Jack Thompson, You're Needed In Germany
from the misplaced-blame-knows-no-boundaries dept
In the US there's been a focus on blaming video games for youth violence -- often involving infamous lawyer Jack Thompson. However, so far, there's been almost no research that really connects video games to increased violence. While supporters of bans on such games claim that there are studies that say such things, almost all of them fall apart when you look at the details that often involve small sample sizes and only show that people get their heart rates up while playing video games -- but never suggest that they have trouble distinguishing reality from game. In fact, as has been pointed out repeatedly, as the popularity (and quality) of violent video games has increased, incidents of youth violence have decreased -- suggesting that it may actually act as an outlet for people (or, as one study suggests, a way to keep violent people off the street). Obviously more research needs to be done, but the general levels of youth violence compared to the popularity of these games certainly suggests that it hasn't had quite the negative impact some people claim. But, as per usual, sensationalism usually wins out on these types of things, and now it's been exported to Germany, where lawmakers are looking to ban violent or war simulator games (including paintball or laser tag), after a German teenager performed a local version of Columbine, wounding at least 27 people before killing himself. It seems that, once again, rather than looking at what a troubled individual this young man was, everyone is immediately blaming the video games he played. It's easy to place the blame on the video games he played, but considering the vast majority of people who plays these games never go and shootup a school, it seems quite likely that there were many other factors that influenced his actions, and banning video games and pretending that solves the problem will do little (if anything) to prevent the next such outburst.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
*sigh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Science aside, when someone commits a heinous crime who has played video games, it is illogical to conclude that the heinous crime was caused by the video games. As you point out, many people play violent video games and do not exhibit violent behavior, myself being one of them (in fact, I'm extremely pacifistic... I do not believe in committing acts of violence in any situation, however I love getting that head shot with an AK against some counter-terrorist trying to rescue the hostages I'm guarding [cs:s owns]) and looking at past history, people have been committing violent crimes throughout. To the people who blame video games for violence: what was Charlie Manson's favorite video game to play or Hitler's or Nero's? (oh yea, it was the Beatles who were responsible for that Charlie [?!?!?! o.O]) ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Counterstrike
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jack Thompson sucks co_k. I'd like to buy a "C"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Counterstrike
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Counterstrike
when i played bf2 and ghost recon-aw, i destroyed everyone after teh first bit of getting used to looking in every which direction so i dont get run over by a teammate with a tank lol.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Deutschland uber alles!!
You would think Germans would be a little bit more careful about letting power reside in the hands of the few, but they have that darn insatiable need for orderliness, even if it means taking away your freedom, a little bit by a little bit and before you know it, your feeding the jews, the catholics, the mentally and physically disabled into ovens, making lampshades out of human skin, and keeping meticulous records of the gold harvested from the fillings in the teeth of the dead.
Was that the result of a video game too?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I knew it..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is there the possibility of something else triggering this action?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe this could work out for everybody else...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tried before
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anecdotal evidence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ban video games in Germany?
This idea that you have to purchase a DVD or a CD Rom of a game is the game companies trying to make more money and keep it from being copied.
I would say that we should ban horror movies before we ban games. Some of these movies are just plan trash but I'm for the first amendment to much to ban any thing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obsessed with Nazi Germany
Just mention Germany, and you guys think of Nazis.
Sounds pretty ignorant to me.
Broaden your horizon! Learn something new about Germany. Read our blog for example: The Atlantic Review is a press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]