Jack Thompson has yet to email me. This is pretty unexpected, since I have strong feelings toward video games, and do not believe that violence is provoked by video games. For those of you who aren’t in the know, Jack Thompson is a lawyer from Miami who blames all acts of juvenile violence on violent video games. He seems to be getting pretty famed, and as he grows wilier, his wallet becomes fatter. I usually detest linking to multiple sources, but here you go.
http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/images/comics/20050808.jpg
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/24/tech/gamecore/main676446.shtml
You see people, while video games may contain violence, just like movies, music, and Homer’s story, “The Odyssey,” they are not responsible for violence. There are other factors here, which some people, like Jack Thompson, are too cowardly to investigate. Now, I understand that there is absolutely no such thing as a deadbeat parent, who is too distracted to supervise the material possessions in which their child owns, but there must be other possible reasons these children are violent.
The store clerk, humble, and unhappy about his job, perhaps could be a possible source. When a child tries to purchase a game with a rating of M, for Mature, the store clerk gleefully refuses to allow the child to make the monetary transaction without validation from an accompanying adult. Hmm, seems as though it is not the clerk’s fault.
The child, a potential gold mine of potential, looking to bask his or her spirit and mind into the sunlight of the world, could perhaps have tried to purchase the violent video game (assuming that video games DO cause violence) and failed due to the reliable clerk’s intuition. Good job clerk! Mind you, I’m sure that occasionally, a few M’s slip by the watchful eye of the clerk, only to turn a child into a murderous bloodthirsty war machine.
Let us consider the parents. I know some people now who are parents. People I have grown up with. They are parents now, but directly prior to that, they were young adults, as I am. When they were young adults, they were far from responsible, reasonable, and rational, also known as the three R’s. Remember this one, my friends, because not enough people live by the three R’s, and they die of dire, dire mistakes and poverty, and sometimes stupidity. These new parents never became responsible, reasonable, or rational, and never grew mature enough to support a child(s). They did nonetheless. When that child needs support, deadbeat dad and open-legged mom simply could not provide such a valuable resource. The child was no longer able to be a child, and had to begin making choices on its own, much too soon. Right and wrong were blurred and twisted, and Teletubbies didn’t seem to explain much either. Is it okay to steal? If I want it, can I have it? Maybe this whole Ghetto attitude is the way life is? These children grow up, and instead of focusing on their own education, they need to second-guess the way of humanity itself, and this is basically how you make a troubled human being.
Maybe it’s the parents who go out and purchase the game, and don’t sit down to explain the differences between reality and polygons. This topic is not unlike the issues with television, which quite frankly, are still going on. The parental mindset is that this little game system will baby-sit my child so that I cannot be a parent, but instead have my own agenda. As you can see, unprotected sex can be a very bad thing, boys and girls, and not just for celebrities.
Jack Thompson, I play video games. I’ve been playing video games longer than I could read. Before you question that, I could write my name before I was three years old, and I have proof of it if you really need to see it. When little Tommy shoots his classmate in the head, don’t blame the video game he played the day before. When Mary cuts up her husband after coming home with hooker, don’t blame her for playing The Sims two months ago. When a boy sleepwalks and stabs his aunt while in his sleep, put your pudgy, sweaty little finger down and stop blaming Diablo. Stop blaming the industry for making games. Maybe it’s about time you blamed some of the fucked up people in this world who think it’s alright to bring a gun out in public.
My name is Lynk, and I am a gamer for life. Never once have I kicked in somebody’s skull, never once have I maimed someone to the point of a terminal injury, and believe it or not, I have yet to hijack a car or eye socket grind a prostitute. A video game would never cause me to do a single one of those things, or any other act of violence, with the exception of gritting my teeth. I would like to ask you nicely, right now, do not come into my life and udder a single word on how video games make someone violent. The way I see it, when a child commits a crime, they have to deal with a lawyer. It must be the lawyers who cause the crimes! Wow! We should ban them now! Hurry!
Damn video game blaming lawyers, always there when violence are afoot…