Saturday, January 21, 2006

   Video games are not evil.
Okay -- I have something to rant about. I don't care if you read this or not, I'm typing it anyway. And, if you find the ideas out of place, awkward, or anything -- get over it, it's 2:30 in the morning. And, I'd love to hear what you think on this one.

I just read a few articles linking through CTRL+ALT+DEL (a webcomic I regularly read), and a gamer known as "Kuja105", whose name is/was Mitchell, committed suicide. Here's part of an article on the matter:

Earlier this month, gamer named Mitchell S. with the online screenname "Kuja105" who posts on a few online videogame forums (including GameFaqs.com and MetalGearSolid.org) committed suicide. On January 2 he posted a message in both forums detailing his intent to end his own life, citing overwhelming complications with school and finances.

A very brief period of initial disbelief was followed by a barrage of replies from fellow forum members pleading that he not take his life, trying to talk him out of it.

For days, no word was heard from Mitchell. Fearing the worst, members and administration from metalgearsolid.org began searching for contact information, spending hours on the phone trying to get in touch with him. Finally on January 4, Ryan K., an administrator at metalgearsolid.org, got him on the phone and spent hours desperately trying to talk him out of it.

Sadly, Mitchell soon ended his own life by consuming antifreeze and painkillers.

(from GamingHorizon -- click here for article)

As some of you may or may not know, Jack Thompson is an uber-religious freak that advocates against video games -- that they are evil and a waste of time. This, I believe, is a misjudgment; video games are NOT a waste of time. I'll post the letter he sent to one of the forum's Mitchell was a "regular" on here:

"Your "gamer friend" will find peace through the Lord, Jesus Christ, but sadly it's too late for that.

There is a void in every heart. You can fill it up with the things of God, or the things not of God. This unfortunate soul chose to fill it up with combat games. The playing of these video games is masturbatory activity, meaning senseless self-stimulation. If you gamers could use a dictionary you would know that that term is not necessarily a sexual one.

The real tragedy here extends beyond the life and death of this one fellow. There are literally millions of young people and young adults whose despair is deepend by turning to the things of this world and then finding them meaningless.

All of you gamers need to put down the controllers and get a life. The utter inanity of the vast majority of postings here shows how vapid "gaming" really is.

You are one of the cheerleaders for this wasting of time and the wasting of lives. Do you feel any remorse for having contributed to this "culture of death?" Of course not. Hey, let's all play MORE games, and ignore all the really productive things to do with our lives.

Let's pretend to be shocked that a gamer might descend into deeper depression, as his gamer "buds," knowing he was killing himself, couldn't figure out how to call 911 themselves for him. That would have involved leaving their computers I guess.

Sad. Sad for all of you."

I'm so sorry that you find our lifestyle a waste of time, Mr. Thompson. Wait ..... I'M NOT. Video games are a form of entertainment -- something we do for fun. It's not a "culture of death", as you say it is! Video games aren't to blame for suicide or violence; that's not the root of the problem for this. It's the environment that surrounds a person that provokes the negative behavior.

That's one thing that I find really annoying -- people thinking they really have a right to judge another person for their lifestyle. I'm not going to say I'm completely innocent in this area, because I do find religion to be unnecessary -- however, I'm not the one saying that any religious worship is a waste of time, and is a "culture of death". Think about this, though -- how often do people kill because of religious matters? More often than video games have. The Christians in the Crusades -- that was how long ago? Muslim extremeists -- they kill people practically every other day, because they are trying to rid the Earth of infidels.

This doesn't apply just to religion or gamers -- it applies to anything. Punk rockers, stoners, geeks/bookworms -- any stereotype you can think of can be put to trial, and someone will think their lifestyle is a waste of time. Moving on --

Another thing, he also says "If you gamers could use a dictionary ...", implying that gamers are ignorant. Well, maybe if Christians could do something other than read the Bible and quote scripture, they'd know that video games aren't the way they perceive them. (Yeah -- look, I can accuse Christians of being ignorant, too! It's not that hard!) They've developed games targeted towards the children of religious parents. Sure, the motive of the games' corporation(s) are just out to make money, but they're also providing these games to the public. Not all video games are based on drugs, sex, violence -- it's not just an industry that targets "sinners".

Now, if you read the articles, obviously they tried to help Mitchell -- they tried to convince him otherwise. It's not as if they sat by and did absolutely nothing for their friend. They did. They tried to help, but someone that doesn't want advice, won't take it.

For those of you that know I'm an Atheist are probably accusing me of attacking religion because I don't believe in it. However, it's not the reason why I'm writing this. I don't believe in it, no -- you're right there -- but, I'm not going to say it's pointless, or a waste of time. Those that choose to follow a life with religion, they have the right to do so, and I can't really say otherwise. I don't believe in restricting many aspects of a person's lifestyle. I had a best friend that was a Christian. I have friends now that are religious -- even though I poke fun at them for it, they poke fun at me, too. Again, it's all about toleration, and acceptance.

I'm just tired of everyone accusing video games to be the reason why violence exists. Yes, it may contribute partly, but it's not the only reason. It's not like there's some sort of subliminal message in the games, subconciously convincing us to kill ourselves or other people. As I stated before -- video games are a source of entertainment. Maybe I missed a few points I wanted to include, but I'll add them in later.

"All of you gamers need to put down the controllers and get a life." Mr. Thompson -- put down the Bible and get a life.
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