This is the segment where I scour my favourite forums around the Internet
and find some particularly interesting articles about current affairs
told in the words of my favourite human beings.
In this edition we have the usual bashing of video games from the press, that like usual is told by an ignorant journalist who just relies on assumptions rather than evidence to try and portray video games as some evil creation.
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http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/12/11914658/electronic-arts-e3-press-conference-gun-violence
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The first issue here is why there's such an issue with video game developers marketing violent titles? Why does the video game market have to be a paragon of moral consciousness? You have absolutely no evidence to insinuate that the people over at EA didn't care or weren't affected by the Orlando Shootings, and instead unfairly take the messages from these conferences completely out of context. I don't know if the penny has dropped yet, but like in most businesses developers want to sell their products to a mass market, and a big appeal in the video game market is violence. However just because violence is a prevalent theme in video games, this does not instantly mean that gamers are going to start shooting people in nightclubs, because what you fail to grasp here is that this violence is fictional. You can find a correlation between a lot of things, but until you have actually found a strong link between video game violence and the Orlando Shootings you simply cannot make these damning allegations. It doesn't matter how realistic the violence may look and feel, because like you said at the end of the day this is a game that revolves around machines killing you, so it's hardly going to be anything worse than 'Terminator'. Many other violent films of course are heavily promoted to the mass market, so why shouldn't they be sharing some of the blame in this article? You also fail to acknowledge that video games aren't an entirely evil construct, and in fact video games have
many positive merits to gamers all over the world. Maybe you feel gamers don't need so much violence in video games, and that's fine if you do have that opinion, but don't start chastising others in such a bullying and condescending tone when it's clear that you know nothing about the video game industry.
The gun violence 'felt' strange did it? Well it may well have done, but this violence is fictional. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to spell that out for you, but unless you can find evidence better than sourcing your own feelings then this is simply a pointless argument. You still haven't even produced a link that this violence has an effect on the behaviour of gamers, yet still continue to generalise with more vague and assumptive points. Sure you can draw all the similarities you want and claim they're 'uncanny', but surely you must be able to see the difference between fictional violence and the reality of a very serious tragedy; but then again this article is written like someone who's five years old.
As if the Orlando Shootings wasn't enough gamers are now apparently not appalled by the events of the First World War. This guy is a fucking dick for taking the moral high ground and claiming that gamers don't care about the men who sacrificed their lives for their country a century ago. This is such a strawman argument that has nothing to do with the argument in question, only making the author sound like a deplorable person for even suggesting such a brandishing accusation. It's clear that this article is clearly just blaming video games in the wake of a tragedy based on nothing but anecdotal evidence. In all honesty there isn't an argument in this piece, so to link an event to a cause that clearly isn't related is incredibly stupid. How this man can sleep at night knowing the shit he posts on the Internet is my biggest question from this piece. To conclude there is no causative evidence that links video games and violence. Don't take my word for it,
take the words of
renowned researchers. Amazing how in one sentence I've made a better argument than this whole piece. Some amazing journalism here mate.
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