A while back a senator said that violence in computer games is completely
outrageous and is amazingly influential on our youth. We'll just randomly choose
a name by which to call him and randomly choose a state that he represents.
We'll call him "Joseph Lieberman" of "Connecticut." Oops,
that seems to be his real name and state..... Anyway, Joe believes that violence
is simply appalling and that games should not have violence. Well, here are my
reasons why violence is not bad in computer games: people are not persuaded to
commit amazingly bloody crimes by them, there are ratings on games, and also,
movies can have all the violence they please and the rating can justify it all.
Let us examine these. Many people would say I am wrong about this one. I say
violence does not affect people that much when they are playing a game. I hope
that our species has evolved enough to tell the difference between a 15"
screen full of pixels and the real world. I hope they realize that the violence
on these screens is quite fake, and that in the real world this violence will
not be put up with. What is that I hear? It desensitizes people to violence. Let
us take a look at this. You've been playing violent computer games since you
were five. Violence no longer affects you. Are you going to take a gun to
someone's head just because violence is no big deal to you? You probably will
not. I can hear Joe now. Mechwarrior 2 is violent and should not have all this
violence. Now, if you are familiar with Mechwarrior 2 then you know it is a game
that you play as a robot destroying other robots. Little Billy sees this and
decides he'll get dad's robot out and do some damage. There is a reason for you
right there why game violence is not that persuasive. A lot of it is not
completely real. Furthermore, violence has been in movies for a lot longer and
children have not been too influenced by it. Eighty-seven percent of violent
crimes are committed by adults. Do you think all this violence is really getting
the kids to become more violent? Now, people probably are not convinced yet. You
are saying little Billy, 5 years old, in this state of complete malleability
will play "monkey see monkey do" (I put this in quotation marks
because of how demeaning it is calling people monkeys, but I lack a better
saying so I used it) and take dad's shotgun to a buddy and blow him away a la
Quake. This is why games have ratings. You know, those little rectangles that
say "T" for Teen rating because of violence, gore, vulgarity or
what-not? Yes, contrary to what you might have heard, that is a rating. It means
that if parents are responsible they will not let Billy get Quake. If you happen
to have games that are not appropriate for your kids you are not out of luck.
Daggerfall has parental controls and password protection to keep your kids from
seeing the violence. Many companies do this. It's another way moldable young
children are protected from violent games. I have one last point to make. Sen.
Lieberman finishes his press conference that bashes computer game violence. He
then takes a walk to the local theater and purchases tickets to take his
10-year-old to see Saving Private Ryan . Do find anything wrong with this
picture? He accepts violence in one form but completely denies it in another
form. Movies have ratings to protect children from violent content. They can get
away with anything and it has not really affected kids in the past. Then a new
form of expression, computer games, pops up into the picture. Now people are
saying the violence is overbearing when really they are ignoring the fact that
the everyday news has more violence than your average computer game! Take into
consideration movies and then the violence in computer games is greatly dwarfed.
Well, Joe, did I miss anything? Computer game violence does not seem to affect
people; games do have ratings, and there is already so much violence on TV and
in society that the violence in computer games is not adding too much to the
equation. I think that if you are a kid and a violent game is OK with your
parents then play that game.