As more details emerge from the Sandy Hook tragedy, and Aurora, Colorado shootings, I find myself in bit of an uncomfortable position. Being someone who suffers from a significant mental illness, when the mainstream media talks about "deranged crazies" or just using the term "mentally ill", I can't help but feel a little discriminated against, somewhat (a subject for another day). Yes, I am mentally ill. No, I am not dangerous to anyone, except maybe myself at times. And yes, I play violent video games.
I am not a violent person, in fact I abhor violence. I have absolutely no desire to hurt the people who have hurt me in the past. That is not the path to freedom and enlightenment. If I were to do to those who had wronged me what they did to me in vengeance, I would become no better of a person than they are. Violence, other than in self defense, is never the answer. To commit random acts of violence against the defenseless and innocent is perhaps the greatest travesty that any human being could commit.
It's been over three months now since the Sandy Hook tragedy, and over eight since the Aurora, Colorado shootings took place. The blame game continues to rage, and the NRA continues to demonstrate just how infantile and primitive its doctrines are. Gun violence is a HUGE problem in the United States. This is not going to change unless drastic measures are going to be undertaken by the nation as a whole. I'm not going to suggest any possible solutions or actions to curtail the problems here, just know that I am a very large supporter of bans on any and all guns, with the exception of sporting rifles and shotguns.
Back in December, I had a conversation with my father and stepmother on the issue of what drives people to commit mass murder. One of the first things that my father brought up was violent video games. I grew up in the 80's and was among the vanguard of the video game generation. Video games have been a big part of my life since about 1982. Back in the early days of gaming, the games were pretty innocuous in nature. They were simple, and designed for short term entertainment. Kids and adults alike enjoyed the early versions of arcade games and home entertainment systems. The video game industry collapsed in the mid 80's, but was reborn again when Nintendo released the original NES in the United States in the late 80's. At this time, video games were still pretty light hearted and contained little in the way of graphic violence. That was about to change though.
In the early 90's a company name Midway launched the first game in the series known as Mortal Kombat. While there were somewhat violent video games before it, this particular game took violence and gore to completely unheard of levels for the industry at the time. Mortal Kombat featured blood shed, dismemberment, impalement, and even spinal cord removal. It soon became all the rage in the arcades, and managed to generate more than it's fair share of negative press due to the graphic violence presented in the game. It's important to note that I was in my early 20's at this point, old enough to know the difference between the real world and fantasy worlds. I wasn't some kid, mindlessly plugging quarters into a machine and laughing about the violence that ensued on the screen. I dohave to admit that I was very much into the whole Mortal Kombat series as a whole, in the early days. I even purchased it for my Nintendo system when it came out on the home consoles, and spent hours and hours pummeling my fraternity brothers, who loved the game as much as I did.
It was at this point in time that political forces got involved with concerns about violence in video games. In 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), was created. The ESRB then developed a video game age suitability rating scale, similar in nature to the system used to rate a suitability scale for movies. These ratings range from "Early Childhood" to "Adults Only". It should be noted that these ratings are not governed by the government and are not legally enforced. They exist solely to educate parents as to what kind of content is present in a video game. Retailers can, and have, established policies about not selling "Mature" or "Adults Only" related content to minors under the age of 17. Just how well they stick to these policies, is anyone's guess. The point is, there is a system in place that rates the violent content level of video games and what age groups said games are suitable for.
Going back to the conversation that I had with my father regarding violent video games, I support the ESRB ratings systems. However, I don't think it goes far enough, and think the government needs to get involved in the regulation of who can buy these games. I play violent video games all of the time, and have for over 20 years now. I am an adult, and started playing these games as an adult. Adult being the key word there. I strongly believe that almost all of the games that I enjoy playing, absolutely should NOT be played by ANY people under the age of 18. This is where things start to get more complicated.
If I jump on my Xbox 360 to play some Halo 4 online right now, which is a "Mature" rated game (meaning it's only suitable for people over the age of 17), I will most definitely encounter players who are as young 7 or 8 playing the game online. In fact, depending on what time of day you are playing, the majority of people playing Halo 4 online are under the age of 17. This is not an appropriate game for kids, in my opinion. It involves hunting and killing other players in an online environment, full of anonymity (internet anonymity is a subject for another day). Where are these kids getting these games? Their parents are buying them for them, that's where.
Video game violence is ubiquitous now, and as time marches on, it only seems to get worse and worse. Like I said above, I enjoy playing these games, but tend to shy away from the more violent versions in favor of immersion in story elements. Yes, something needs to be done about violent video games, parents need to stop buying them for their children to play. It's as simple as that, people. Parents need to take responsibility for parenting their children, instead of blaming an entire industry for gun violence. Letting your children plug into a video game for 4 hours a day, isn't good parenting, in my opinion. I'm sure older parents can remember the days before the dawn of video games, and I'm pretty sure there were plenty of things to keep children entertained then. There is absolutely no substitute for good, conscious parenting. Stop buying kids "Mature" rated games and letting them play them, people!
I've only touched on one major hot button in the debate about gun violence (or violence, in general) in the United States. Every party in the cross hairs is blaming another party in the cross hairs. It's time for simple, common sense methods to be used to make a difference. Do I believe that the government should regulate the video game industry more? Most certainly. However, I think that parents can make much more of a difference by being just that, a parent. It's time to take responsibility for your children's development and well being. I am absolutely certain that exposing children to graphic violence has negative effects on empathic responses, and ultimately desensitizes young minds to the horrors of violence, as a whole. Common sense and responsibility will ultimately prove to be the ultimate weapons in the war agains violence in the United States.
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