Following the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting that happened a few weeks ago, there has been an issue of who is to blame for the tragedy. As people pointed to guns and gun control, the NRA went on the attack with blaming the game industry and violent video games; in response, vice President Joe Biden asked for the Game Industry to attend a talk about the issue.
Comments on Gamasutra about the issue have been split. With some saying that we shouldn’t have attended, while other saying that not going would have been admission of guilt. Now that things have somewhat settled down, I wanted to share my thoughts on the matter.
To Go or Not To Go?
First I want to talk about the big debate among gamers: Should the Game Industry attend the talk? For me, I believed that we should have gone and glad that a representative did attend.
I believe that like most gamers that games are not a cause for violence, but that doesn’t mean that everyone believes that. Public opinion can be a dangerous thing and the game industry as a whole has taken its fair share of lumps.
2012 was a poor year for quality of life and equality in the game industry, with more than a fair share of stories about misogyny and general attacks at women. Let’s also face the facts that from the outside looking in, the video game industry was really into ultra violence in 2012.
From videos of E3, the big name releases of Far Cry 3 and Call of Duty and even Spec Ops: The Line (which did it to prove a point), it was hard to defend mainstream content in 2012.
And that’s why above all else, I’m glad that we attended, even though people would say that showing up would have been an admission of guilt. Not showing up would have been far worse for our public opinion. We should be doing our best to not look like the culprits in the public’s eyes; an opinion that vice president Biden agreed with.
What can be Done?
For Game-Wisdom, I like to stay away from polarizing conversations such as religion and politics, as it’s hard to take an analytical viewpoint in such opinionated topics. So, this is going to make this next part one of the most opinionated things I’m probably going to write on the site for a long time.
This is a graph showing the number of gun related murders in 2012. While the US is the highest one, there has to be more then just having a lot of guns as a cause.
I said that at the beginning that I don’t believe that game violence can lead to gun violence, but I like many others, do think that it would be interesting to research the effects video games have.
From both a positive view-point and a negative as it’s hard to find an accurate and credible study done on the topic.
Not only would this help show that the industry is committed to research studies, but hopefully can calm down the hyperbolic speech from the major supporters and critics.
As for trying to find a root cause, like most people the first thought I have when I hear about any tragedy is “how did the person get a hold of X?” And while looking at gun control and ownership is important, I do think there is more at work. I feel that we need to take a good look at the state of health care in the US, to see why people are having the trouble getting the help they need and what is causing them to perform these violent acts.
There have been arguments about if the Government should provide better healthcare as opposed to companies. Personally I would support having the government provide health care. As someone who both has health related issues and witness family members as well, I would love to not have to deal with the BS of the various insurance companies.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLMIb-oNoRM[/youtube]
Trying to figure out how a tragedy happened is never easy, as there are so many pieces to the puzzle and conflicting viewpoints. But the best way to start is to examine the elements at play from a level headed standpoint.
