Does anyone believe this?

The goverment goes on that games influence people and the way they act, but to be honest i think they are scape-goating the problem onto games as it is something that most parnets do not know about and kids do

It seems really stupid to me, i mean i play Team fortress 2 a lot, the soldiers can rocket jump, but does that mean i am goin to run outside, grab a rpg and try to rocket jump?

No


But what do you lot think?

http://www.runestorm.com/pl/forum/forum ... .php?41357

Yeah,that post pretty much sums it up.

There are millions of gamers... If videogames really turned people into violent maniacs, the streets would be awash with blood, and there'd be a school shooting every day of the week.

Pong is all to blame for the violence. And Pac Man is the reason why obesity exists.

People that believe this should be slapped with a... male sex organ.

Really, this subject pisses me off because people seem to ban anything these days. Humanity become sterile like this.

not to mention Jack Thompson because he also claims video games kill people. NO THEY DON'T! I hope its not too much longer that HE GETS DISBARRED! seriously!

I started gaming at an early age. Doom was the first Ive ever played and I think it was 8 or 9 and Ive played hundreds of really violent games and I'm no serial killer. Although on that note..apperantly when I was born my doctor said I was gonna be one..BUT as of now I'm fine and I play violent games.

I think I am proof that games are incapable of affecting your average person. I enjoy blowing people into a million giblets with the BW RPG, admiring the gigantic blood stains and giblits sticking to the walls, then shooting that corpse around to leave some bloody trails. I also like the chainsaw bayonet in GoW, where I can run it through an enemy's torso, sparying a gyser of blood and guts in the air, and then laugh as my avatar says "Ick, I think I got some in my eye". Yet, I still feel a little queasy when I see just a paper cut in real life. It can seem quite conventient, when your kid finds your gun and shoots him/herself and/or somebody else, then pin the blame on something else besides crappy parenting, but I cannot see how one could justify that games affect people just because we have crazy wackos in our world. Surly, there was never any violence before bloody games, way back during Hitler's attempt at world domination, Stalin's opressive reign, the women-raping vikings, the blood drinking spartans, that one guy who enslaved the popluation of Africa and cut off people's hands for not cooperating, world war 1 (what was that about anyways? It gets overshadowed by the over-glorified WW2), and other such stuff. Surly, games must also be responsible for that, too, somehow.

People who try to justify the use of computer games as causing violence relies heavily on logic similar to what is presented in this article: http://crystaloak.com/Gaijin/Essay/tomato_addiction.htm

Saying "I am not affected by video games" is certainly not proof of anything (anecdotal evidence). Some young people are very impressionable, as evidenced by a handful of deaths related to children watching too much wrestling and imitating what they see. And children do imitate what they see adults doing. I think video games can have a negative influence on children (besides decreased exercise and studying time). It's on to the parents to actually do some parenting to make sure their kids stay on the right track.

I agree with Kaboodles for the most part (well, about 99.9%). Racing games have really made me one to want to race someday, but obviously, even though I play street racing games too, I'm not tearing it up in a busy intersection like a madman in Burnout! Same goes with most gamers I think. They will like what they play, but won't go as far as doing something just plain stupid. What IS bad is the select few who are unable to comprehend that it's not a good idea to actually do stuff in games in real life.

You don'[t hear many of those cases, but the media sure does love to play those out like it's everyone!

The MSM love a dramatic story.

The original question: Do games influence people?

The answer is: Yes.

Why? Because video games aren't bound to reality, hence the reason some mentally unstable people lose their sense of reality. But not always in a bad way. For example some die hard splinter cell fans might want to become sneaky spies.

And lots of video game playing affects pretty much everyone, some have strange dreams, others start role playing their favorite scenes with hands.

The human mind is one weird organ.

It gets weirder as time progresses too. Don't forget that one!

Hence, the reason I mentioned that there is no substitute for good parenting.

Lemme take one more angle on this. I am not affected by video games, so nobody has the right to tell me that I should not be exposed to certain games. Ok, so it is technically impossible to prove that a person is affected by a gme becasue you cannot compare a person who plays games to that same person who does not play games, but you cannot prove this to be false by the same token.

Has anybody come accross any studies that accurately analyze this? I have seen some skewed studies, where the control group that has not played games is different from the people who do, simply due to the nature of their environement, but I have never seen any fair tests.

I heard of some violent murders because of deptors refused to payback virtual cash that they borrowed from their friends/companions in MMOs.
It is affekting us all, it just depends on what peron you are.
If your unstable person, then...
If your a normal person its nothing serios, maybe the most you'll do is call the debtor arsehole.

Lol, I agree !

Well, there isn't only games, there's also animes...
Look, because of Dragonball Z, we're all completely mad and violent !

I remember when I was a child, there was a huge polemic about Dragonball Z because it was violent and made us violent as well !

As far as I remember, video games have never affected me in anyway I know...
Oooh wait ! Yes ! Sometimes they made me completely dependant !

Because of Video games, I'm an addict !

On second thought, I guess games do affect me significantly. I'd sit down to play some games on my computer, then before I know it, I am 4 hours closer to my death. Freaky.

Tyster that happens with everything, thus relatively, there's no problem

The real question is, do people influence games?

people get more violent because of sport, politics and hormones, than because of games.

after the shooting at columbine the police investigated the shooters house.
they found the game Doom and blamed the game for the aggression.
so do violent games make people violent, or do violent people search out violent games?
the truth is that games do barely make people more violent.

but if we ask the question: do games have ‘any’ influence on people?
then i will have to say 'yes'. but it will influence us just like any other information our brain receives.
it can slightly influence behaviour.
it will without a doubt influence the way we talk, making us more often use words like 'f***' and 'shit'. but we will also use words like 'powned' and 'noob'.

but let’s look at movies, they have almost exactly the same influence as games. only they won't make you sound like a counter-strike player.

Your absolutely right.
BTW cool post.
MMM FTW OMFG LOL

You guys remember that one incident where some dude stabbed and killed another dude over some sword in some game?

Here's my closing argument:

Parents often blame games for applying influence on their children, causing them to make victims. Parents never question their parenting as that is simply perfect, which they have proven by buying their children a violent game.

There are more ways to play violent games than a copy bought by the parents. Hell, it might be a bigger percentage for that matter.

Then for you, lack of moderation also counts.

Because his friend sold sword in Lineage 2 ?

Oh yea, good old times... There's 2 clans in russia that had a fight, and they started insulting eachother ingame, eventually by phone, and after that, one of the 2 clans killed the opposing leader in real life. And even now, they are phoning and emailing the family of that kid's clan, telling them how relieved they are by killing their son. I also heard they threaten the sister of the victim with rape and murder.

Oh well.

NO U

...huh?

I was talking about kids can play video games at a friend's house, for example. That is something parents don't have much control over, nor do they even know of it in the first place.

If anyone thinks that, he's an idiot.

Even 6 year old kids won't think that, even they'll know better.