Damn that Kingpin. Posts me news articles that get me going and make me type page upon page of random babbling and incoherent ranting. :) This particular subject is near and dear to my heart, since I seem to spend allot of time arguing with people (Most of whom seem to have nothing against their kids watching violent Television.. Featuring rapes, murders, REALISTIC (Well, kinda) murders etc......But killing Demons is baaaaad!) about violence in video games. Reminds me allot of my arguments with people over gun ownership as well as playing paintball. Gah.

From the Wonderful World Of Kingpin (WWOK [tm]) comes THIS link. Not sure if this is a good write up or not. Personally I wish my LANing was limited to only one a week. :) Generally we're limited to once a month (*cough*wives*cough*) which just isn't enough sweet LAN lovin' to go around as far as I'm concerned. Naturally most of the article, which started out on such a promising note, is dedicated to the "violent" side of video gaming. Of course, I do see their point. The Lord only knows how many gun and knife fights we've had to break up at our LAN Parties. And those cries of "Die sucker, die." Man. (I think, "Suck it down, bitch! is more common actually, but I digress)

To quote Monty Python: "Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

To quote Eric Cartman: "Ah whatever, you......." :)

Speaking of which, had an interesting argument a little while ago with a guy. He was arguing that video games somehow make you a killer..... After I pointed out a few hundred times that if that were true the world would have been destroyed many times over by tens of millions of homicidal gamers, and this town would have had 80-90 guys destroy it last May (We didn't btw, we just sat around and played many, many games.) He finally revised his opinion into video games making you a more efficient killer.

Found it hard to argue with this one, (Assuming of course that the game player goes out and kills someone.. which is sooooo very unlikely) since I do believe that games increase your hand/eye coordination. Of course, I don't see how you can think that increasing a person's hand/eye coordination or manual dexterity is a bad thing. In fact, if it's true it should be promoted to parents and encouraged. (The video games, not the running around shooting folks.) "Today's class will be Quake III 101, Followed by Elementary Tribes 2. Take your gaming machine class, and prepare to suck it down!" :))

Naturally, playing allot of "Operation", golf or tennis would likely have the same effect.

Personally I think it's kinda sad that some people honestly believe that playing games will cause you to somehow lose your mind and go on a killing spree. A few years ago it was violent TV, before that it was violent comic books & cartoons. Before that it was Dungeons and Dragons. The first time a caveman ever beat someone over the head, he probably blamed it on violent cave paintings of the hunt. ("When I saw that stick guy attacking the stick mammoth it just drove me over the edge your honor! The voices! ARGH! The voices! "Grog... Kill Thug....." "Grog.... Oooga ugha.")

Interestingly enough, about 15 years ago some idiot in our local town here killed a few kids and claimed it was because he was playing DND, and he was just role playing out his fantasy world for real. DND (Or any role playing game for that matter) was immediately "banned" in our school system, despite the fact that millions play every day and don't kill anyone, other than on paper. I was quite pissed off when they broke up our DND club. (I was in grade... Hmmmmm.. 7 at the time I believe) I remember how horrified my parents were when I said I was interested in playing with some friends after school when I was a little older. They were sure that playing DND would turn me into a maniacal killer..... (Actually it was their "Yatzee" game that did it to me, but that's another story completely)

I remember catching hell from one of the school librarians when they "caught" me drawing up some DND maps. (Yesh. You'd think they'd caught me drawing up campagn posters for Mike Harris or thinking independantly or something horrible like that. :)

I honestly think that people need to smarten up a little bit, stop listening to those idiot "Experts" on TV and think for themselves. Just ask yourself... "Do I really believe that if I sat down and played video games (Ex. Quake III) that I would turn into a raging, homicidal manic and start killing people?"

The answer of course will be something like "Well no... duh." Reminds me of that Dilbert cartoon where the cat is advising the boss to treat his employees like crap to increase production. Boss' voice bubble reads "So despite the fact that ill treatment and being demeaned wouldn't work on me, it will work on everyone else?"

The VAST majority of people, regardless of age, when playing a videogame, or watching a movie, reading a comic book, or hearing their local stray dog tell them to kill someone, are smart enough and sensible enough to realise that..... This is not real. (Again, well DUH.) If someone's grasp on reality is so tenous that a video game, TV, a movie or a cartoon pushes them off the deep end... Well, I think that person needs proffessional help, and maybe to be locked up in a small dark room somewhere far away from other people. Hamilton maybe, or Siberia.

Of course, it could be ANYTHING that sets a person like that off. Seeing something, reading something...Someone saying something like "Deliver that mail faster mister.", or "Marauder why haven't you posted any news today?", "Marauder, I need a server for a match..." You know, things like that.... Or anything..... (Note to self: never speak to anyone again... You just never know.....)

Despite the fact that I've been playing "Violent" (And yes damn it, I just LOVE when you gib someone really good in Quake III and the body explodes. It's just cool for some reason.) video games for years, (In fact, my mother banned me from the computer many moons ago when she caught me playing a game on the C64 that involved running people down in a car... Kinda like Prehistoric Carmagedon, without the gore or 3D graphics.) you won't be seeing me, or any of my gaming buddies up on any bell towers or grassy knolls with our sniper rifles. If I really wanna do something like that, you'll find me on a hill somewhere in Tribes picking off flag carriers.

THIS Penny-Arcade cartoon says alot. :) (Note: I couldn't find the cartoon damn it... It WAS really funny tho.) It's a funny little comment on it, but that seems to be how some of these media guys look at gamers. And if that US army twit is right about games turning you into a super human killing machine, he'd better get down to the next Quake Con and start recruiting. Why, if you could just get Fatality in your military you could get rid of everyone else! Think of the savings. Just as long as the Russians or Chinese don't have any gamers as good, they win the next war. Woot! :)

They note in that article that being exposed to violence in video games makes you more agressive in the real world.... Yet again..... Whatever...... I'm sorry, most people who play games are guys. Most of us still have a little bit of agression built into us, especially when we're really frustrated or angry about something. I'd MUCH rather go home and play some Tribes and take my annoyances out on the virtual battlefield than sit around stewing and building up enough anger that the neighbor's cat ends up regretting it. ("Heeeeere Kitty Kitty! Uncle Marauder had a bad day at work, and we're going to help him feel better!")

Wanna see how coherent some of these people are? Check THIS out. Is it English? I don't think so. Rather it is some secret code, the key of which is known only to Satan and some writers. How DO these people get published?

Time to wrap it up.......................

Someone, sooner or later is going to call me insensitive or something silly like that for this rant. "But what about the victims?!?" They'll sob into their designer coffee. (I occasionally get messages like that, haranging me about my lack of feelings.)

Frankly, what about them? It's tragic when some idiot goes out and kills folks, and I DO feel badly about it.....but it has nothing to do with this conversation... we're talking about video game violence here...... Not the results of some nutcase's real life issues.

Well, this rant just ran outta steam. :) Cyah on the battlefield.