Games teach you to duck too

A Florida murder, involving teens that beat and then shot a man to death for his car, is gaining some gamer buzz. Sheriffs have seized video games from one of the teens as evidence. You can read the news article here. Notable in the story is Jack Thompson, gaming anti-Christ and his very sound bitable statement: "Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hit man or a video gamer"

I don't have much to add to the discussion but I did notice something else that was slightly troublesome. Doug Lowenstein, the game industry group's president said this:

"“Violent crime involving kids predates video games,”' Lowenstein said. 'Common sense tells us that video games do not create killers and that tragedies like this have to do with far more complex issues, from deep-seated psychological problems to a society in which violence and guns permeate the culture, from TV news to child and spousal abuse to war."

Umm Doug. Aren't games also part of the society? So then, are we not also part of the culture that permeates this environment? Given your logic, we're not exactly without our faults. I think the current political maneuvers are using games as a scapegoat for bigger issues, that's a given. But we also have to own up that we're not helping the overall cultural consciousness here. I suggest we lay low on this one and point a finger at the gun companies.

[btw, insincere apologies to anyone that might be offended by the title of this post.]

Via digg-ing and Joystiq