Posted on 12/17/2012 9:12:44 PM PST by WilliamIII
Shareholders of Call of Duty video game maker Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and other video game makers are nervous Monday related to fears about a potential backlash from Friday's horrible Sandy Hook school shootings, which left 26 dead, including 20 children.
There have been reports from the Hartford Courant that alleged gunman Adam Lanza played "violent video game in which life-like characters engage in graphic battle scenes."
(Excerpt) Read more at streetinsider.com ...
Because they beat the hell out of playing Pong?
We can’t put the blame on whatever hobby/interests the killers have and start trying to adjust society to fit crazy people.
We can allow tort liability, and let the facts of individual cases sort themselves out in court. If a product has a possibility of causing great harm, even in a small number of circumstances, the producers can be liable for the harm caused. That’s not the same thing as banning it.
Obsessive and/or compulsive does not equal an altered perception of reality due to the content of such games, particularly considering the still unrealistic video quality presented in such games. That can certainly change as technology advances, so what I believe today I can possibly change my mind upon in the future.
That being said, I’m sorry to hear about your son. I lost my brother about 14 years ago due to a defective heart valve and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him or think about him.
I don’t agree. By holding the producers of God knows what responsible for the abuses of the users/customers we are in effect banning it. And I certainly don’t see it as right to blame someone for something someone else does.
No matter if it’s gun manufacturer’s for murder, jerry can makers for people who stupidly burn themselves, authors for writing books where the hero throws himself off a bridge wearing a yellow raincoat only to have people reenact it in real life, soccer games for riots, caricatures for terrorism etc...
It’s all one giant slippery slope. As I see it people are responsible for their own actions and not what it ‘inspires’ others to do.
I guess that is the beauty of this forum, we each get to express our own opinions.
I am convinced there is a direct corelation between anti-depressant meds and video game stimulation that the average person does not realize. I could be wrong.
All I can tell you is that I have a son who is not at home with his family and it all started over a video game.
Thanks for your comment about my son. I really appreciate it.
I’d like to know what level of involvement the so-called father had with his troubled son.
I’ve been playing these sorts of games since the early 90’s beginning with Wolfenstein. I did not notice a desensitization effect in myself until the late 90’s. I don’t know if the earlier games were too cartoon-like to cause the change or if it was related to increases in the nature of the violence, or some combination of improved graphics and more extreme violence, but it has happened several times over the years. I’ll start a game and be uneasy about the violence involved(sometimes even disturbed about it) and by the end of the game I’m not bothered by the violence at all. And over the years there’s been a steady progression in the intensity of the violence that it takes to create that unease. I don’t know if that has any carryover to violence desensitization outside of games or not—I haven’t really thought about it enough to decide. I will say that even with the ingame desensitization, I am very confident that playing these types of games have not made me a more aggressive or hostile person. I’ll keep playing and enjoying the games, but my experience has made me wonder if they could cause catastrophic problems for someone with underlying mental illness.
Are you friggin kidding me?
Are you referring to me?
I thought he was referring to the killer’s father.
Are you Adam’s father?
I guess neverbluffer didn’t notice I responded to post #6.
I apologize....
Your post came right after one I posted about my son...
I don’t agree. By holding the producers of God knows what responsible for the abuses of the users/customers we are in effect banning it.
We’d be holding them financially liable where/if it could be proved that their product — which is intensely violent and is designed to be viewed intensely — had created a violent outburst in a disturbed person. Sorry, but if there’s that kind of cause and effect, and a strong element of foreseeability — i.e., that disturbed minds could be impacted negatively — the product’s producer should be liable for the results.
No worries, FRiend.
They say he ate ice cream in summer.
Come the bleep ON. I happen to know a lot of 15-20 year old young men who play these games all the time! They are good students and strong athletes. These games don’t cause this any more than TV shows ever did, or movies.
Nancy Grace said yesterday that Lanza’s favorite game was Dance Dance Revolution. Hardly what I’d call “violent.”
Just picked up Black Ops 2 last night for my son. Can’t wait to play Nuketown. These games are great!
I dunno. Something about hearing “multiple rotor-wings in your area” just gets my blood pumping.
“Allowing my brother to watch a movie like Natural Born Killers would be a very bad thing, and we knew better.”
Allowing anyone to watch a movie like Natural Born Killers is a very bad thing. A society that is entertained by this kind of trash is headed for disaster. You can argue that not everyone who sees violent movies or plays violent video games goes on a rampage. Not even half of the people who are “entertained” by same commit violent crimes. Maybe only a half of one percent might be so affected, but that is all it takes to have a Sandy Hook incident. It only takes one person so affected to create misery for an entire population. These forms of entertainment have absolutely no redeeming value. They may not cause everyone who participates to behave badly, but it is enough that they may cause just one person to behave as these shooters have.
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