Monday 9 July 2012

LEAVE VIDEO GAMES ALONE :'(

So here in this Chris Crocker style post, I will give my opinion concerning the sensationalistic aggressiveness of the media's conduct towards video games. Now that you know my stance on the matter, let's get down to the business in hand. 
For some reason, the media feels like it needs to hype up the obviously apocalyptic effects of video games. According to certain sources, video games are obviously creations spawned by the devil himself, with intentions only concerned with mutilation and violence. Certain sources suggest that Grand Theft Auto is the cause of all evil in the world, from school shootings to tsunamis. Certain sources even have the audacity to suggest that video games are responsible for "growing a society of alienated, aggressive, untrusting adults" (Kimberly Thompson for the Boston Globe if you're interested in reading senseless, melodramatic ramblings). These sources are based on their own 'research' that suggest 'links' between aggression and video games. 
It's interesting how the idea that aggressive children may want to play more aggressive games has not been researched as thoroughly as the sensationalist idea that video games are turning the next generation into mindless serial killers. 
It's interesting how children are obviously only now affected by violence in their lives. It's not like children of all generations have been shown respectively the same level of aggression that's seen as violent by their respective eras. Fairytales such as Grimm and Anderson while not as graphically violent, were seen as aggressive in their era, yet where is that generation of murderers? 
It's interesting how the focus has been sadistically centred on the few who are affected, the school shooters and the children prone to aggression, but the vast majority of unaffected children and decent members of civilization who enjoy a COD or a GTA aren't deemed fascinating enough news for hyped up articles. 
From the very same researchers who have slammed video games for their obvious psychopath breeding skills comes this statement "There's absolutely no scientific evidence showing a positive correlation between violence in individuals and the games they play,"... awkwaaarrrddd. 
Video games are a new, 21st century form of craft. Never before has the interaction of the viewer determined the nature of a piece of art. Surely, instead of exploring this minor possible trigger for an innate or built up frustration and aggression, those who are obviously so concerned for the lives of civilians or future of society, however uninteresting it may appear in the news, will all turn their attention to other, more likely explanations for any violence. This is even though adolescent and child violence is at an all time low in the U.S at the moment... just sayin.