No, I'm not going to make a bunch of Jack Thompson-related jokes here. I'm not going to point fingers or insult journalists. I want to take a moment to talk about something that really is important to me, something that gets my blood boiling whenever I hear about it. I want to talk about violent video games, and whether or not they affect how someone can or will act in real life.

Do violent games cause actual violent behavior? No, I don't believe they do. Can video games possibly trigger violent tendencies that may have already been in a child or adult? Yes. The only time a video game can push someone to do something violent in real life is when that person had/has some kind of a mental or emotional problem to begin with, but that's never how it's treated. Now please, don't think I'm trying to pick on people with mental or emotional problems --- I'm not. I'm simply stating a fact. I play violent video games all the time. Gears of War, Dark Sector, Mortal Kombat... Too many to name, really, and most of my friends and people on this website play games with the same level of violence. I've personally never had the desire to go out and act out what I've played in these games. Not even once. That's because I'm not an inherently violent person. However, if someone who had a rough childhood, got into trouble at school, and just had a generally crappy past played those same games, he or she may act differently. Past and present experiences have a huge influence on whether or not what's seen in the entertainment industry is reflected in the actions of our everyday lives.

Take a look at this. Seriously, explain to me how this crime proves video games were involved. Games and knives can be bought at the same time by the same people, and the violence in the games leads to the purchase of the weapons? Give me a break. Where's the proof? My biggest pet peeve when it comes to this stuff is that nearly everyone who says games cause violence don't actually play games themselves. They just see them as a scapegoat. Rarely do you ever read about an actual gamer who attacks violent games. It happens, but not nearly as often. Honestly, after playing Mortal Kombat, do you really want to try to inhale another human being and then spit all of that person's bones out into a pile next to you? It's not even realistic violence. I've only heard of one really serious Mortal Kombat mimicking situation, and the people involved in that were drunk off their rockers. (The story was all over the Internet a while back.)



Another thing that I hate is when parents get involved. Your kid is playing an extremely violent game and you don't want him/her to be exposed to such evil? You're the guardian(s). You're the one(s) responsible. Ratings are on the packages for reasons, just as they're clearly marked on movie advertisements and music CD packages, if necessary. If you send your child to go hang out at a friend's house, then make sure nothing is going on that you don't approve of. You have no one to blame but yourselves, people. Be responsible about it. Of course, when the child gets older, parents don't have as much control over them, but I believe that if problems like this are apparent, they start when the child is young.

Now, I'm not a psychologist. I'm not any kind of professional. But I am a gamer, and one who actually has experience playing these violent games. I suppose everyone's different, and I can't speak for every human being on the planet. But I'd love to see someone who attacks these games and calls them evil be someone who actually knows something about the subject matter. Just once.