Violent Curiosity - Come on....its not as long as usual!

Welcome to the Bloooggg of tomorrroowww *steps out of cryo chamber* (not in that order)

 

So i was browsing around through random sites today and where does my aimless traveling take me? To the most holiest of places ofcourse...Gamefaqs! Yes folks this PBG visits the daily polls for a quick laugh. Today however, besides a few laughs (which i needed since my weekend was ruined by a case of Laryngitis) it also inspired me to write these thoughts onto my *quick count* 18th Blog! yay my blog will now be an adult according to most cultures! So here it goes.

 

Todays Gamefaqs poll of the day is/was: Do you think that video games should carry a warning label that they can lead to violent behaviour. (im laughing again) If you want to see the choices available for that poll by all means visit our Cheating Enablers at their site. I personally chose "no because there is no conclusive proof of that" which is by all accounts true. I have always found this to be such an interesting argument. I mean, its as age old as the whole "Console Wars" thing thats been around since 2 systems existed at the same time back in the stone age of gaming.

 

To think that video games lead to violent offsprings or rather, violent behaviour all on its own is a rather interesting argument. All through modern history it seems that our favorite hobbie and passtime gets blamed for other people's imcompetence and or lack of educational view. So i will stand today and defend our common ally! First off, I will say that against popular belief (and as stated in a previous blog) video games DO increase your IQ level. You see while video games bring mostly pleasure and entertainment, the fact that you have to think more to play a video game than you would have to think to say...read a book, actually keeps your brain communicating with itself in order to accomplish said tasks. The fact that your brain works so much in trying to solve those puzzles in RPG's or how it works to assist your fingers from perfectly aiming those crosshairs as you do some headshots in your favorite FPS, or motor reflex skills in rhythim and sports/racing games, this does help it develop and think more. At least that is my theory.

 

As all these different parties attack the video game industry, in what is the most boring attempt for old gen people to pass their time, I simply have to say why dont they attack the right source of all this violence? Parenting. Yup Parenting. Parenting is by all means the cause of all these problems. That 10 year old kid a few years back that cut that other kids throat in school because he was upset over something...i am sure that he played plenty of COD to get his moves just right. I am sure mommy and daddy were supervising him at that time. The columbine shooting? well i am sure that the teen who pulled that one off loved playing plenty of halo and metal of honor, heck i am glad his parents never noticed the semi guns under his bed or the fact that he even wasted all the money buying them.

 

I dont mean to sound insensitive. Believe me when i say my heart goes out to all the victims all of all those lunatic kids whose head got a few loose screws and they did those things. But a kid will only do what a parent teaches them, or doesnt teach them what is right. We all know that we should look both ways before we cross. why? because we were taught that as kids...if we didnt know that then well, most of us wouldnt be alive today and all those deaths would have been blamed on need for speed and Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8...not to mention GTA. I was taught, as i am sure most of you have as well, the difference between right and wrong (which is actually a perspective that i will leave for another blog entry) its right to be honest, its wrong to steal, its right to tell the truth, its bad to pick fights. The same can be said about video games. If you dont teach your kids morality and its use in the current world. and if you dont teach them real from fiction. then we have all these atrocities. Ofcourse to further prove my point, i will just say that there is no record of "Death By Jumping on Peoples Head" related incidents in the 80's when Mario was making a strong enough presence for everyone to have played it.

 

Yea i know its getting long. Lets finish up. Truth of the matter, if you dont overly abuse video games, they are good for your health (hello! Wii being used for physical therapy in older people) and parents should lay off the subject and start to look at the mirror and say "what did i do wrong". I am sure that all those guerrilla factions in south america, all those gangsters in the USA, all the mobs in Europe, all the terrorist factions in the middle east, yea, all those guys i am sure they were all inspired by video games...specially since they were around decades if not centuries before we even had a light bulb. Kinda makes me think of Stalin and Hitler they must have loved playing Metal of Honor and Bioshock. I am sure Ghengis Khan loved to play Mario.

 

So thats all folks, load off my mind after seeing that poll. Video Games influencing violence...how fun