We hear it in the news all the time, video games being linked to crimes all over the nation.
Cop killers who played Grand Theft Auto or school shootings brought on by Doom and Half-life.
Perhaps in those cases, yes, the games brought that characteristic out in a person. How often is it just a coincidence though? Could we link crime to something more common? Crimes created by sexual activity? Sure, why not?
How far does the stereotype go though? How many people think that video games cause violence or lewd behavior?
Let me share with you the store of a close friend of mine who shall be called "FriendX" for their privacy. Now FriendX's brain is not like the rest of ours but he is high functioning person living in a group home. FriendX's life revolves around games when not at work or such. So does my life. We are gamers and so are many others. FriendX recently had a little run in with the law during a relaxing nude run or "streaking" as it is know. The court decided that FriendX needed to see a psychologist to figure out what the exact cause of the behavior was. FriendX does not like the psychologist very much, but who does?
The revelation of yesterday's appointment though is a bit startling. When discussing with the shrink about FriendX's gaming habits a certain game was brought up. I think you are all familiar with it, Grand Theft Auto, or more importantly San Andreas. The shrink did not even know the full title, but knew it contained "sexual content". This was, in fact, the only game that was mentioned during the conversation. The reasoning behind it must be if the game contains sexual content and someone commits a sexually related crime and they are a gamer, then they must have played that game.
The problem is misinformation, many people will hear that a violent person played a violent game and did a bad bad thing. Nobody hears about the Boy Scout who is a wiz at counterstrike or the grandma who is a Wii shooter killer. Nobody goes and searches the internet to find out exactly what the situation was. As in the case of San Andreas, the user was actively searching for hidden content that was not being presented to them. To make matters worse, when a psychologist who could possibly have you committed for playing a game that he knows nothing about, your life as you know it could be in jeopardy.
So I ask you all, whenever you hear news about video games being the cause, ignore it because someday somebody will go on a rampage because the
air we breathe made him do it. When that happens we all become possible murders. So I'm keeping my eye on you.
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