BBC Argues Games Don't Cause Violence

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

[geeber]

In fact if you read the article, the author only takes the controversial stance that more study is required, and no conclusion can be reached yet.

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 ?

[tealover]

I'm not familiar with the "American" news organization.

In America, news organizations are private institutions that do not receive public funding.

Re:proper object of regulation?

[the arbiter]

News flash, ir0b0t...the connection is that in the states with the least gun regulation, the violent crime rates are lowest. I know that you don't want to accept this, and will write me off breezily as just another gun nut, but it's true. While I do buy the argument that a populace without any firearms whatsoever would be a less dangerous one, the sad fact of the matter is that world doesn't exist. Today, there are 400 million firearms in the US. When you ban law-abiding citizens from gun ownership, you really do create a society where only the criminals have guns. And I'm not willing to be a defenseless target, thank you. Why do you insist that I should be one?

Then Show them Irrefutable Data

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up in a pretty conservative family that tends to respond to this type of hysteria, so I understand what's necessary to make these people to reconsider their ironclad position.

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.

[OwP_Fabricated]

First it was the national debate topic when I was in High School, and then I was forced to debate it yet again in a philosophy class, a logic class, and now just recently in a sociology class. It's not really important what study says what, because most violence studies are inherently flawed by their over-correlation and over simplification. The only significant evidence I've found in relation to this issue is that toddlers very often directly imitate what they see since they aren't to the point they can separate fantasy from reality. Strangely enough this demographic isn't the one that's targeted by the media and government.

Re:proper object of regulation?

[pi42]

Check out these links:

A 1999 article [asmainegoes.com] from the Wall Street Journal with several examples. A quick excerpt:

Similar precedents exist in the U.S. In 1997, 16-year-old Luke Woodham entered Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., armed with his estranged father's hunting rifle and dozens of cartridges. When Woodham opened fire, vice principal Joel Myrick sprinted to the parking lot, grabbed a Colt .45 automatic pistol from his truck and forced the gunman to surrender by pointing the gun at his head. This limited the casualties to two students killed and seven wounded. In 1998, Andrew Wurst, 14, opened fire on an eighth-grade graduation dance in Edinboro, Pa. The owner of the banquet hall where the dance was being held grabbed a shotgun from his office and quickly confronted Wurst, who dropped his gun. The toll was thus limited to one slain teacher and two wounded students.

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

[UserGoogol]

For reference, this seems to be a quote from Rodney Caston, also known as "Largo" from Megatokyo, although he hasn't actually worked on the comic in ages. He said it in his rant for Episode 33 [megatokyo.com].

Re:True!

[TheLoneDanger]

I'm told its attributed to the VP of Capcom's Marketing Department circa 1989.

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.