. THE VIDEOGAME CULTURE

On September 15, 2004, a fourteen year old kid in London died in an accident linked to the videogame �Manhunt�. Police believe that acting out the graphic violence scenes from the videogame may have caused the kid�s death.

This is only one out of numerous incidents that have been linked to violence in televisions and more importantly the videogames. One of the most famous of such incidents is the Columbine shootout, which the police believe was an influence of violent videogames.

Another link between violence and videogames is the D.C. sniper case. Police have discovered that the young seventeen year old charged with shooting many people, was trained through videogames played in sniper mode.

Such incidents of violence among today�s teenagers being linked to violent videogames cannot just be a coincidence. The videogame culture today has caused a rise in crime-rates, and the columbine shootout and D.C. sniper case are the burning examples. Incidents like these, and the ever-growing popularity and sales of videogames have proven that there is a growing interest and appetite among teenagers for violent games. And the saddest thing is: nothing has been done to prevent it.

The companies that manufacture these games aren�t ready to accept the blame. They recount the fact that they put a �NC-17� label on their violent videogames, and that such videogames are only sold to people over the age of seventeen. But from the incidents it is evident that more and more children under seventeen years of age are actually playing such games. And the worse of all: parents are buying these games for their children.

Attempts of banning such games have been fruitless because of the strong presence of lobbyists in Washington representing the multi-million dollars videogame industry. These lobbyists argue that an attempt to ban the manufacturers from producing such videogames is a breach of the first amendment right.

At present situation when both the presidential candidates are debating over their Vietnam War records, a game company has launched a new videogame titled �Shell-shock Nam�67�. The player is an American GI who walks around, bombing the paddy-fields and huts, chasing and killing the Vietnamese. The gaming industry today looks more like an opportunist, money-making organization at its best.

On one hand, people who fought in the Vietnam War so many years ago want to forget about that war. On the other hand, these game companies are trying and persuading kids today to recreate and relive the experience of that thirty-seven year old war. Some of these war games even award bonus points to players who pee and spit on their enemies after shooting them dead. Is this the last remaining thing that kids today need to learn?

It is imperative to find a solution to the violence created by the videogame culture because we don�t want to see some kid going around shooting people, and peeing and spitting on their dead bodies.

****************************

P.S. This piece is dedicated to the victims of recent Argentine school shooting.

Interesting topic!!

I have always been a great critic of videogames although I must admit that there have been times when I enjoyed playing it. The purpose behind the video games is to push people into virtual reality and shower them with thrills, which usually won�t be available in real life. So, some of the things I hate about video games are..

�Obesity: Along with TV, studies have proven that Video games are one of the reasons why children are obese these days. Instead of going out and playing they wish to stay home and play games, which of course to total unhealthy.

�Expensive: These things are crazily expensive these days. Any new game priced around 30 dollars is supposedly cheap and the system when it came out 4 years ago cost around 300 dollars!!

�Addictiveness: A friend of mine constantly talks about a favorite game of his called Counter Strike�This dude is so crazy about this game that whenever he does something cool he tells everybody. Haha..Although it is part of video game culture to boast about scores and what not since games are made tougher..to complete.

�Real life: Like above article stated some people don�t know the difference between real and virtual life. I won�t say video game or TV directly contributes to the violence but in some ways they have something to do with it.