Do Violent Video Games Play A Role In Todays Culture Poll.

[Ichiban]

Yes, I know, if I keep posting such sugar coated opinions I'll just give myself an ulcer.  

Maybe we should ban NASCAR from TV since that encourages the "weak minded to speed on the roads and cars kill far more people than guns.

Well, I've only been to a few races (bike and car) and , yeah, there are always a handful of morons that pretend they are on the track as they leave the parking lot an get on the main road.

If you think long-term exposure to "entertainment" doesn't impact your thought process you have to look no further than the current  popular entertainment to see how it has changed the attitudes (good and bad) of our culture.

[unclejames]

Madden football is extremely popular, but we never see mass tacklings at schools or malls. Why are first person shooters the only games that are vilified. When I was younger Mike Tysons punch-out was very popular and some how people managed to not go on punching sprees. Also what video games was Charles Whitman playing before he snapped.

[Solus]

Quite the contrary...

While training with real weapons will most likely undertaken in an adult/child environment with simultaneous parental/authority-figure bonding, violent video games are most often played in isolation.  

Training with real weapons is most likely a weekly or monthly session involving a socializing day at the range.  Video games are played in socially isolating environments for hours on end on a daily basis.

Video games provide a horribly skewed perspective on violence, while firearms training develops healthy attitudes regarding force and violence.  Violent games show nothing about the long term and emotionally devastating results of killing dozens of people.

In real life "video game" situations, such as experienced by the devastated children soldiers of Rwanda or Uganda, you have a similar every hour of every day situation.  And these kids come out dangerously disturbed, if they come out at all.

So, while I think proper firearms training is appropriate for youngsters from about seven onwards, I think the isolating and mental programming aspects of violent video games should be restricted to those who have at least the frontal lobe development needed to understand that it is simply a game.  

Until they have reached their early twenties, that development just does not exist.

Crusader

I would say that the parent/authority bonding is the difference.

Do you think a kid who is taught that kind of respect would succumb to the "dark side" of video games no matter how alone they were when they played them?

My take is that it is the lack of the parent interaction/bonding that allows a video game to fill that void.

Add in all the other missing lessons in discipline and respect that are frowned upon in our current PC environment and you are getting near the real problem.

P.S. it wouldn't hurt if the parent got involved in video game playing with the kid. 

[tombogan03884]

Madden football is extremely popular, but we never see mass tacklings at schools or malls. Why are first person shooters the only games that are vilified. When I was younger Mike Tysons punch-out was very popular and some how people managed to not go on punching sprees. Also what video games was Charles Whitman playing before he snapped.

Here's a thought, if you want to stop school shootings then quit calling the cops when 2 kids have a fist fight .
When most of us were kids if some one tried to bully you the 2 of you  punched the crap out of each other and that was that.
2 kids do that today and the SWAT team shows up, and the whole school goes through therapy and anger management courses, there is a series of expose's on the local news, the parents are investigated and the school janitor gets fired .
With no middle ground other than just taking crap it is no wonder that some kids go to the extreme of shooting fellow students.

[santahog]

With no middle ground other than just taking crap it is no wonder that some kids go to the extreme of shooting fellow students.

A correct statement.. Whether one is allowed to deal with someone or not, I've got no time for a bully, no matter who it's picking on.
(That's why I don't mind giving it back to you, Tom.. Because you're a pseudo-intellectual bully, and you don't intimidate me by your arrogance and condescension. You are, however, what you are. I'm not losing any sleep over you.)
And as for NASCAR, you don't have to drive with some of these simpletons that run the streets in Alabama, (one county over from Talladega).. These ADULT morons really do allow their imaginations get the best of them, and it really does get reflected in their driving.. And it's worse in the spring and summer, during race season, it seems.
There's alot more to it than that, I hope, but it's not sport driving. It's all about aggression..

Kids act out based on the kinds of things they're exposed to. They may use one tool or another, but they revert to baser instincts. It's what makes them kids, and not adults.. It's not necessarily age specific, either.. I had a guy in a warehouse one time, (a simple minded guy, maybe in his 30s) do his damnedest to run me over with a forklift because I called him down for doing something stupid.. I don't remember what it was, but I walked towards him and he hit the gas.. (It was in a track, so he could only go in the one direction..) I just stepped on the thing as it got to me, but he was trying to kill me.. He was stupid, so I let it go, but his mind processed information as did a child.. I wanted to beat the guy to death on the spot, but I'm not a child.. I don't have that excuse..
His actions had nothing to do with a video game. It was that he had the mind of a child (and an IQ maybe in the 60s), and acted out as a child does.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

Then why did these shootings not occur when most kids were familiar with guns and carried them to school during hunting season, but had the option of punching out a bully ?