BBC Argues Games Don't Cause Violence 398
RandBlade writes "BBC News has an article on the argued link between violent games and real violence. It examines both scientific evidence, different theories and the facts in order to conclude 'that it is trite and irresponsible of ill-informed commentators to claim that games like Grand Theft Auto are central to terrible crime.'" It's good to know that gamers are not all killing machines lying in wait, or that E3 is not the most potentially dangerous convention ever.
BBC does NOT argue games don't cause violence (Score:5, Informative)
Basicly the guy says that there is no clear winner in the evolution vs enviroment debate. Then he uses Canada and Japan, where violence in games is common but murder is much more rare than the US, as an example to counter the situation in the U.S. It's a much more reasoned article than the sentationalistic headline would lead one to believe.
Re:What Did You Expect from the BBC ? (Score:2, Informative)
In America, news organizations are private institutions that do not receive public funding.
Re:proper object of regulation? (Score:1, Informative)
Then Show them Irrefutable Data (Score:5, Informative)
I've gotten a lot of milage out of the following teenage homicide graph (other violent crime trends are similar).
DOJ Homicide Trends by Age [usdoj.gov]
I would like you to note the trend from 1993 to today. Please note that it wasn't until around 1993 that the most violent 1st person genre took off.
In fact, if you continue to reseach the DOJ's site, you'll find that our crime rates are comparable to the more "innocent" times (50's, 60's) of the last century, where our war on drugs in the late 80's and early 90's reflect similar crime rates to that of the prohibition.
I've had to debate this over and over and over. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:proper object of regulation? (Score:2, Informative)
Check out these links:
A 1999 article [asmainegoes.com] from the Wall Street Journal with several examples. A quick excerpt:
Another [cnn.com] from CNN in 2001.
I think that there is some truth to the idea that the media doesn't cover cases when guns stop deaths as much as when they cause deaths. It's hard to call.
Re:Quote (Score:3, Informative)
Re:True! (Score:2, Informative)
I'm pretty sure this is BS. It's funny, but if you check through google, you'll see that this "quote" is attributed to several different people, for example Kristian Wilson, CEO of Nintendo (not sure if there ever was a Kristian Wilson) and Steven Poole. And not all of the quotes call them "magic pills" or refer to the music as electronic (some just say repetitive music).
I seem to recall that this was debunked in one of the urban legend pages, and this was posted in a Slashdot discussion as well. I'd be grateful if someone could find that for us, please. Frankly, it's probably just a clever quote someone on the net came up with, because it is simply too perfect a quote, which also can not be found in any (dead tree) written source.