LA Times commentary on violent video games

[Jarodaka]

...where do I sign up? I want some of that grant money!

Article.

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twacalmike@aol.com

orchard

The author makes some interesting points, the main one being:

So any sensible investigation into video games must ask the "compared to what" question. If the alternative to playing "Halo 2" is reading "The Portrait of a Lady," then of course "The Portrait of a Lady" is better for you. But it's not as though kids have been reading Henry James for 100 years and then suddenly dropped him for Pokemon.

[mallochai]

oh my god.... this is giving me a headache already....

*begin short rant*

don't use that kind of money to study video games.... feed people! dammit! there are starving people in our country and every other country in the world! there are children living on the street and in violent HOMES! that is so POINTLESS!!!

argh...

*end short frustrated rant*

[Slept with ghost]

yay another chat about violence and video games I love these no wait.....actually im pretty sick of them its all really simple to understand this and if not ill help at this time i would ask you to pick up any video game case or pc game box you haveing laying around the house okay now do you see that little white box in the bottom left hand corner in that box it should say one of 5 things E,E+10,T,M,and AO(which is not likely less then a handfull of games have this rateing) those are there for a reason so parents can know what kind of games their children are playing sadly and i dont know why after much fighting to have the rateings in place on the games some parents still choose to ignore them and then what happens well one kid stabs another in a fashion similar to manhunt (i use this because it happened) and the parents look for who or what to blame saying our son was such a good kid and we had no idea he was playing such a violent game well let me tell you something you should have known what your son was playing stop pointing the finger at anybody but yourself and another thing if your son is actually going to do something he saw in a video game then something wasnt right in the first place and its your fault for not paying more attention plus though the esrb is there sometimes you dont really need it to know a game is bad for children of a certain age for example the game is named grand theft auto not please sir my a borrow your car and make a withdraw from the bank its plain to see what games children should and should not play and very easy to see who is to blame when they play these games and kill somebody video games may play a small part in violence but its up to the parents to prevent this from happening

[DarkVampire]

This is what I think about these damned politicians who think that video games cause violence. These assholes shoul maybe try and teach their kids values, repsect, honor and actually spend time with them. Wow that's a new concept. But hey the tv is a good baby sitter lets stck them there instead of dealing with them. Or maybe send them to their friends house to do who knows what.

I play lots of games, some "violent", I've watched horror movies, rated R type documentaries and you don't see me go out on a rampage and kill people. I'm afraid my parents raised me the old fashion way instilling good values into me and my sister.

[Lilith]

i got so much to say about his but no damn time to do it so...................

THis is so stupid to spend money on when people like me are struggling to pay for a house and cant even afford to buy the damn video games, my oldest has PS2 and some games a year ago n ya know what he is alreayd bored with it cause he has no new material to play casue i cant afford the crap.

fuck this studdy and fuck the people who allowed that much $ to be spent on it, unless they want to pay my kid to play the games so he can pay for my mortage.

other then that i mirror allot of what every one else said. I am done with this shit i dont have time in the real world for it because i actually have to work for my $ not like the damn assholes who make it that way cause they spend to much $ on stupid shit.

lilith

[Slept with ghost]

just spend more time knowing what the real issue is and you wont have to spend so much money on it

[SomeDanGuy]

I like the point about football - a much more violence-inducing stimulus that is completely accepted by our culture.

The story that REALLY pissed me off yesterday was this women who is suing over that whole San Andreas-hidden-nude-scene thing. Here's what she's pissed about: She bought the MA rated game (17 and older) for her 14 year old grandson. And ohmygod! there's a secret way to access mature content in this game intended for 17 and up! It's HER fault she didn't pay attention to the rating, so wtf is she complaining about?? It makes no sense.

I'm so angry I could just grab my m4 carbine and get headshots on all these people just like in Counter-Strike and- ..........uh oh, I've been corrupted!

[Homicidalheathen]

If kids didn't have violent video games with which to vent their frustrations on, I might be buried in the backyard someplace...... :tear They are bigger and stronger and faster than me now....

[Slept with ghost]

I like the point about football - a much more violence-inducing stimulus that is completely accepted by our culture.

The story that REALLY pissed me off yesterday was this women who is suing over that whole San Andreas-hidden-nude-scene thing.  Here's what she's pissed about:  She bought the MA rated game (17 and older) for her 14 year old grandson.  And ohmygod! there's a secret way to access mature content in this game intended for 17 and up!  It's HER fault she didn't pay attention to the rating, so wtf is she complaining about?? It makes no sense.

I'm so angry I could just grab my m4 carbine and get headshots on all these people just like in Counter-Strike and-  ..........uh oh, I've been corrupted!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that would be the black coffee mod it was something that was origanely in the game for all verisons but was taken out before the game was realesed and now can only be found thourgh the pc version of the game

[Hellion]

:devil Talk about wasting tax dollars, on useless shit.

[Scary Guy]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, however lets change "The Portrait of a Lady" with "Red Dragon" or how about any steemy sex novel, or even the satanic bible.

It's not the medium, it's the content within the medium.

I can save everyone a shit load of money right now and say YES, THEY DO make kids more violant and desensitize them to it. But it doesn't force them to go out and do vicious criminal acts against humanity. That is called "BAD PARENTING".

Don't even get me started on how stupid America's Army is. There is a game put out BY THE GOVERNMENT pretty much as a recruting tool that lets you kill people and get a somewhat realistic combat experience.

You could arrest people for crime think, I think about killing people all the time, maybe even some people I happen to know. But do I? NO. Why, I'm a sane individual (or at least normal enough to pass).

What they should have done is spent the 90 mil on bad parenting research and maybe an ad campeign for parents to spend more time with their children.