untitled Gohan rebuttal

by William A Rouse

Mr Gohan,

You dared me to rebut your 'points'. I hope you are ready to eat your words...

You state that "More people die from gunshots in the states than many European countries combined. Why does this happen?" Well, the answer is not as simple as you claim and trying to blame every murder that occurs in this nation of ours on console gaming systems is just ridiculous. Where are your facts? Statistics? Surveys? You have none. Not because you forgot to include them, but because they do not exist. You haven't seen much, if any, of these tragedies in Japan, but the majority of the popular RPGs and other games are made in Japan, by Japanese companies, and sold originally in Japan. But yet, there are no examples of the kind of tragedy that occurred in Colorado occurring in Japan. Some of the real reasons we have suffered these tragedies are:

1) The over abundance of guns available. There is little that can be done about this. Guns may be obtained in many legal and illegal ways.

2) The moral degradation in this country, or more accurately, the "defining down of deviancy." Things that would have outraged us 15-20 years ago are now looked at as no big deal. The laws that are on the books are not being enforced, and when they are, people beg for leniency for the offender.

3) I hear almost continuously about how bad things are today. If you listen to the TV news you hear about how there will be nothing left for today's kids. Heard often enough, this can lead to actions that normally would not be undertaken.

4) Where were the parents on this one? The time in the making of the bombs and the time involved in the planning of this act was enormous. Where was the guidance, the observation by the parents of their kids?

"Realism and FMV. This definitely has to go." Since when is casting magical spells realistic? How many people do you know that can summon the 'Knights of the Round?" Kids see realism on TV every night in the news and in the movie theaters. The movie is far more realistic than the console game. Why? Because actual people are doing the acting. This is not difficult to grasp.

"Ineed, FF7 alone was responsible for much death and malicious impulses in our society." Where's your proof? It seems to me you never played the game. FFVII was in fact an epic tale of the struggle of good(the player) versus evil, as was every other game in the Final Fantasy series.

"Realism is evil." Then I suppose everyday life is evil too?

"Character development. This has become a scourge among RPGs that rapidly spoil RPG players, turning them into sloth-like plot freaks who care nothing about gameplay and only want to be told a story or shown a movie." What is the problem with that? And for your information, Xenogears was one of the greatest games I ever played, if not the best. These games play out like interactive movies. Except that the plot lines and character development surpass anything the movie industry could ever hope to achieve. In some, the decisions you make can effect the outcome of events. If the players didn't like the way the games play out, they wouldn't buy them.

"Predefined character stories, especially as realistic as recent games, only add to the subconscious idea of the player that these characters are real and can be seen as role models, and are to be emulated in society." As opposed to playing god and creating the character out of one's own mind, then seeing that character emulated on the screen in front of them. What's the difference between the two? I seem to remember some players of D&D took this creation of characters to an extreme a few years back.

"I assure you, this is a sick joke created by selfish atheists who are making fun of Christianity." This is absolutely irrelevant to the discussion.

"Female roles in RPGs. I'll only touch briefly on this topic. Females shouldn't be given roles that men are supposed to have. Tifa is an example of this." This has to be one of the most sexist, stereotypical, misogynistic statements I have seen in some time. I guess all women should go back to cleaning and cooking and stay at home to care for their husband at all times. At any rate what is your problem with this? You never seem to state it.

"Women should be kept as healers or magic users and not be scantily clothed, or it sets a bad example for society."

I'll tell you what sets a bad example for society. Self-righteous people who think they have the right to tell others what to think, say, do, what games to play, what games not to, what games to make, how to do it, and anything else I might have forgot. What sets a bad example is when people in a position of power abuse it and then hide from the law. What sets a bad example is taking a tragic situation like the shooting in Colorado, and using it as a tool to further an unfounded crusade against something you might not agree with.

"That's really it. I know a great many of you are secretly with me and ashamed to admit it, so speak out. And for those of you against me, I dare you to even try and rebut every single one of my points. It may seem easy, but in the end I doubt you'll get far."

In truth, it wasn't very difficult to tear you down. I ask again, where are your facts? Your proof? The truth is that guns don't kill people, and neither do video games, or any other excuse you choose to come up with. All that does is further remove any responsibility for this tragedy from the cause. The people that carried out the actions are alone responsible for their actions.

Original Editorial: Why RPGs Should be Severely Censored and Devoid of Character Development