Fox News says Gaming makes you a rapist.

Well, it's also okay to buy someone who's underage an M-rated game with your ID and your money. But by that point, it's the parents' burden, not the retailers or the state or anything.

I told a friend that the violent crime rate in America has dropped in the last thirty years, and that video games have gottem more violent as time goes on, meaning it's an inverse thing happening.

I could hear his brain strip a few gears trying to wrap itself around that. He blames video games for the increase in violence. He then cited one case in which a kid bashed in his dad's skull after they took away his console - nevermind the total rate has dropped to about half what it used to be.

I was fairly surprised he reacted the way that he did. I keep hearing others in my Church bashing video games as The Great Evil, and it bothers me that they can't see that it's simply not the case.

Violence keeps on dropping and people just want to keep on disbelieving it, it makes for a better narrative if there is conflict all around you.

Video games have led to violence in individual circumstances but on the whole, the drop in violence is related largely to the drop in gang activity, more people being in prison, and so on, there is no evidence that video games have any impact but what studies I've seen, as in scientific studies, is that violent video-games are more likely to lead to violent behaviour, which has been proven and the causation between children seeing violence and acting violent has long been proven.

That said, these are easily corrected, in most cases, and video-games affect those with mental issues more than the general population, and kids should not be playing M rated games anyway.

True dat. We can't quite say more violent video games have led to less violent crime. It's correlation until studied far more specifically (and I do hear a lot of things saying violent media seems to cause unpleasant behaviour. But not necessarily murder. I'm pretty sure no one's studied that far yet.).

Video games seems to definitely be The New Rock & Roll, though.

edited 9th Feb '11 9:26:45 AM by VutherA

Controversial issues tend to have less reliable research since people don't want to cause issues for themselves but supporting a controversial statement, even if it is accurate.

As for murder? Its unlikely, it has occured mind you but there were other factors, like readily available firearms. But most of the studies related to it find that children who are exposed to violence, of any sort, without guidance are more likely to act violently.

Yeesh. Between this and the whole stupid Penny Arcade Dickwolves thing, I have to wonder if people are developing rape Tourette's. -_-;

People beat each other up before video games existed. That is all.

@tommy: that doesn't prove or disprove any of the parties in the discussion. The action may be the same, but what motivates it might be different.

Do retailers really not enforce the age thing? I still carded whenever I try to buy anything M rated, and I'm 24.

It's the "without guidance" part that is so crucial, salad. My son (5 years old) has watched me play Half-Life 2 and loves watching it. I try to play it fairly rarely because it is indeed violent, but when I do play, I am very careful to say that I'm killing bad people and monsters, and that it isn't real. I also tell him not to play "guns" with people and punish him for breaking those rules. I haven't noticed him being any more violent or less empathetic than other kids his age, although he certainly loves wrestling and other physical play as is appropriate.

Further, we don't have guns in our home or any easy way for him to get access to them. So I'm trying very hard to maintain the distinction between media and real life violence in his education. I hope it works - I make no claims to perfection as a parent, but I'm doing the most essential part that all educators agree on and engaging him in dialogue about it rather than letting him veg out to games while I ignore him.

@Fighteer: As I said, I was talking to cases without guidance. With guidance, of course, the opposite is true. If a kid sees someone doing something, anything, and getting punished for it or rewarded for it, they will react accordingly.

They've found that "letting kids learn for themselves" hasn't worked out if there are not immediate and controlled responses.

"And with kids as young as 9 playing such games, the experts Fox News.com spoke with were nearly universally worried that video game violence may be reaching a fever pitch."

Yes, because violent video games are all aimed at kids, never mind the M rating!

edited 9th Feb '11 10:20:06 AM by Yowuza

Again, in its defense, there aren't any ways to prevent kids from reaching M rated games, which be defition, they shouldn't be playing.

So there is something wrong with the system but I don't think video-games are the problem, its that there is no way to enforce it.

I'm not American/Canadian, but didn't most North American retailers prohibit the sale of M-rated games to under 17s unless they have parental consent?

Just treat them like we should treat rated R stuff.

Shoot, just use G, PG, PG-13 and R for games. At least people know what those codes mean, right...?

...some will ignore them anyway.

Yes, but of course, the "concerned" parents aren't going to let a minor detail like that lure them into taking any kind of personal freaking responsibility for what kind of video games their children have access to.

Granted, there probably are parents who take one look at the 'M' rating on the box and tell their children "No way," but they'll never make the news. But if Cracked and/or The Onion haven't done an article along those lines, they should.

EDIT: Ninja'd

edited 9th Feb '11 10:43:53 AM by Reflextion

The article said the game's advertising was addressed to children.

...How, exactly?

Video games have led to violence in individual circumstances but on the whole, the drop in violence is related largely to the drop in gang activity, more people being in prison, and so on, there is no evidence that video games have any impact but what studies I've seen, as in scientific studies, is that violent video-games are more likely to lead to violent behaviour, which has been proven and the causation between children seeing violence and acting violent has long been proven.

That said, these are easily corrected, in most cases, and video-games affect those with mental issues more than the general population, and kids should not be playing M rated games anyway.

However, when the statistics are going in the opposite direction of what you would expect, you have to acknowledge that. More people are playing video games now than ever, but the violent crime rate hasn't risen.

Citing individual cases is stupid because, frankly, individual cases tend to be notable for a reason (They're unusual). Also, cases that can stir up controversy tend to get reported more.

And blaming video games for "unpleasant" behavior is stupid because... Well, there's a lot of things that cause unpleasant behavior. Sports can cause unpleasant behavior, education can cause unpleasant behavior, all other media can cause unpleasant behavior.

Again, in its defense, there aren't any ways to prevent kids from reaching M rated games, which be defition, they shouldn't be playing.

...

Oh wait, there are no laws like that.

edited 9th Feb '11 10:44:17 AM by Scardoll

...Sports can cause unpleasant behavior...

That's what the same source that I was referring to also said caused similar behaviour, actually.

Though people seem to be at least getting very worried over their children potentially being injured from them. The resulting dickishness from competitive games, less so.

I'm seeing more games that can make you feel really guilty for some of the choices you end up making. Just look at the Sims 3 homeless challenge that got the guy to work in a homeless shelter as a result - here's a game that started out as For the Lulz and ended up turning the guy into a voluenteer worker.

Oh, silly me.

Interesting reads: the experts that supported the game that the correspondent contacted were A) asked extremely slanted questions, such as "What should be done about this video game which includes horrific violence, getting drunk and shooting people, etc.?", and B) either quoted completely out of context to contradict their actual point or not quoted at all. This guy at Rock Paper Shotgun talked to them about it. Rather tellingly, he actually contacted all the experts, even the ones who suffered Critical Research Failure, and those have yet to respond to him.

It's both definitive proof that Fox is trying to sell a narrative and be deliberately sensationalist, and, as he points out, a fascinating case study of how the mainstream press sensationally covers gaming.

edited 9th Feb '11 10:18:32 PM by WildKnight

That's not true at all. Gaming did not make me a rapist, the liberal media did.

When does The Daily Show return from hiatus? Because when Jon addresses this, I want to watch it.

I'm not sure where this "Parents don't check ratings" stuff comes from.

My dad is over 50 and was born in 1959, and he always checks the ratings for games he buys me. I can't get away with buying an M-Rated at all. And this is a man who's around 55.