Do Not Blame the Industry, Blame the Parents

by Eric McCoy 

Why is it that people are so quick to blame the game industry for everything wrong with society? People want to create a better society where all evil is stomped out. Their reason is to protect theirselves, but especially children, from the horrors of game violence and obscenity. As the years passed I realized that this is a futile and worthless solution. Let’s say for a second that the industry sanitizes games. If the offensive games were removed from our society, would our lives be better? If you say "yes," you really have blinders on.

I have seen more horror on the news than I could ever see in a game. If you do not believe this, I would like you to remember back to the Gulf War. The news portrayed it like a movie. It was our "Must See TV" on every single channel. We saw live footage of bombings and I know that many targets had people in or near them. You could not escape from the fact that people who died in the war were real and we all had a prime time front row seat. These were people who you could actually talk to if you met them in the street. They were not a collection of sprites or polygons that existed just as long as the power was on. My point is that senators and so-called concerned citizens want to sanitize games, but what they fail to realize is that games are not the source of society’s problems.

Newspapers and news programs bombard us with disturbing imagery everyday under the guise that it is beneficial, but I do not hear these concerned people complaining about these publicized horrors of real life. I realize that we need to know what is going on in our society, but the things we see in papers and on the evening news are things that I have the ability to do. I could blow up a federal building or walk into a school and kill, but I do not because I was raised correctly. I wish someone would ask Timothy McVeigh what videogame caused him to destroy that federal building. Since he is a present day real-life monster, he must have played some game that made him rebel against the government, right? Wrong. I doubt that McVeigh thought himself to be a member of Avalanche plotting to overthrow the Shinra-esque US government.

I have always wondered how all these young children get enough money to buy a console system and these offensive games. I can barely afford these things and I have a job. Of course, the children could rent games (which would be much cheaper), but then again, you need to be at least seventeen to have a video card at most stores. It must be the parents who help their children get these games. It is the responsibility of the parents to see that their children do not get offensive games. However, parents should not do it at the expense of people who are old enough to decide for themselves. A video game is not real. I cannot cast fire or ice based spells, nor do I defend Earth from an evil mage in funky clothes via a martial arts tournament.

Again, games are not real. If people, or shall I say adults, cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy then they are mentally deficient and need to seek professional help. Do not punish those who have enough intelligence to tell the difference. I am sick and tired of people wanting to bend the wills of all to conform to their own views. My final point is that there will always be the "bad seed," but it is the job of the parents to protect their children and raise them so that when the time comes to make a choice about their destiny, hopefully it will be a productive and sensible choice. Building a better society starts at home. Teach your kids the difference between a game and real life. If our homes were in order, we could view games for what they are - entertainment.

For Byron...