Too many knives in videogames?
- Posted January 14th, 2008 at 16:17 EDT by
- 3,216 views
- 38 Comments
Nobody should be unfamiliar with the belief that videogames is the cause for the world’s problems. It has always been like that and there are no signs that it will slow down anytime soon as gaming becomes more mature. Everything from sex to guns are the targets in the videogame industry today, now we can add one more item in, the knife.
Speaking to a British publication, The Sun, Prime Minister of Great Britain discussed the rise of violence involving knives.
“Society cannot cope with people carrying guns and knives and threatening to use them. It is neither cool, nor does it make you safer, to carry a knife. We must ease people’s fears.”
The statement he makes is true; nobody wants to live in any society where their life is at a great threat every second. However, where he starts to lose it, is when he jumps on the band wagon and uses videogames as a scapegoat.
“I am very worried about video and computer games. No one wants censorship or an interfering State. But the industry has some responsibility to society and needs to exercise that.”
Does he have a point?
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EddM |
wzpr- 4:26pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 2
Are you serious, Mr. News poster? If my government (Gordon Brown, who you quoted) want to take away my civil right to bear arms over a damn video game, the world is in a very dark place. "...nor does it make you safer" could not be more of a ridiculous statement.
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Galvanise_ |
Galvanise_- 4:27pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 3
Lets face it, Gordon Brown does have a point. Games do have a part to play in these crimes, however there are also other factors. He should have also stated some of these factors and not just blaming it entirely on Video games. I'd say the major factor is the rising level of gang formation going on in urban Britain, party due to a common ethnical background and partly due to poverty. The youth of today (myself included) are not given as much help as the media make out. Add this to the glorification of these crimes that gangs give and thus we have a spiral of knife crime that is hard to remedy.
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JD-82 |
JD-82- 4:28pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 4
Gordon Brown is a twit...and lets face it, anything reported in The Sun is trash.
Video Games DO NOT promote or glamourise violence because...defining point here...IT'S NOT REAL!!! I have no problem understanding that I can't go out and jack a car or kill some aliens (beacuse they're not real)...the place that this problem comes from is parents not monitoring what games their kids play...1 year olds playing grand theft auto or gears of war...i've seen parents buying grand theft auto for a kid that wasn't more than 11...i don't let my 13 year old nephew near a game thats a 15 ro and 18 because he's not mature enough to understand it...it's not that he can't do it it's that the games are rated for a reason....we don't need censorship we need a more stringent watch on who plays the games...
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hyperplus
- 4:33pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 5
Nope ^^^
I have frag so many people across my life span with bullets, bombs, jedi swords, etc.. and the most dangerous tools I have in my house are probably a kitchen knife or a hammer and by now mean I will use them as a weapon.
Also just comming to think about it, didn't the original MARIO vs DONKEY KONG use a hammer as a weapon? Wow, maybe that game deserved to be banned. Is probably the alpha of destruction. Who knows...
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gingo |
gingo- 4:34pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
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psn id: gingo.... The Sun could possibly be the most dumbed down and worst paper ever to grace these shores, i agree with big Gord that violence needs to be controlled but its nothing to do with videogames its the amount of bams/neds/chavs roaming this island that is the problem who think they are mad but are clearly not
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cowboy_fu
- 4:34pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 7
No, they've been using knives in tv and films long before they started showing up in graphic video games. Here's what I'm trying to figure out...in an age when the ratings for movies that people are free to watch are getting more lenient (sex, violence and language are used more frequently in movies in each rating level), video games are being censored and rated more strictly for these same elements. Video games and movies are just ways for people to escape reality and are used for an entertainment value. If crimes of certaing types, including knife attacks, are getting more frequent it is the matter of law enforcement being increased to try to cut down on violent crimes. Also, crime rates fluctuate, so just because they are on the increase now does not mean that they directly corrolate with violence in video games. The violence has been in video games for many years now just as they have in film, and yes, there was a time when tv and movies were blamed for such behavior and now they are considered to be an art form.
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Staticneuron |
Staticneuron- 5:03pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
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@Galvanise_
No he doesn't have a point and games do not play a part. That is plain pointing fingers. Whether it is rock music, rap, world news, movies, the collosieum or any other method of enjoyment people have had for years, none of them has actually cause or influenced anything. Exposure to violence isn't really that difficult to come across. The desire to do violent acts comes from within. Anything else that is said to influence it is a lie.
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Paranoimia |
Paranoimia- 5:28pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 9
So... what media did they blame Jack the Ripper's rampage on?
I never have and never will buy into this way of thinking that games make people violent. If they did, I'd be one of the most violent people on the planet, since I've been playing games for around 28 years.
The problem is that society seems to need a scapegoat for this kind of crime, so they look to things like games and movies. For whatever reason, no-one seems to be willing to accept that some people are just nasty - nothing made them like it, it's just the way they are.
Knife and gun crime was happening way before movies and games were around. Some people are just evil - that's all there is to it. Stop looking to blame anything but the person.
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1solidsnake |
solid1snake67- 7:01pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 15
people who actually go out killing other people don't know the difference. which they have nothing to loose and go crazy and kill everyone gives everyone else a bad rep who plays some of these games. Like the news sometimes gets the kids who are the most messed up kid and have them say " i just like killing people in grand theft auto." which this kid is probably a total looser and spends his time in his room all day and nite
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MatrixSixaxis
- 7:44pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 17
You either have it in you to kill or you're pushed to do it because of fear or anger, otherwise you just have a psychological problem in the head!!
"too many knives in videogames?? Well then, there are too many rabbits in China, that's why the built the Great Wall of China!!!" LOL!
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Bedsidelee
- 9:17pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
- 21
Knives, guys if your happy with your ps3’s why do you need to slag everbody elses console, jealously that yours isn't doing so well, i guess.
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juicyd |
IBJuicyD & (DSI) ATREBLEDIPTRIP- 9:21pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
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@bedsidelee - go troll some other forum where yer opinions are wantd, you'll not get anybody's back up trying to cause trouble with little boy rants like that!!! besides, if ye are happy wit the console of your choice fine, be happy and go play
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Naucious23 |
Naucious- 9:22pm GMT - January 14th, 2008
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man the ignorance some people show in our political affairs, Gordon brown do us a favor and keep the videogame industry out of your mouth because your looking like an @55.
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GAMEPHRENIC |
GAMEPHRENIC- 1:31am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 28
One Key things is this:
Much like the banning of books and the restriction of knowledge and creativity, chaos will be the definite result.
Hitler burned books and many other dictators also follow this example.
Are we the example or do we chose to lead by their example.
The interactive entertainment has take many folds and will evolve, the worst thing maybe is to limit the creativity. But, the worst thing is to not monitor its output. To many young children are being raised by the Media. Large amounts of information , without validation.
Knives, guns and chaos is a fact of life. But, it would be worst to say they were not created for a purpose. To limit the potential of simulation is to evoke the activation of chaos. Its has been proven that "Gamer can handle stress and loss better than the average non-gamer.' Just like a fighter spares with dummies to control a poor act.
Non-gamers can learn something from GAMERS; We control ourselves better because we know the consequence; What will it be said for those that lack this discipline. ...It will be call RAGE or death of an innocent bystander.
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 2:35am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 29
I think the only thing around video games that causes violence is the people who use them as a scapegoat, and cause gamers to get angry. Are we going to have to censor weapons like we do swearing and middle fingers? Stupid, ignorant...*trails off mumbling obscene words.*
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@ bedsidelee: Way to became an amazing hypocrite.
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princevegeta1980
- 2:45am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 30
bla!bla!bla!, this is just a loud of b0ll0cks to me, like all the other articles relating real violance to video games
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Soviet-Messiah |
Soviet-Messiah- 3:20am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 31
in soviet russia people kill knives. seriously, violence always has been/will be a problem.
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jphuff |
jhuff- 4:12am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 32
Well, I'll add my comments, even though they're useless in influencing these dumb politicians. Politicians are just seizing on one of the newer mediums (games) that most of their constituency doesn't fully understand, therefore is more likely to fear. There is so much more violence and lack of morality on PRIME TIME "family hours" TV these days, the last thing they should worry about is games. Can games and other media like TV influence people to violence.....sure! If people are sick or disturbed enough to have a warped sense of reality, it's POSSIBLE that they could be encouraged more by TV, games or other media to act out violently. Those people have PROBLEMS though and will act out in the end no matter what. We need to identify those people early and get them help. In the end it's up to parents to (gasp) actually monitor their children and make sure they don't expose them to things that are inappropriate for their age and more importantly, their maturity level. Refusing to take responsibility for ourselves and our own actions, choosing to blame them on music, TV or games is just a cop out. I'm shocked by how often I see parents buying YOUNG children games rated way higher than their age...still, that's the parents choice. Don't do that however for a young and/or disturbed individual, take no action and ignore the problem and then choose to blame the TV or whatever for their actions. It's the parents duty to monitor children and no matter what, it's still each individuals fault for their own actions, not the parents or any media. Sheesh! I'll stop now /rant off.
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m3t4lh34d |
lee_m3t4lh34d- 6:21am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 34
so let me get this straight... gordon brown thinks things like zelda is the cause of chavs goin round wiv knives, and the senseless brutality of super smash bros(lol) has a part to play in gang beatings? Hmm he may have a point there...if and only if the world was made of a giant marshmellow and we lived in a land of magical pixies and tree's that talk... dudes a pillock lol
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frank_magnet |
Frank_Magnt- 6:56am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 35
Next they'll be blaming video games for global terrorism.
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Tha_Last_Romeo |
Tha_Last_Romeo- 7:55am GMT - January 15th, 2008
- 36
Yeah, ok! Tell him to come live in Philly with me. He will see how safe it is to walk them streets, after the beat his @**. Last i heard it was the rapper's fault. But to be honest... place like Iraq always had violence and they can afford videogames. So where do you really think its coming from? If you ask me, people are evil like that. If I walked in on my wife cheating, i am not going to think what i would do on GTA, I will just go off and she better pray she makes it out that room.
"Scareface the movie did more to me then Scareface the rapper to me... So is he to blame for all the stuff to happen to me?" -
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El Penetrator
- 1:02am GMT - January 17th, 2008
- 38
What are you talking about? You run faster with a knife, everyone runs faster with a knife!
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