I was browsing gamepolitics.com when I came across this article. Apparently some moron in the inept Texas crime punishment system is blaming violent games and music for crime. What kind of music? Not heavy metal this time, thank god, but rap, which he hits the nail on the head on, to his credit. He is right about that. But then he goes down to try to say that playing violent games will make you more likely to commit crime and then attacks various popular games (thank god none of them are actually good games)... I quote:
“As the body becomes physiologically accustomed to a little lift from a
gateway drug, the person graduates to harder drugs,” Williams said, “I
see video games as something where once the thrill of playing a video
game is gone, what’s the next step?”
He's basically saying that crime is directly caused by playing violent games. Which is BS, because in the last few years when games were really violent and popular, crime has been dropping. He is trying to say that gamers become criminals after they get bored of a game. It's preposterous, stupid, and just a plain fucking lie. There is no way violent games will make you want to commit crime after you get bored of them. I have gotten 'bored' of the crappy games I played to death like the ones he mentions, and not once did I want to steal cars for real like I did when I was playing the shitty excuse for a series GTA is. And I don't know where he gets this info. He has no hard evidence to back up his claim whatsoever here, NONE. And here is proof:
"It should be noted that Williams did not cite a single case he had
been involved in over the last 28 years where there was a correlation
between playing video games and a crime being committed by a juvenile
offender."
This is proof that he is pulling BS out of his ass. Like this said there hasn't been a single cited case where he mentions how a juvenile offender played violent games and then committed a crime. He just says there is but can't back it up because he's an anti-gamer asshole.
"Williams also took the time to list the games "kids are playing
today" including Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, Postal 2, Postal 3, and
Grand Theft Auto V. At least he mentioned two games that teens might
actually be playing..."
He then tries to claim kids are playing these games (GTA, Postal 2/3, Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat). Call of duty he is right about. But the others, not so much. The average age of a gamer today as found out by the ESA is 30. 30! Not a kid. The whole idea that kids play violent games and only kids play them is nonsense that I have debunked on a blog post somewhere in a myths post. It's nonsense.
Notice how he singles out those 5 games and tries to claim all violent games lead to crime? Well I did and this is total bullshit. Games like that are a small percentage of violent games. There are tons of idiots in newspaper articles singling out Postal 2 as an example of what "most violent games are like" to attack the EMA vs Brown Decision. This is no different. It's blatant stereotyping. There are many shooters/RPG's/other games that are violent and do NOT push the envelope like GTA or Mortal Kombat does. GTA and it's ilk make up less than 10% of total violent games ever made. He is simply using his position, like cops do to try to demean the gaming industry by making it look like these 5 crappy games are good examples of "realistic" violent games (when they are not), and then saying all games cause crime. It's Bullshit, Don't believe it. And he's an ass.
