jkin 263 Jordyn King Offical blog part 1

Blog Post 1 of 5- Jordyn King- jkin263

Hi guys. As mentioned in my previous post it appears than whenever a mass shooting occurs the blame is not just directed at the availability of guns in society but also violent video games. Grand Theft Auto is perhaps one of the most famous examples of this as many of the goals of the game involve slaughtering members of society. Grand Theft Auto was released firstly in the 1990s with the perspective being bird’s eye; however the third Grand Theft Auto in 2001 had a 3 dimensional playing field making it much more realistic to the player. In this game and it’s sequels you are for example encouraged to kill prostitutes within the game if they refuse your services. However, does this simulation of violence really encourage someone to commit violent acts? Just recently a Senator from the United States Joe Manchin suggested that video games in light of the Connecticut shooting should have limitations on what games they should be to release. He even suggested banning Grand Theft Auto to prevent an occurrence like this to occur again. However, I believe censorship is never the answer. If you look throughout human history far before any violent video games were released these kind of actions were always occurring as they are now. Even as recently as the 20^th century we had two world wars where over 60 million people were killed. This was at least 40 or 50 years before video games became mainstream let alone the R18 themed games like Grand Theft Auto. We had serial killers long before Grand Theft Auto with notorious villains like Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy and even in 1990 in New Zealand we had the Aramoana shooting leaving over 13 people dead in a small town. The problem is not violent video games, the problem is a violent culture. As human beings unfortunately we love depictions of fighting and shooting and I believe games like Grand Theft Auto are simply a product of a violent society that has grown up with violence all around them. Video games should not be blamed for any violent actions because murderers and violent people have always been around regardless of our access to violent video games. That’s life.