Video game and violence…

http://blogs.todayonline.com/techtalk/2009/03/video-games-and-violence-the-convenient-untruth/

There was an article in a local newspaper which does not support a link between video games and violence. [see link given above].

I wrote my online response to the author. Here is my response:

All events do not have a one-dimensional cause. To simply point to video games as the single cause of the recent spade of campus killings across the world, is too simplistic.

Having said that, to give no credence to the link between prolonged exposure to violence and actual act of violence is too naive.

Whether you believe the link or not does not change the fact that there is a link. Research is often cited, conveniently so. Coffee is bad says one research and coffee is good says another research. Mobile phone does not cause cancer says one report but another says it does. So citing research reports does not negate the link either.

The subject of ‘Power of Suggestion’ is well observed and it is the basis of most commercials, in trying to tell consumers what they need to spend on. If it does not work, advertisers would not be spending so much money on those commercials. Conditioning as a method of influence needs no introduction. Animals can be conditioned, children even infants can be conditioned, and elderly can be conditioned. Both the ‘power of suggestion’ and ‘conditioning’ are forces shaping our society quietly.

While it is true there are good arguments for video games - non violent ones, and how some people become better people, etc., anyone observing a video arcade or computer game shop, sees mostly violence. I have and I only notice guns and shooting in most of these places.

Suppose I go to one of these shops everyday for 2-4 hours. And every time I am down, angry, and feel inferior because of someone’s act of disrespect / inconsideration, I head to one of my favourite shooting games where I am building great confidence and control. I feel great and in control. My scores cannot be denied - I am good. This becomes my favourite hideout and place of recognition.

Up to this point, there is nothing wrong. I am just enjoying myself and building confidence. But subtly, I am building aggression within. And this aggression makes me feel good. I like pulling that trigger. I like punching that enemy. I like the feeling of winning and eliminating my enemy.

Now, fantasy and reality start to merge. With no one to help me [this is also a contributing factor] or whom I can turn to to share my pains, I begin to transpose the sense of being in control while gaming to real life. With real gun in hand [this is another contributing factor], and a trigger finger, I want to make a point. I have no intent to kill but I just want to be heard and recognised. Then, when I realised what I have done, I flee in regret.

Why is this scenario so difficult to accept or so surprising? It is the stuff in CSI, Criminal Minds, Bones, etc. [which draw inspiration from real cases].

Copycat murders are now part of police investigation.

How many more deaths are needed to generate the statistics to prove the link?