Yesterday I have been reading a news from The Guardian, which was about the sale of the recently released video game Grand Auto Theft banned in Australia due to violence against women. I wouldn't discuss violence against women specifically because once it's violence it against all kind of people. The article wasn't too long but it raised a quite large controversial debate topic: is the idea violence being spread by games?
Actually, if we talk about the bad impact of game content on people, there would be a lot of negative facts that we can't escape from. In 2009, there was a shooting tragedy in a school of Winnenden in Baden-Württemberg, the southwest of Germany. An only 17-year-old teenager named Tim Kretschme killed 16 people and caused 9 injured. According to the post-event report, this young German had been obsessed with the game Counter-Strike and Far Cry 2, which were thought to develop his tendency of violence.
However the truth was not like as what many people considered in this case. According to some interviews done with his families a few days later, Tim had been spoiled by his parent since his childhood. His parents gave him all they can and have never refused any requests from Tim. However, every time when Tim confronted setback, he didn't know what to do but losing his temper. The more he experienced difficulties in life and society, the more he felt lonely, disappointed and unsocial. Then a conclusion was made by experts: Tim's violent massacre wasn't caused by the violent content of game but his life.
Whether violence is stimulated by the obsession with violent content of games or induced by social issues? This has long been a controversial debate. With the development of technology and the improvement of violent game's graphic quality, this argument is becoming larger and larger rather than being subsided gradually. However, if we talk about violent content of film, it wouldn't seem such a big issue. Why wouldn't we blame a film because of its violent theme? Rather we would appreciate it, saying "it's a good film you should watch and the fighting in the film was really great!" Are the violent element and feature of games inevitable or just a genre? Will we be able to remain the core game mechanics without having such content?
I am also a player of game containing violent content. I played the series of Grand Auto Theft, including GTA III, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas and GTA IV. I am also a fan of The Elder Scroll: Skyrim, Fable and Sleeping Dog, in which there are features of murdering innocent people. But I wouldn't ever kill someone in a shop or metro with a gun or something. I know what happens in games and what should be like in reality. We often say "it's just a game", I keep this in my mind.
In fact I would say that there are many activities in life which are consist of violence. Let's say sports, especially competitive sports. It's not rare to see football and basketball players fighting during a match. But would we ban these sport because of it? No.
What I think is, rather than blaming the content of game that influences people in a negative way, why not paying more attention to those who are the victims of social issues? I don't mean it would be excellent if a game contains much violent content but banning them is not making significant changes. Moreover, when people are have much stress in life, this kind of game would sometimes do more good than bad for them. At least they "murder" in game and not killing people in their real life. If one day all of these games are banned, will the number of murderer be reduced or shall we be killing in reality instead?
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