We here at Doujins don't really discuss this topic. We're here for the fun stuff, you know: cute and sexy girls doing cute and sexy things. However, when someone says or does something so stupid and harmful, we're gonna take them to task, and then make fun of them for it. In this case, it's Fox News, and they want to trash the U.S. First Amendment to further a narrative that has no basis in reality.
In response to the tragic Jacksonville shooting, Fox News wants video games to be censored, no more shooting games, because violent video games are the sole causes of shootings. The current President actually agrees with this. Now, no one who has done any real study or research into this topic agrees. Researchers have shown no connection between real-life violence and digital violence. Fox News, without a shred of evidence, claimed otherwise, and denounced those who disagreed with their fact-free rant and raving.
First, let's just get this out of the way: people are indeed inspired by what they see in fictional media. Gamers go on to be game developers. However, if someone plays a violent video game, and is inspired to commit violent actions in real life, that was already in them before they touched the game. Carrying out a terrible act like a mass shooting, that person didn't need the game to inspire them. I mean, military boot camp doesn't consist of a month or two of Call of Duty. You hit a top score, and you're in.
Let's also point out that they didn't mention violent TV shows or movies. I don't think they're able to set up to Marvel. The people that brought you Wolverine and Deadpool will smash a fool in court.
Now let's talk history. A bonfire of the vanities is when people burn books, claiming that the books themselves cause acts of sins. The most famous one happened in 1497. If you've played Assassin's Creed II, you know what I'm talking about. Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy, on the Shrove Tuesday festival. So, all the way back in 1497, it people were saying that books were the causes of people doing terrible things.
Much later, people were saying that rock music caused these terrible acts. That one's more recent, some of you might even remember it. So, rock music and books, and not people inclined to do terrible things, were the cause. Let's get rid of them, and no more violence. Yeah, no.
Those arguments aren't mainstream anymore. It's all down to video games. So tell me, fine people of Doujins: you figure they were playing Grand Theft Auto during the Spanish Inquisition? Maybe they really were playing Call of Duty during the French conquest of Algeria, that reduced the population of Algeria from 3 million to between. 500,000 to 1,000,000.
I could go on, but you get the point: people have been killing other people since before paper was invented, so it wasn't books, and it wasn't video games, that caused people to suddenly snap and kill their neighbors. I guess music has been around forever, so the dulcet tones of the harp, lyre, and some drums must have caused people to kill one another. Just so we're clear, that was a bit of sarcasm, and the music of antiquity is beautiful and mysterious.
Gaming webcomics have taken people like these asshats from Fox News, and people like Jack Thompson, to task for blaming violence on video games. Now, we're not going to get too political and talk gun laws, because damn, things get heated, but make no mistake: it's people like them that go out of their way to protect the gun industry against any perceived threat, credible or not. Penny Arcade summed this up well in one of their comic strips, titled 'A Comic', and it was summed up as such: "It is a very odd sort of Patriot that would destroy the First Amendment to protect the Second."
Bad things happen in life, and we should always look for ways to prevent them by critically analyzing them. That's how we got to where we are now. We learned and evolved. However, we can't simply scapegoat a group because it's convenient, especially since hard evidence proves that said group is unrelated. If you want to find some false connections, odds are that people who commit these crimes all owned TVs, cars, and perhaps enjoyed beer. Are they going to go after companies that make TVs, cars, or beer? No, they are not, because odds are, these same idiots enjoy all three themselves. We could go on, but you get the point: video games are not the cause of violence. If someone throws a temper tantrum after losing in a video game, as has happened recently, that guy has issues that extend beyond games. I'm a lifelong gamer, and I've definitely lost plenty of times in video games, and have hurt no one. I have smashed a controller, but that was years ago when I was a young little gamer. There are millions of gamers around the world, and industry rakes in billions a year. If video games caused violence, humanity would have seen Game Over already. But it hasn't, because gamers are a good people.
There's plenty of instances of video games helping people. A teacher was able to reach out to a student through KOTOR. No, she had no idea how to play it, so she reached out to the community to help her, and they came through. They taught her all she needed to know, and she was able to connect to her student. She sent out cookies as thanks.
It's proven that games teach people. In fact, gamification of lessons is a proven tactic to teach people different things. It definitely helps hand-eye coordination.
Another proven fact: playing Tetris after a traumatic event helps people recover.
What do you think about video games, and how they're scapegoated by idiots. Sound off in the comments below!
P.S. Yeah, I know about Riot and their new, and legit toxic, take on sexism. No, I'm not covering it. I mean, Fox News is actually stupid, and completely wrong, but damn, have you seen Daniel Z. Klein's twitter thread? I don't have fishing boots good enough to wade in that muck.
P.P.S. We return to your regularly scheduled cute and sexy articles tomorrow.
