Violence in games....whit!?

When thinking about my first proper entry to this blog, a few things came to mind. Perhaps a review of the new DmC game, the next generation of consoles that are to be revealed this year, or maybe even a look back at some of the best games of this generation.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...I'm gonna talk about the very thing which pisses me and so many gamers off around the world. This bullshit that games cause violence!

Sure, there have been numerous cases where it has been found that those who have committed violent acts such as shootings, mass murders etc owned and played violent games. Back in 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire in their high school, shooting 20 people where 13 of them died. It was later revealed that they played violent games such as Doom, Mortal Kombat yadda yadda yadda!

Since then, and possibly even before since I haven't looked up many other incidents, many people have came to the conclusion that violence in video games translates into real world situations.

Now I'm sure I'm thinking exactly what most other people reading this are thinking...just because I hijack cars and perform a hit and run on hookers in GTA doesn't mean I'm gonna be stupid enough to do it in real life! Just because I wear Mjolnir armour and perform epic headshots in Halo doesn't mean I'm gonna spend a ridiculous amount of money on eBay for the same armour replica and go out on a killing spree! (No pun intended...)

Many would also argue that although we may not replicate what we do in video games into real life, it is still wrong that we perform such virtual acts in video games and apparently 'fantasise' about killing while playing. When I play Black Ops for example, I'm not getting a kick out of killing a human being in the game. I have the common sense required to realise that the characters in games are just virtual targets, nothing more. I'm not thinking "yas, I killed a person, oh I'd love to do this in real life".

If people in the media still wanna go with this ridiculous notion that all gamers are psychopaths in the making, then why not go right on ahead and ban every movie that has any form of weapon in it? After all, next time I watch Star Wars I might be brainwashed into going out with a bread knife, pretend it's a lightsaber and swing it about at passers-by!

To cut a long story short, my opinion is that those who are quick to point the blame at video games should start pointing the blame where it matters...the silly bastard that was stupid enough to commit the crime in the first place!