Rockstar Mayhem Festival

just found an interesting article (http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/01/11/videogame-makers-under-the-gun-but-shooter-business-is-huge/) that states that the white house is calling a meeting for video game manufacturers with joe biden to discuss violent video game, mainly first person shooters. It seems that they are trying to link the recent gun violence to these first person shooters. I find it a little contradicting that the government wants to blame gun violence on video games while they still send 18-25 kids overseas to slaughter. I am more of an information is power type of person and believe that proper instruction and information is necessary as long as guns remain legal. i feel trying to point out a scapegoat instead of understanding that there is more to this issue than one factor is dangerous and strictly a PR stunt. Your thoughts are welcome.

I saw something about that yesterday. Much like I think of the rest of the time when the police are searching for some type of rationale, they try and look for violence in video games. There are also people who say some video game caused them to do commit said crime. To me that's just a cheap excuse and the only people who say that a video game was the cause, have a difficult problem distinguishing what is reality from what is fantasy. If anything, a video game should be a medium in order to let out whatever could be bothering you because there is a lot more to what goes into a crime than a video game.

People have been blaming video games forever now because they don't wanna blame the parents or somebody else at fault. While it is true that the shooter in conneticut played counter-strike just because one messed up person decides to take inspiration from it doesn't mean all people are like that. I have been playing gory games for a long time now. I play call of duty and battlefield a lot, and not once have i wanted to kill someone much less shoot up a whole school. Idiots who take video games seriously are the minority. And yes i agree the country is hypocritical for sending young kids to war. But then again i lost faith in this country a long time ago.

^absolutely. It's always "let's find the easiest possible thing to blame." Another ludicrous thing that these anti-video game activists such as that moron Jack Thompson, says that games you referenced slipknot; counter-strike, battlefield, and call of duty are "murder-simulators." Teaching the perpetrator how to aim and reload and all sorts of other stupid bullshit like that

I don't see much coming of this. If the government banned first person shooters they wouldn't have anyone to fight their wars. I'd favor reinstating an assault weapons ban as long as it is passed by Congress, not by Obama though an executive order which has been openly discussed.

^You do realize that during the last assault weapons ban, we still had the most infamous school shooting ever. We've tried it before, it doesn't work

I've been playing violent games for years and have never had the urge to go shoot up a public place. Same goes for pretty much all of my friend's and a lot of other people I know. The people who commit these crimes I'm pretty sure are psychotic/mentally-ill/whatever. If anything video games keep people from going outside...

just because somebody likes to shoot up places on grand theft auto or something doesnt mean they will in real life, and not many people wo play gta get the urges to do real murder. and also what annoys the fuck out of me is people who say the producers of the august underground movies and saw are sick and dangerous because of the movies they make. i mean for fucks sake its a gore movie and what producer has ever even done anything like that? pure ignorance

I'll just go ahead and drop the gun control issue. I'll say this, I do favor gun control, but I do realize it isn't the whole issue and isn't the end all, be all. That said, some of you have touched on the issue of personal responsibility when it comes to issues like video games, movies, etc, and I strongly agree. It isn't the government's job to do what parents should be doing.

i wouldn't be for gun control, what i am for is proper background checks and required courses. i don't really think this is a gun issue since americans have been able to bear arms for hundreds of years. i think we as a society are failing the mentally sick. all of these individuals had severe issues and there were lots of warning signs.