure they'd make the national news or CNN.
At times in this article the author seemed to be saying, "Look, these guys aren't monsters." Then at other times the author seemed to be saying, "They aren't monsters, but they make games that make people kill other people." Romero and Carmack and the games they make aren't the monsters here. The idea that an FPS can teach you how to kill a person is ridiculous. They DO teach you how to point at something, I'll give ya that (assuming you haven't already figured that part out after 14 years on the planet). The one kid said, "I don't even know how to load a gun." If you ask me, that says everything that should need to be said about the issue of games teaching kids how to kill.
Look elsewhere for the root cause people......
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