The shooting in Isla Vista, in Santa Barbara in 2014 holds some violent influence from video game exposure. Inside official documents reported inside he LA Times, it is said that the suspect’s interests involved playing video games (featured on Pg. 50) both alone and with others. His favorite game was “Halo,” which is a violent, shooting game. This also seemed to be the most social interaction he had experienced throughout his life. He would interact with others through his enjoyment of video games, and through the actual playing of those games.
I think the worry on marketing weapons inside video games can be considered completely warranted. A young boy or girl, wouldn’t normally be educated on their own, aside from if their parents had an interest in teaching them, what types of guns are out there, and especially how they are used. The document listed above also includes the shooter’s online search history. No searches listed were on guns, but were on knives, and Hitler’s life. His knowledge of how to kill, and what weapons of mass destruction to purchase, as he did, was not listed under his search history in detail, and could very well be from the knowledge of his video games.
Video games are hardly rated “M” for mature anymore because that decreases their consumers. Even if they are rated “T” for teen, they contain guns and show destruction of buildings and people in result of those guns used.
These videos games are in some cases meant to be taken literal. No, not to harm innocent people anywhere, especially not a college campus, but to be prepared for the military. For example, Stuart White who produced “Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon series” created his work based on his studies in military technology. He stated, “We’re not going to reinvent a new way because we get all these kids into the military, they already know how to use a 360 controller, they’re already familiar with it. So we’re just going to use that in how we’re building the technology.” He would want accuracy in his work, but he points out that the sole purpose is so “kids” sadly learning this at their age, will know how to use those weapons already.
Why would these kids need to learn how to use the weaponry? How many of the players of the game are actually going to enlist in the military and benefit in the program by playing this game? How do we know that will be their path? White then can be seen to want to influence them to do so. If these “skills” or knowledge of those weapons aren’t used in the military, then will they be used somewhere else?
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ReplyDeleteHey Jennica,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post, and I liked that you brought up the ratings of video games. It appears that the video game industry really pushes the limit on what the "Teen" rating can encompass. As you said, the teen rating can still mean violence, and it reaches a larger audience than the "Mature" rating.