Blog post

http://kotaku.com/5976286/im-mentally-ill-i-love-violent-video-games-and-theyve-never-made-me-feel-like-killing-anyone?post=56265161

WARNING: Possibly offensive content, you're more than welcome to delete your System32 to prevent yourself from being
"Offended"

Violent Video games have always taken the blame for horrible incidents such as the Sandy Hook shooting, and they
completely overlook mental illnesses or what might have made a person snap. Now, why blame those said games for
causing such atrocities? All a video game is is a world of fantasy that allows players to do things they would not
normally do in the real world. Take Need for Speed for example (for the sake of having a non-violent game) In there,
I drive a McLaren MP4-12C down a highway at 300 km/h while being chased by a battalion of police officers, does that
make me want to do the same, running from the law in a failed attempt with a 97 Integra? Of course not.

Video games have been around for around 40 years now, and is not widely accepted as an art form. Almost exactly the
same thing back in the days of cinema and movies, when they were speculated as causing violence amongst people. but
once again, it's a fantasy realm that people use to escape from their dull and possibly boring lives.

You can't just pin the blame on an inanimate object that is used to play a video game, you have to get down to the root
of where the problem is, and thats with the person, not the latest Call of Duty game. Guns have been blamed for causing
shootings and murders and such. "WELL I just picked up this gun and it just willed a bullet into that person's right eye socket
over there!" NO! You picked up that gun with the intent of killing someone that day. Same with Violent games, "Oh well this game has
lots of killing and such in it that could possibly have brainwashed our kids into thinking it's okay to go around shooting
people." You shouldn't be able to do that! Because if thats the case, "This guy played the latest Need for Speed game and
he was driving erratically and ramming police off the road!" Think about that one for a second, the culprit is NOT a violent
Video game, its an almost run of the mill racing game, no blood, no flying through the windsheild ragdoll physics, just a lot
of rear-ends and ramming other racers off the road. That could be done with literally ANY Racing game.

What needed to be done was NOT automatically assume violent video games brainwash people to the point of causing horrible
things to happen, and ask Was anyone noticing something different about this person? Something that may have been emotionally
disturbing and may need some mental health care to help with this?

I may seem a bit insensitive to such things but its a rant, I'm angry at why things like this happen and why we don't look at
the person rather than some hardcore, exploding, blood, guts and gore video game that is within a safe fantasy realm. It makes me
flip a table and scream, "I don't want to live on this planet anymore!" Then go off to play Grand Theft Auto, spawn a car and attatch
exploding speed boosters, and go off to the moon. Because I can't do that in reality, and it's damn gravity and physics.

Andrew Biskupski