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"Oh for Chrissakes"

"Two years after the Columbine High School massacre, the families of several victims have filed a lawsuit against a number of entertainment companies, including Nintendo of America, Atari, Sega of America, Activision, Sony Computer Entertainment, AOL Time Warner, Id Software, Virgin Interactive Media, and GT Interactive. The families are seeking $5 billion in punitive damages from a total of 25 entertainment companies. The lawsuit was filed the day before the two-year anniversary of the shootings. Several popular action games were specifically mentioned in the lawsuit, including Doom, Quake, and Redneck Rampage."


That is from another web-site.
Whilst I agree that what happened there is a tragedy, you cant pin the blame on video games anymore than you can backwards messages in music.

It's so much easier to point a finger at a movie/song/video game that it is to accept that society and maybe the parents of those two kids are to blame.
Especially in the States, were a culture of violence and access to guns is so easy.

Did you know Walmart refuse to stock albums or magazines it deems "offensive to our family image", yet you can buy machine guns, handguns and crossbows there?
Exactly.
And video games are to blame?????
Who says?

There has been so much research into music and movies influencing behaviour, and if this was the case, censors would be the most depraved animals on the face of this planet.
This argument simply does not stand up to serious examination.

You simply cannot ignore the school system of America, where violent sport is rewarded with popularity and praise (Quarterback heroes dating cheerleaders etc).
Those two kids that shot everyone, they had been bullied for years, mocked and laughed at for being different.

So, considering you can walk into a family aimed store and buy heavy weapons, they took it out the easiest and quickest way they knew.

It wasn't video games that made them kill, it was years of being bullied. Who can remember their school period? Every get bullied? Did you shoot anyone?
No.
And why not? No guns.
Cowards use a gun instead of using fists.

And Doom had nothing to do with this.

Phew, sorry to get off on a rant here, but this really, really angers me.
I play video games every day, I do not have any violent tendencies outside of the electronic world.
Neither does 99% of us.

Dont blame games or movies or books or records.
Look at everything that surrounds kids and the effect that may have 1st.

I don't know whether anyone else has made this point, but did violence exist before games became big. Yes. Did it exist before TV became big. Yes. Did is exist before books were mass produced. Yes. So, if it has always existed, and in forms just as tragic, then how can this be pin pointed on games. TV, books and the arts all contain scenes of violence.

Sonic

Wookiee-you were bullied at school???

I'm sorry to hear that, mate.

Arthur Pober, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, has released a self-congradulatory statement regarding the FTC Report on marketing violent entertainment to children. Tuesday, Federal authorities criticized the music business for failing to halt the selling of adult material to children, but gave the motion picture and VIDEO GAME INDUSTRIES credit for attempting to stop the promotional practices the commission criticized in its initial report in 2000. Here is Pober’s statement, published on FGN Online:

“The ESRB is pleased the Federal Trade Commission has acknowledged the interactive software industry's strengthened efforts to market its products responsibly.

"We are proud to have developed what the FTC has described as a comprehensive self-regulatory system and are committed to fully enforcing compliance through our Advertising Review Council. We are especially gratified that other industry segments have adopted our longstanding practice of providing detailed content descriptors to complement summary ratings.

"The ESRB's primary mission is to ensure that parents and consumers have the information they need to choose the right video and computer games for their families. To achieve that goal, we have gone well beyond the recommendations provided by the FTC."

Blame the stupid Rapper and Hip Hoppers....Not video games.....and where did they get the idea of suing Nintendo from....idiots.......

I'd Blame Eminem and Marilyn Manson for this sort of thing.

Apparently you are more likely to kill yourself than for anyone else to. The next most likely people is probably your immediate family and 'friends'. That's probably because generally murder is for a reason, and very few people kill without a reason ofsoe sort.

Also I forget about the cartartic effect of games, thanks for that er-no. They can help releave stress. I'm reminded of somewhere in Japan where exeecutives smash up pots, to relieve their stress. I would much rather children were killing demons in doom than killing people.

The key is moderation. Children should have a mixture of entertainment, as just violence it probably not a good thing, but some violence could help channel any violent energy into something. This could also apply to sports in the same way.

Here's a couple more:

"....will make America what we want it to be—a literate country and a hopefuller country."

"....We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."

And here's a URL if you want the rest.

http://supak.com/bush.htm

Have any of you heard some of George W Bush has said!

" Nigeria is a very important continent "

"It is not the pollution that creates pollution it is the minerals in out water and air "

There are many more somewhere - he is stupid and so is Americs!

To be honest with you all, I wouldn't touch a horror game with a barge pole. I know you might say..."You mean you haven't played Res Evil...No Way" Well let me tell you, I have never played it and I don't plan to play it. You can have just as much gaming fun with games like Banjo and Mario than you can with Cody Veronica or whatever her name is.

Violent games don't need to exist, and if more decent games were made better then hopefully violent games could be phased out al together.

"Well How doyou determine Violence?" You say...

Easy. Anything that shows human look alike blood spurting out or severed limbs is too violent. Perfect Dark is just about acceptable as the blood isn't too realistic but games like Resident Evil and Serious Sam should be banned. Carmageddon is just plain sick, and a crap game as well. People won't be able to sell games because of blood and violence in the near future. I am happy with racing games and adventure games...

I hate violent games...call me a sissy all you want...I just don't believe they are right...kids will always persuade their parents to buy them the bad games. And as if foot and mouth was bad enough we have to go and breed a nation of Serial Killing Maniac juvenilles to top US all off!

Stupid Violent Games.....

The 'Non-Violent' Game

Maybe the gaming community the world over - and I mean players as well as softco's - should form some kind of alliance/organisation to combat this type of rubbish?

I was bullied for many years at school, have been playing 'violent' videogames since I was 8, and have been regularly watching violent/horror movies since I was about 12, and I would not *dream* of harming another person unless my own life depended on it (i.e. self defence).

Have they ever wondered why 99% if these incidents happen in the US? The rest of the world plays (for the most part) exactly the same games, and yet has practically none of the same consequences. The reason? Freely available guns, just as you say.

While the events are certainly tragic, the *only* things to blame are (a) the easy availability of firearms, and (b) the stupidity of the perpetrators.

The right of the individual to carry a gun is fine - but what about the right of the other individuals to know that not just any loon can go and buy their own arsenal with which to slaughter those they don't like?

Sorry, but if anything the problem in the US stems from their violent, gun-based, cowboys-and-indians past more than it does from videogames. Which videogame did they blame it on when the outlaws rode in and shot up the town?

It's too easy to lash out and blame something else, rather than admit that your mother/father/daughter/son cracked under pressure.

I would like to think that they will 'obviously' lose the case, but you never know these days.

FACT: You are 98% more likely to be shot by someone holding a gun.

I generally agree with you goatboy.

The children are the products of the society that brougth them up, and all their experiences. Most people will not be influenced to kill or attack others by films, computer games and least of all music.

Sometimes kids can ape the behaviour they see in cartoons or computer games, but this can only happen if the kids are not told that it is wrong.

The rating system for films and computer games, is a good way to protect children from things they should not be able to see, such as bad language, or extreme violence. At a young age the child is more responsive to images they see, and are more likely to imitate, but then it is the duty of parents to stop the child seeing things they shouldn't.

Blaming computer games or any other entertainment implies that violence should be removed from it, which is an impossible aim, as we would end up with very dull TV, film and computer games.

If all a child saw was violence, they might start to thing that was normal, and acceptable, but then children are to some extent naturally aggresive, before they learn that it is not always acceptable.

To blame computer games for killings is usually a way of sweeeping the real problem's under the carpet. The Parents should keep better control over what their children watch if they feel there are dangers.

Also the case would imply that the entertainment companies are negligent, but it is really the responibility of the censors and the parents to control what children watch.