Gaming and Violence

Gaming and Violence Talking with a good friend of mine, Wesley from the UK, we talked about the debate of violence and if it impacted them in causing violence outside of the game. For years now mature rated games have been under fire and tried to be linked to violent crimes. Several much publicized news stories that have tried to point the finger at violent mature rated games. Titles like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, Call of Duty and others are rated mature for a reason, parents still don't seem to take the ratings seriously and when something bad happens they tend to want to point the finger at anything rather than themselves. I don't believe violence in games causes the players to act out there frustrations on the public. I think just the opposite actually, after a long day at work or an awful commute on the road I tend to turn to games to blow off steam, a quick game of Madden or a round of team death match tends to do the trick. I have been a gamer now for over 30 years and never have I wanted to act out my gaming tendencies in the real world. I do understand the other side of this argument and realize there are some people out there who are mentally unstable or not able to separate the emotions and have acted out on there gaming habits. The tragic school shooting of Columbine comes to mind, the two student shooters had allegedly been huge Doom fans and often acted out violent scenarios of the game on the weekends non violently until they decided to act out on other students in one of the most horrific mass shootings in US history.Did the game itself drive these kids to kill innocent victims? Were the parents aware of the mature rating this game had? Whose to blame? Movies and music have had ratings in place a lot longer than gaming media and it seems to be enforced better than videogames. I see young kids picking out the most violent games and handing them to the parents who blindly buy them and rarely care when there asked at the register about it being M rated. So again whose to blame? Not every tragedy is gaming related but when it comes to senseless acts by younger adults, everyone looks for answers to why, everything about the lives of these kids are analyzed and it always comes back to the fact that they played violent games, listened to aggressive music and watched R rated movies. Can these mediums lead to acts of violence? It's really hard to say for sure, with the ease of access to all these forms of entertainment I believe it's ultimately up to the parents or guardians of the younger generation to be a part of there lives, no young person should feel so alone or angry to act out and kill innocent people. I have two young kids and I monitor the games movies and music they wanna play watch or listen to. Isn't that my job as a parent? I don't believe game violence causes kids to act out, I believe the lack of strong family morals and guidelines of parents is to blame. This topic will linger on and on and more senseless acts will continue and games will be accused. To the parents of young gamers, educate yourself on the game ratings, know what your kids are playing and be involved. To the others who play these violent games or know people that do, be aware, be involved and go outside once in awhile and turn off the games. The Champ @jsquyres33