So, tell me about today's video games... do they promote antisocial behavior?

[reformist2]

I really have no clue, other than there's a popular game called Grand Theft Auto, where apparently you get to be a criminal? Are most video games today like this???

[Exultant Democracy]

1. There is a direct correlation between video games and crime

as video game playing goes up crime goes down.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Tetris promotes Geometry, Pac-Man promotes prescription pill abuse

On the other hand, everything I ever needed to know about how fucked up a world run by Ayn Rand types would be, I learned from Bioshock.

[Posteritatis]

12. Wasn't the Pac-Man claim actually seriously made back when it first came out?

I'm on a Paradox Interactive titles kick lately myself, so clearly I'm grooming myself to conquer large swathes of Europe instead of being a responsible citizen.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

3. Might be anecdotal... but I've always enjoyed these games and absolutely despise guns...

Have never even fired one.

[DollarBillHines]

4. Tip of the iceberg. It's our fucked-up American culture.

Video games

All of those horrible movies

De-humanizing porn

Bad parenting

Religious extremism

WWF, UFC

Lionizing violent criminals

And on and on and on...

It's fucked-up American culture that is the root cause.

[Bjorn Against]

5. Grand Theft Auto is a satirical game that mocks America's culture of violence

Yes Grand Theft Auto has some over the top and offensive material, but it is clearly a tongue in cheek satire that actually contains some pretty brilliant social commentary. The game is actually quite political as well, they have a parody of a right-wing radio station that you can listen to at any time that is sure to make any DUer laugh uncontrolably. Grand Theft Auto is not nearly as bad as it is made out to be, people need to look at the whole game in context and realize what the offensive material is trying to say about American society, the game is very subversive and people need to recognize the social commentary that exists in it. There is lots of horrible violence in many games, but I think Grand Theft Auto is at least trying to show how absurd the violence is rather than just presenting mindless violence.

[ellisonz]

7. +1

[Codeine]

8. Agreed.

I remember sneaking into a police station in GTA:San Andreas and wandering around looking at stuff -- eventually I ended up in the locker room shower wherein I found a large, flexible, purple double-headed dildo.

Which I then used to beat several people to death.

[Posteritatis]

15. Yep. GTA has some real fangs when it comes to poking at the culture the games depict.

It's certainly not for everyone (especially some of the later ones; GTA 4's pretty gritty by comparison), but it's really, really, really clear they aren't idealizing the world they're presenting.

I'd also always kind of liked how San Andreas, in the end, was basically the story of the LA riots from the perspective of people not just stuck on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, but kept there by the way things were.

[Codeine]

6. I'm the gentlest man you'll ever meet;

a teetotaling vegan who is laid back and eschews violence, but who loved the Grand Theft Auto franchise and played it for years.

It's a game, and playing it did not make me want to become a criminal any more than playing Dungeons and Dragons made me want to get a sword and kill goblins or playing Advanced Squad Leader made me want to engage in small unit combat.

[Archae]

9. Blaming videogames is pure bullshit.

My favorite games are the "Spyro the Dragon" series, does that mean I'd like to get a flamethrower and torch everyone? Hell no.

But maybe, just MAYBE, one or two people out of the millions who buy and play a game flip out, so it's "Ban the game!"

[RichGirl]

10. It's not just video games...

Everyone should go through TV listings once in a while. It is staggering how much of TV is about crime. Most of the dramas CSI, Closer on and on...endless real life crime programs, whole networks devoted to crime. Weekend marathons of Snapped, 48 Hour Mystery, etc. Even OWN has marathons of crime shows....right now a marathon of Police Women of Dallas...for fucks sake!!! Another network a Cold Case marathon. Whole weekends at MSNBC Lock UP! Practically EVERY movie on the Lifetime Movie Network is about crime and violence. What is it with us that crime has become a major source of entertainment.

When I noticed this I made a committment to NEVER watch anything crime related.

[CrawlingChaos]

11. For what it's worth

I'm a middle-aged woman and I love survival horror games, which are very violent (although certainly not in the mood for any of that today). IRL, I'm a dyed in the wool peacenik to the nth degree.

I've read that horror fans (of which I'm one) in general tend to be liberal and anti-war, contrary to popular misconception. Debatable whether that's relevant here, but I think it's worth noting that hasty conclusions are not always accurate.

[justiceischeap]

13. I'm 41 and a gamer. I definitely look over 18 but get carded when I buy games

that are rated mature. Kids that are playing violent games are playing games their parents purchased for them. You want to talk about how video games influence kids, let's talk about how parents are influencing their children by purchasing these games for them.

I play violent video games, the gorier/bloodier/violent the better for me. I use them as a means to relieve stress and it works. I don't own a gun, nor do I want to. I don't want to go out and shoot up my place of employment or a school or a mall.

Instead of stating that games are the problem, let's instead talk about mental health care. That is the real issue that we should be talking about. A great many of these mass shooters seem to have mental health issues. Instead of talking about video games, let's talk about background checks for all potential gun purchases. Let's talk about laws that state if you have someone mentally unstable living in your home, you don't get to own a gun or you must own a gun safe that can only be opened with a thumbprint or eye scan of some other biometric measure. Let's make it a law that any home that has a gun, must have a gun lock in place if there are children in the home.

There are measures that can be put in place that can make it harder for people who shouldn't be getting their hands on guns, getting their hands on guns. There are things that can be done that can allow people who want to own a weapon can but don't make it so fucking easy to do so.

[JHB]

14. It's those dime novels they get at the newsstand by the nickelodeon