On Violence in gaming, and violence and gaming

I wasn't going to write about this. I was going to write about Pokemon today. I had written an entire entry today that was going to talk about how Pokemon Gold and Silver were superior games to Red and Blue in practically every way. The blog was half written, with several pictures and everything. But deep down I knew that there was something else that I needed to talk about, something far more important. On August 24, 2013, an eight year old child shot and killed his grandmother in the home that the two shared.

The child, when questioned by police, claimed that it was an accident. However, upon investigating, the police found some evidence that the shooting was deliberate. Basically, they found out that the kid was playing Grand Theft Auto 4, just minutes before the murder.

Gangsters, prostitutes, murder, theft. Oh yes, this is totally acceptable children's entertainment <sarcasm>

Let me quickly explain what Grand Theft Auto is. Grand Theft Auto is when you steal a car, simple as that. A video game series that calls itself after a crime is clearly a game series that is not meant for children and is meant to be played by adults who understand the difference between fantasy and reality. There are some games that children simply ought not be playing, plain and simple.

I hear a question arising from opponents of video games: why are video games so violent? Let's just get this out of the way: not all video games are violent. Yes, there is lots of violence in the gaming industry, and yes, there is a staggering number of violent games out there. I am not going to pretend that violence does not exist in gaming, because it undeniably does, and it makes up a really disconcerting percentage of the games that exist. In fact, some genres of gaming, such as Fighting, Beat-em-up, Shooters, and Horror, have violence as their Modus Operandi. Violence in gaming is real, there's no denying it.

But the violence in gaming is just a fantasy. In a fighting game, a character can survive one hundred thousand punches to the face and come out with only a few bruises. In a Shooter, a character can take twenty bullets without dying. In a Beat-em-up, a whole chicken will heal all your wounds, allowing you to keep on fighting the bad guys. This isn't how it works in real life. That's the point. It's a break from reality, a fantasy. You're not supposed to emulate it.

In Streets of Rage, Axel's uppercut is strong enough to knock a guy up nine feet into the air while taking about a fifth of his health. In real life, an uppercut that strong would destroy a man's lower jaw, and that would leave permanent damage and a lawsuit. Also, in real life, if you're fighting three guys at once, your ass is grass.

Why do we play violent video games? The problem is not that we play violent video games, it's that violence entertains us. During the summer, the movie with the explosions, shootouts and fake lesbians is going to earn twenty times the amount of movie that the movie about a romance starring real lesbians is going to make. On TV, the show that's about a guy shooting the terrorists is going to get ten times the audience that a show about a black family adopting a white child would ever get. The Medal of Honor series of games is going to sell ten copies for every copy of Harvest Moon, a non violent game about farming and raising a family. Violence is what entertains. Power Rangers has lasted twenty seasons because kids love watching heroes beat the snot out of evil monsters. Transformers got three movies because it had giant robots and explosions. Batman sells because the hero beats up the villain. Saw got about 8 movies because people wanted to see dumb asses suffer. Sylvester Stallone didn't make a career with romantic comedies, he built it out of action flicks. We are entertained by violence.

But again, we return to the idea that this violence is a fantasy. We know that in real life, one bullet is enough to kill you. We know that you do not get out of a fight unscathed unless you run. We also know that you just don't go fighting one on X, where X is every number higher than one. In real life there are no one man armies.

When this game was released, it caused a huge ruckus. It was considered too violent for kids because it not only showed blood, it also showed extremely violent, and extremely fantastical deaths. These days, Mortal Kombat is just another video game franchise that has long fallen into irrelevancy.

We return to the kid. He was 8. He was playing a violent game, and then he shot his grandma. To me, this raises two questions. One, why was an 8 year old child allowed to play a game that is meant for adults? Two, how did an 8 year old child get access to a gun? What happened here? To me, this is a case of negligence. But the media won't report it as that, no. They will subtly, or overtly, blame the game. However, let's just assume that, yes, the kid did it on purpose after playing GTA. There is still the issue of having a gun in the house where a child had easy access to it. I can already hear the National Rifle Association. "Gun's don't kill people, people kill people." Yes, people kill people. And they do it with guns, instruments designed specifically for hurting people. An 8 year old child killed his grandmother. You could say he could have killed her with a bat, or a frying pan, or a knife. But the facts are that he killed her with a gun, and that he obviously had easy access to it.

I am reminded of Columbine. In the year 1999, two high school students entered their school, armed to the teeth with guns, and killed several students. In the aftermath, people took to looking for something to blame. When they found out they played the video game Doom, the game was blamed. People took to blaming television, MTV, Marilyn Manson. The blame game was played, and no one won. The children were still dead, and nothing could bring them back.

Let's blame this game!

It's easy, isn't it? When children start killing, it's very easy to blame a popular singer, or a popular movie, or a popular game. We do it because it's easier to say Marilyn Manson inspired my son to kill the kid that bullied him than it is to admit that I did nothing about my son's bullying problem. We do it because it's easier to say that Power Rangers made my kid beat up and kill a puppy than it is to admit that my kid has deep psychological issues that I have failed to notice and address. Because it is easier to blame Doom than it is to admit that two kids were probably psychos. Because it is easier to blame Grand Theft Auto than it is to admit that the parents, and grandparent, of a child were negligent. Because let's be real here, why would a child be allowed to play a violent game aimed at adults? And how does a child get a hold of a gun? 

Maybe the problem isn't violent media. Maybe the problem is the fact that we do not think about the consequences of violence until they are right in front of us. Maybe the problem is that we look for something to blame instead of looking for something to fix. Maybe the problem is that we don't care enough about some things and care too much about other, less important things. Maybe we should pay more attention to what we use to entertain our kids. Maybe we need to teach them the difference between fantasy and reality. Maybe we should learn to keep instruments of murder away from children. Maybe, just maybe, we are the problem, and our shows, movies, and games, do little more than reflect how awful we truly are.