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I can't believe I have to type this, but this article is in fact, passive-aggressive satire. - Curtis
Reading the news lately has been all sorts of terrible. Tragedy after tragedy, followed by public shootings, usually carried out by someone who at some point in their life - has played violent video games. We are hard pressed to deny that there is a connection between the two, as we all know every act of inhumane and sociopathic violence throughout history has been caused by violent video games. Disputing this point is futile. Violent video games cause violence.
Video games have caused a lot of issues. Here are some more personal ones from my Twitter feed:
"Katamari caused me to roll around my neighborhood for a year, collecting & hoarding all the trash I could find." - @njdevilnyguy
"One time after playing Grand Theft Auto *A LOT* I tried to press Triangle to get into my car." - @funky49
"Killing Floor got me into injecting myself with needles to 'keep my health up'" - @EXPotemkin
"Gran Turismo made me drive too fast. I also may have thrown my controller in fury whilst playing Monster Hunter." - @gamerparent
"I can't stop rearranging my pantry and closets...DAMN YOU TETRIS!" - @zedrikcayne
"RPGs taught me that I can go into any person's house, and search their house for money and break their clay pots" - @terrorandlove
"I can't trust turtles anymore. Koopa Troopas gave me nightmares. Had to use NyQuil to get to sleep. Now I'm addicted." - @chickmae
"Age of Empires gave me a raging Trebouchet boner. I would have murdered for one of those things." - @Caeliferignis
"Dr. Mario had me seeing tiny, cartoon viruses every place and eating prozac like it was candy." - @Menolly07
"Pitfall. I'm still afraid of jumping on crocodile's heads, although I continue to do it." - @laura_atchison
"I created a little old lady for The Sims Online. Found myself making up backstories about her. Not that weird. OR IS IT?" - @lynnbeighley
"Animal Crossing made me go dig stuff up & shake all sorts of stuff out of trees. And go fishing. I'm always fishing. " - @gillhoffs
"I began taking steroids as a 9-year-old to perform better on the Nintendo PowerPad." - @daddyfiles
"Video games made me stuff my face with copious amounts of amazing food. I couldn't possibly be responsible for myself. I also blame Obama." - @Sm1ttySm1t
"Once, after playing Halo for ten hours, I fell asleep. That's pretty much the worse thing that's happened." - @jayslacks
Clearly any person who plays violent video games and then commits an act of horrendous violence, especially with an assault rifle, did so because of video games rather than any glaringly obvious psychological or parenting issues. There is no disputing this fact and the media and politicians have rightfully challenged the existence of violent video games and noted the direct link between them and violence. The thing they have missed though is that violent video games are not the only type of video games that are adversely affecting our way of life. There are plenty of other sociological, physical and psychological issues being caused by video games. We just have to know where to look. Here are five other areas (besides violence) that we can blame video games for.
Obesity
A long-standing problem in the United States, obesity has become the bane of our society. People are getting fatter, and it starts with children. This has nothing to do with food choices, advertising or lack of proper exercise, no, this directly has to do with what I'm calling the "Pac-Man/Kirby/Yoshi Effect." The World Health Organization has even gone so far as to list video games as one of the reasons for childhood obesity. This makes sense, as most kids are born without parents and must rely on adapting to society through LAN parties.
Insomnia
As proven over and over, people have little self control. They need to be told what to do, how to do it and when to do it. This holds true for sleeping too. Video games don't come with a sleep timer, therefore they rely on the responsibility of the individual. How dare they! Many gamers suffer from insomnia caused by late night raids or knowing that 2am is the best time to level up on the Counter Strike servers because all the high schoolers are in bed. While using any technology before hitting the sack can cause insomnia it's pretty apparent that the worst cases of not being able to fall asleep are caused by video games, because they certainly have more stimulation than any other device and that inhibits self control. Turning things off is hard work. Who wants to do hard work to live better? That sounds like responsibility.
ADHD
Like a bedazzled jean jacket, video games can be a great distraction to real life. For adults and children with ADHD, it can be a deterrent to actually living life. ADHD sufferers are easily sucked into the world of video games; the auditory and visual stimulation is like riding a magic unicorn across that chocolate river in the chocolate factory. Willy Wonka wouldn't like that very much, what with the sanitation issues related to unicorns. Dirty, dirty animals. The point is, no matter how much we try to link ADHD to video games we know darn well that they will suck in the easily distracted, removing them from society. Some of us might actually need to be removed from society though. There might be a list. Why doesn't Wonder bread come in wheat flavor?
Sexualization
Because of games such as Leisure Suit Larry and Dead or Alive, women have become nothing more than martial arts bombshells with amazingly ridiculous bodies and proportions. Not only has this directly led to a rise in the sexualization of children - the "Chun-Li Factor" - but is clearly connected to every sexual assault committed. In fact, because of the delusional realities towards relationships presented within video games rapes have declined significantly over the past two decades, but the ones that do happen are because of the phrase "Gang Bang" in Bulletstorm. Also causing problems is the phrase "topless" which has led to a rise in t-shirt theft.
Antisocial behavior
Coming as no surprise, there have been studies linking video games to antisocial behavior. This goes hand in hand with the violence aspect of video games. Not only will video games cause you to withdraw from society, but hate it as well. You won't want to leave your house. I call this the "Limbo" effect. A dark cloud hangs over hardcore FPS gamers, driving them into a pit of despair, causing them to drink copious amounts of alcohol, contemplate life and the existence of nothingness and eventually end up in handcuffs due to a random act of violence. While some who play video games simply do so for a few hours at a time, then interact normally with society, most become hideous rodent hoarders intent on building tinfoil couch forts.
Satire aside, blaming video games for the troubles of the world is a slippery slope at best. Scapegoating a new social apparatus is easy: the same was done to comics back in the 1950s. People are looking for an easy explanation for the recent spate of gun violence in the United States - this while there are countries experiencing daily genocides - and grasping at whatever they can. As Adam Sessler pointed out in a recent Fox News interview, we're forgetting that most video games aren't meant for children, not meant for developing minds and if a game is called Grand Theft Auto perhaps children should not be playing it. This onus rests on the shoulders of parents.
I spoke to gaming industry expert Jim Sterling of Destructoid.com, who has been inundated in the video game violence debate, being an outspoken gaming advocate and someone whose livelihood comes from the industry surrounding gaming. We both agreed that the "research" claiming video games as a trigger for violent behavior is suspect at best, and generally biased. Not only that, but just because you are aggressive and violent in video games does not mean you are in real life. Jim summed up the debate pretty succinctly:
In the end, we're doing society a disservice by ignoring the real issues behind gun violence in the United States. We're ignoring the mental problems, the social and family problems and everything that is more likely behind these acts of violence than video games. While the gun debates are going on in Congress, more violence is taking place. Book-burning video games isn't going to teach our children a damn thing besides how to blame art and entertainment for the psychological problems of the few.
Image source: http://mortalkombat.wikia.com
