[dimtimjim]

Ok. I'm now 31. I have been facinated with computer and video games since our first Commodor Vic20 arrived in 1986. I have grown up playing video games of all descriptions, i'd guess 20+ hours per week for over two decades. I have no history of violence and consider myself to be a great father of morally high standing. How? Surely I should be a deranged killer, if this narrow minded lot are to be believed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH2WemACIM

I was not tempted to take up tennis while playing Pong. I was not tempted to jump on turtles after playing Mario. Nor could I conjour Ice from my wrists after Mortal Kombat re-wrote the C+VG violence milestone. I have never been tempted to steal cars or murder people after playing the GTA series. And now, C+VG games have reached glorious HD levels, Yet I am STILL not tempted to browse eBay for an MG36 and a box o grenades every time I finish playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Whilst I aknowledge there have been a few examples of violence caused by games, these were from seriously ill people who were suitably mind-fecked before hand.

Grrrrrr.

Sorry, rant over. But seriously, what the smeg.

Obviously, I like video games, in all forms from war sims to a family quiz.

Whadda you lot fink?

[Nicola_Red]

I've never played a video game (unless you count Tetris) - my eyes are too sensitive for them. Plus I'm such an innate pacifist that I find it difficult to see or perpetrate violence in any form, even when it's only a game. But I totally agree that if you are a sane, reasonable-minded adult, you're not gonna start murdering or stealing just cos you've played a game that shows that stuff.

However, the problem comes when you're not a sane and reasonable-minded adult - when you're too young to make the distinction between real and play-fighting, or you're mentally unstable and susceptible to bad influences. It seems like the sale of these games can't be regulated in that way - the same as dvd sales can't - and so people who shouldn't really have access to these games will continue to play them, and they'll continue to be blamed for stuff. It's just how life goes - people are always looking for somewhere to lay the blame. When I was first a heavy metal fan in the 80s, Tipper Gore and the PMRC were massively active and warning parents that their metal-fan kids were devil-worshipping. It's the same thing.

[Johnny 1989]

I'm with you Tim, I get really * off with these arseholes that blame everything in TV, films, music & video games for the "downfall of society", truth be told these wankers probably would have caused agro anyway, whether or not they had watched violent films, or played violent video games.

Seriously these "ban everything" mob really gets on my tits.

[Yudster]

Its not a case of blaming bad behaviour on films, TV and video games, its more the gradual absorption of the kind of imagery that these things present into our daily lives. Scenes of what would have been unutterable violence which would have shocked people to the core just twenty or thirty years ago are now regarded as ok for pretty much anyone, even small children area aware of such things whether they are actively watching/playing them or not.

The question is not so much do games cause violent or anti-social behaviour (although there have been many studies which seem to show that at a very basic level they do) but has the increasing acceptance as "everyday" of the imagery protrayed in them caused a change in the way we regard violence and interact with the rest of the world?

Personally I think its obvious that the answer to that is yes - but I don't think it can be blamed in total for any apparent increase in violent crime and anti social behaviour. Its one of many factors, and in and of itself surely not the most significant one. As has already been said, playing GTA and watching gory movies isn't ever going to turn a normal person into a sociopath. However the culture created (in part) by those things might make it easier for a normal person to rationalise criminal behaviour on a level less than rape or murder.

Not in favour of censorship.