It must be a chilly day in hell, and nobody could be more surprised then I am, but motherland seems to finally have wrapped its head around the conclusions that video games =/= Satan.
In the wake of the recent school shooting in Winnenden, there have been renewed attacks on video games and gun control; magazines such as the "Stern" have claimed that the killer played Far Cry 2 on the night before his murders, and several political parties and other groups have jumped on the bandwagon pulled by a dead horse. However, in a refreshing display of common sense, family minister Ursula von der Leyen said that blaming video games would be nothing but a cop-out, and that changes to society such as teaching children morals and harder gun control would be the steps.
That's good to hear! I kinda expected a repeat of the old "social class struggle, poverty, access to handguns and inequality produce violence in society. The media perpetuates these societal facts, so if we ban the media, everything else will be fixed as well!" arguments.
There is also a great article from the Magazine Die Zeit you should read. But there still are a lot of politicians claiming that videogames are to blame and that actually want to bring the "Killerspiele" down.
Article can be found here: http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/12/killerspiele-verbot-winnenden-waffen
Thats nice and all, but I still feel like they're missing the point. Teaching moral values won't change a thing. The person who did these things was a reject, loner, ignored, and as a result, probably very depressive. He simply just wanted people to see him, thats all! And thanks to the media showering this kid with attention, he got what he wanted; a place in the history books.
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about me
I am an avid Wii Gamer and a huge Nintendo fan, but I try my best not to be prejudiced against the 360 or PS3 because I am really annoyed by the idiotic fanboy wars going on everywhere. I dislike shooter games (making me, more or less, an outcast amongst gamers) but don't think they're the root of all evil. You have to be in dire need of a Psychonaut if you start thinking about how shooting is fun, even in real life.
I also hate Nintendo of Europe for taking insane amounts of time (about four months) to translate and localize even the most text-bare of games. I like Adventure games like "The Legend of Zelda" and and the Mother series. I dislike open stupidity, people taking the internet either too seriously or not serious enough, am an avid "grammar nazi" (and coincidentally or german decent) because I think even the shittiest post or comment is less annoying, obvious and nauseating and better accepted if at least typed correctly.
Oh, and if Super Smash Bros. Brawl isn't released in Europe before Q2 2008, I might become an Evil Overlord (using the Evil Overlord List to my advantage) and will take control of the world and make non-universal game r4eleases punishable by law. Remember - If you're part of the rebellion, you'll get better liing conditions in my Realm.
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
That's good to hear! I kinda expected a repeat of the old "social class struggle, poverty, access to handguns and inequality produce violence in society. The media perpetuates these societal facts, so if we ban the media, everything else will be fixed as well!" arguments.
There is also a great article from the Magazine Die Zeit you should read. But there still are a lot of politicians claiming that videogames are to blame and that actually want to bring the "Killerspiele" down.
Article can be found here: http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/12/killerspiele-verbot-winnenden-waffen
Good for them. I'm very glad they're smart enough not too see video games as the cause of all evil.
You blog should have sex with my blog and have little blog babies as we both touched upon the same topic!
yay for ursula!
Oh god...Hell has frozen over. Someone divided by Zero! OH SHI-
Oh wow, thats very refreshing to hear that there are still some smart people calling the shots. Thanks for the heads up :)
Thats nice and all, but I still feel like they're missing the point. Teaching moral values won't change a thing. The person who did these things was a reject, loner, ignored, and as a result, probably very depressive. He simply just wanted people to see him, thats all! And thanks to the media showering this kid with attention, he got what he wanted; a place in the history books.